Pollyanna

My bungalow was built circa 1990. Timber frame construction with floating chipboard floors, underneath which is a concrete sub-floor. A water pipe in the loft burst about 4 months ago, and gallons and gallons of water came down in my hall and flooded through into several other rooms. I had been away for a couple of days so heaven knows how long it had been pouring out. The house is now dry, but a main worry for me is what is going on underneath the chipboard floors. Some of the chipboard is going to be replaced at some point (if I can find suitable contractors to do the job, which is proving very difficult) but will the supporting timbers be OK, or are they likely to need attention too? Also a chap from the drying company drilled a hole in one of the worst affected floors (only after I expressed my concerns about what was going on underneath) and he reckoned the concrete underneath had got wet and that this might cause a problem with water condensing and dripping back down in a repetitive cycle. He did not suggest taking any action to rectify this - I have no idea why, but they have been pretty hopeless in general so I'd like to get further advice. I've tried contacting various firms of chartered surveyors if they can come out and give me a full assessment re the water damage, but no one seems to want to know. Could anyone offer any helpful comments or advice please?

Tried to upload some pics but I'll need to find a way to resize them first. My house is a bungalow. The main issues were that the water brought several ceilings down, a LOT of water flooded through into several adjoining rooms. Chipboard floating floors were soaked and are damaged in places, the water has gone down onto the concrete underneath and I believe the floors need to be lifted to allow this to dry out before replacing with new chipboard. A lot of water also ran down walls and also seeped up into them from underneath - the plasterboard seems dry now but will the integrity of it be damaged ie will it need to be replaced? There are various places where skirtings etc seem to have detached from the plasterboard.

As said, I want to try and find out more about the ins and outs of the work needing done from the forum - that's why I joined.

I'm not giving up, but I've been banging my head against a wall for 4 months now and my mental health is suffering. Some days it just feels hopeless, and I don't know where to go from here.

M&S just refer me to the underwriter.

The policy is with M&S Insurance, obviously underwritten by one of the major insurance companies.

I was advised by the chap who came out from the reinstatement company to ask the insurers to pay for me to have a loss assessor, but they refused.

Hi yep the company that quoted me a fortune was a reinstatement specialist. The insurers have thrown their quote out as being way over the top. Thanks for that link, I'll check them out.

No I haven't agreed the payment. I'm disputing the payment. No work has been started, just a little bit of stripping out here and there which is incomplete.

The insurance company are being very difficult. They say they only have to pay me what it would cost them to get the work done by their preferred contractors. I had bad experiences with these guys in the early days so they were taken off the job. Now it's down to me to find someone myself. The insurers are adamant that they don't cover professional fees, however I did have a building surveyor out about four weeks ago but he has let me down as well. No sign of any report, and when I ask about it he gives evasive answers so I don't expect to hear any more from him. His behaviour when he came to the house was bizarre to be honest. I approached another surveyor but he didn't reply. No one seems to want to know!

Yes your assessment of the damage sounds about right. It seems I've no choice but to try and manage it on my own. Your 'team of guys' sounds like a dream team! Just what I'm looking for, but how to find genuine capable people? I'm in central Scotland. I've had no luck so far, 4 months down the line.

They have offered me a cash settlement figure which is inadequate to cover all of the work required. I have not accepted the settlement. I have obtained one quote from a multi-trade contractor which is about 3 times the size of the cash settlement. I'm trying to focus now on getting genuine contractors to quote and carry out the work at a fair (uninflated) price, then I will be happy to argue with the insurers about the costs.

Hello everyone I've just joined the forum. Much of my house was destroyed due to a burst pipe in the loft just before Christmas, and I'm struggling to find suitable tradesmen to help get it back to being habitable again. The insurance company are being no help whatsoever and I'm trying to learn as much as possible about the work that's needed, so that I can hopefully get things moving in the right direction and get back into my house soon.