Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

Woke up this AM to my wife screaming. Ran downstairs and immediately stepped in standing water. Turns out 1/2 the main floor of my house, all Douglas Fir, had standing water on it. Turns out sometime between 1:30 AM and 5 AM the supply line to my under sink reverse osmosis system popped off. My finished basement is soaking wet and water is dripping from the ceilings, the smoke detector and a couple recessed lights.

I wet-dry vacuumed everything I could and have a dehumidifier and fans running. I poked a couple holes in the ceiling and have buckets under them collecting water in the basement.

2 questions:
1) Anybody have experience with their insurance on something like this? I hate to call but it's a hell of a mess. I have a 1K deductible but I'm out of time and ambition for replacing drywall. There are areas of the wood floors that look pretty stained already. There's no buckling but the floors aren't squeaking anymore which I'm guessing means they're pretty saturated.

2) Will the dry walled basement ceiling have to be removed to dry things out? I'm already guessing the answer to that is yes.

Thanks for any and all help and advice.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

Call the insurance company. You may have problems down the road and you'll want to cover yourself. They most likely will have a cleanup crew out there in a few hours to deal with it.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

Awwwww, man. That really is terrible.

Get your insurance adjuster on it now. . . do not wait. (S)he will get it all done right. That is what you have insurance for.

Wish you luck and a speedy rehab.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

New floors, new walls, new ceiling, and whatever else are probably in order. Big $$ right there. Yup, I'd say time to phone your insurance guy. Bummer.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

Just called and made a claim. They're jerking me around on getting an adjustor out quickly and can't tell me if it's covered until then. They want me to enter into a binding contract with one of their clean up crews before the adjustor comes out. That sounded like a terrible idea to me. I'd love to stop "mitigating" further damage but if it's not covered I'd be screwed. It's amazing how much water can leak out of a 1/8 inch ID line. I wet dry vacuumed the heck out of the carpet with a 6hp vacuum but it's amazing how much is still in there when I peal it back.

My hardwired smoke detector doesn't like it and is still beeping, hopefully nothing important is on that circuit.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

The restoration companies that your insurance company will call specialize in this very thing and they will make it like it never happened. This should be covered as it's not ground water. I'd stop working on it myself. It will only cost you your deductible but your rates will most likely go up 30% of so for a good while. (still totally worth it) Sorry this happened to you.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

Yup had an interior flood about 7 years ago. Had a washer on the 2nd floor malfunction. I had water everywhere!


The insurance company called a company that came out immediately and brought all the tools. They cut open walls cielings and dried everything out. They removed carpets...... I had a mess but all is well now.

Hang in there ........ water damage is not fatal and you will recover.

One word of guidance/advice - patience!

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

We had a supply line for the top floor toilet crack and let go. Three floors of total right off. As others have said, get a disaster repair company. We chose the one recommened by the insurance company. BIG mistake. The people that came in to remove the wet stuff were awesome but the re-build people were junk. Constantly cutting corners and trying to do less than was required. Please get a reptuable company to do your disaster recovery. I'm sure some are good at what they do!!

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. The timing sucks but it could obviously be worse so we'll take it in stride.

It's funny how it's always the small part that causes such a problem. The lady said the claim is a "partial denial." That didn't sound good but the "partial" part is that they wont replace the plumbing fixture. I laughed and told her I think I can spare that dime.

Wood floors are starting to cup and split. Sounds like somewhere between 3 days and 2 weeks is the key time to see how bad they're going to get which is funny because the insurance wants to wrap it all up next Monday. That wont happen.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

A flood in your house can certainly become a disaster. At least because it's from a water line, the damage is covered by insurance. My basement flooded in the spring of 2004 from excess runoff & overland flooding. Insurance does not cover overland flooding.

The flood cleanup contractors that insurance companies use are normally quite competent. It's when the company 'subcontracts' out the reconstruction portion where things can go awry. I spent 17 years in the the building contracting industry as both a tradesman and a chief estimator. My best advice is "beware of the lowest bidder". Before you sign any contracts, be sure they identify any & all work that is NOT included. Obtain some references and discuss 'quality control' measures.

When drywall gets wet, it can absorb a great deal of water, beyond the point of exposure. Wood floors will take years to re-climatize if left to "dry out over time". Where foam underlay is used under carpet, it WILL NOT dry out with fans. It must be removed & replaced. Be sure all sources of moisture are dealt with, in order to avoid the growth of black mold.

A home that becomes infected with black mold and is condemned, is not covered by insurance.

Re: Broken water supply line advice? What a way to wake up this AM!

sublauxation said:

Just called and made a claim. They're jerking me around on getting an adjustor out quickly and can't tell me if it's covered until then. They want me to enter into a binding contract with one of their clean up crews before the adjustor comes out. That sounded like a terrible idea to me. I'd love to stop "mitigating" further damage but if it's not covered I'd be screwed. It's amazing how much water can leak out of a 1/8 inch ID line. I wet dry vacuumed the heck out of the carpet with a 6hp vacuum but it's amazing how much is still in there when I peal it back.

My hardwired smoke detector doesn't like it and is still beeping, hopefully nothing important is on that circuit.

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call them back and simply tell them you are not comfortable with the way they are handling it and if they dont treat you right you will get a lawyer involved. parents had a problem with a past insurance company trying to screw them over with hurricane damage, they threatened a lawyer, then got one involved before the insurance company paid out correctly.

the insurance was basically trying a loophole in the policy sorta like yours...if you get a binding contract with the cleaners and they goof up, the insurance can write you both off and laugh.

I'd look through your policy if I were you as to water damage.