r/HomeImprovement • u/HumanistPeach • Feb 17 '20

Contractors just flooded my upstairs while replacing water heater, it’s raining in my kitchen- what to expect next?

So our water heater died this weekend. The repair guys just came over today, and promptly flooded all the water that was inside the old broken water heater onto my upstairs floor (carpeted), and there was so much that it immediately started pouring from my kitchen ceiling out of two hanging light fixtures. It definitely spread quite a bit, because there are two patches in the drywall that were invisible before that are now obvious, and the seams of at least two sheets of drywall are showing/swollen with water. We’ve already put the business’s insurance in touch with our homeowner’s insurance, and my boyfriend does all the IT for this company, so I’m not worried about them trying to screw us over, I’m more just looking to see how long I should except repairs to take, what the potential repairs might be, etc. TYIA!

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u/madhatter275 Feb 18 '20

Call your insurance now! Or the contractors insurance. There is no way in the world this is anything but their fault and 100 percent avoidable.

They should have shut the water off. Tried draining it. When the drain valve isn’t working then the should have used a transfer pump to drain it fully. Any real plumber would have this on their truck. Take pictures of the old one too where they claim was a faulty valve.

The damage can linger and you might have to do your floors and ceilings from getting wet just once.

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u/HumanistPeach Feb 18 '20

Per my original post, the contractor’s insurance is already in touch with our homeowner’s insurance as we called both as soon as it happened. They’re already admitting all fault and will definitely make this right. My SO does all the IT for this contracting company and the company owner is PISSED his guys messed up our house.

The flood came from the pipe though, not what was inside the water heater. But yeah they 100% should’ve turned the water off at the street- had I k won they hadn’t already, I would’ve insisted. Lesson learned: always make sure the water is shut off at the street before allowing contractors to work on pipes.

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u/madhatter275 Feb 18 '20

Yeah. Sorry I read that right after.

And shutting the wetter off at the st isn’t required if you know you have a good shutoff turned off (ideally 2) but def negligence.

Wish you the best.

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u/HumanistPeach Feb 18 '20

Thanks! Yeah another commenter mentioned that if the valve hadn’t been maintained in 10+ years, it could’ve busted open like that (and given what we’ve learned about the previous owner, that’s not outside the realm of possibility), but either way, the contractor is going to cover all associated costs and have been super apologetic and helpful so far. Fingers crossed we’ve got minimal damage