What Happens if You Have a Flood in Your Home?

You have decided to do a little renovating.  After much deliberation, you have finally decided on new tile and new carpeting. Your painter has been scheduled to do the finish work, and you are ready for the individual contractors to show up.

Monday: The first thing on the agenda is to change out the tile floor in the master bathroom, which is upstairs. All is going well and looking good and the first day ends without a hitch.

You are on your way out for dinner when you notice that your washing machine is overflowing. This has absolutely nothing to do with anything that’s going on in the master bathroom. You immediately start putting down towels and rugs to soak up the water and then place a phone call to the plumber. He returns the phone call almost as soon as you hang up and tells you he’ll be at the house first thing in the morning. It’s always good to have a plumber with whom you have a personal relationship.

Tuesday: Early morning the tile man shows up and so does the plumber. The tile man goes about his business and the plumber snakes out the lines from the washing machine.

The plumber leaves and everything is working just fine.

Two hours later there is a flood in the family room, downstairs, just beneath the master bathroom. What happened? And where is the water turnoff? And call the plumber again, but now it’s definitely an emergency. Call the service emergency response team.

The plumber discovered that the tile man, while preparing the flooring for the new tile, had hammered a nail into the new floor board. No one could know that the original plumbing had been installed so close to the floor board that the nail pierced a hole in the pipe, thus creating a flood into the family room downstairs.

The emergency crew showed up and set up fans and heaters and checked the ceiling and the wall for damage. The rug had been soaked and was immediately taken for dry cleaning. No one counted how many fans were on, but the noise was deafening. We got through Tuesday. The tile man finished the job on Wednesday.

Thursday: As originally scheduled, the new carpets arrived on Thursday morning with two installers, who began their work. Everything was moving along smoothly, until the owner of the home began to get some laundry done. The laundry room is adjacent to a small bathroom, and as she glanced into the bathroom, she panicked. The toilet was overflowing with black water. Once this was happening in this bathroom, she ran to check the powder room. Another shriek! The toilet in the powder room was also overflowing with black water. So, back to square one! Call the plumber, and call the service emergency response team.

The plumber arrived in no time at all and cleaned up the mess from the toilets. The emergency service team arrived with more fans and more heaters, and needless to say, much more noise.

There are additional precautions to be taken because of the bacteria in the water. The floors had to be replaced; wall coverings had to be replaced; the walls and floors in adjacent rooms were checked for water damage.

During the next two weeks the emergency service people would arrive daily to inspect the areas near the bathrooms and would check on the efficiency of their equipment. The ceiling in the family room was opened up to make sure there was no mold or mildew in the ceiling, thus creating the need to refinish the ceiling and paint the entire family room.

The insurance policy, fortunately, covered the costs of replacing the wood floors, and new wall coverings in the bathrooms. At this point, the owners decided to install a new sink and up-to-date cabinetry. New wood floors meant new baseboards; new paint, and even though some of the walls had not been damaged, fresh paint had to be applied to match the newly painted walls.

Water damage in a home is a major nuisance. Making arrangements to move all the furniture out of the rooms and storing all the “stuff”, replacing the furnishings and re-hanging artwork, photographs, etc., is a major job.

In looking back, and after all the hard work has been handled, the house looks beautiful and fresh. This is also a good time to make changes to your home, such as changing out wall coverings, purchasing new artwork and/or moving photographs around; changing carpeting, tile, and wood floors. Of course, if the insurance company does not cover all of this, it’s up to the homeowner to take care of the added expense.

Here are a couple of hints: If you are having a new sink and cabinet installed, please make sure the cabinet has enough room to come into the bathroom in one piece. You always think that the contractor knows what he is doing, and will supply the correct measurements to the cabinet maker. That is not always the case. In this case, the cabinet maker was called in during the installation to disassemble the cabinet, and then reassemble it in the bathroom.

Do not have the cabinet maker drill the holes for the hardware until he has the pulls in his hands. You may think that they should be placed midway on the drawers, but you may be mistaken and also disappointed.

Also, the faucet and the sink should be properly measured before the area is delineated and cut into the granite or marble, or whatever landscape you will be using. It is important to be able to manipulate the faucet without it hitting the back wall, whether it’s granite, marble, tile or mirror.

At the time of the original damage, you simply want to run away from home. But, in the end, you have a lovely new home. Enjoy.

Myrna Simon, Designer
Alicia Friedmann Interior Design