My washing machine decided it had had enough of cleaning my clothes and took it's own life, flooding my kitchen in the process. The kitchen floor is ruined, the bottoms of the cupboards are ruined, and the hallway flooring (wood laminate) has also been damaged. The problem with the hallway floor is it actually runs throughout the whole of the ground floor of the house and although only 6-8 pieces have warped it means, according to their assessor who came out Wednesday, they have to replace the floor through the whole ground floor (40-45m squared I think) as they won't be able to match the wood and would likely damage more of it when removing the damaged pieces. He's given me a copy of the scope of work which will need to be carried out and measurements.

 

Now he said they can replace the flooring and cupboards with someone coming out to me to work out what I want and they'll do all the work, or I can take a cash settlement and use people I know to do the work if I prefer. The insurers will contact me directly within a couple of days (still waiting).

 

Has anyone been through this process? If so I have a couple of questions.....

 

1. Do they pay out to the value of the flooring currently in place? I'm pretty sure I still have the receipt from the previous owners who got the flooring done a month or two before I purchased the place and they paid a fortune as it's very thick flooring. Or do they just replace with a bog standard floor? Never had to deal with home insurers before so not sure on my rights etc even after trying to decipher the policy documents. 

 

2. Secondly, would you go for them repairing the lot for me or take the cash settlement and get it done myself? I know plenty of tradespeople I've used myself over the years who I trust and can't see a benefit to going either way unless I'm missing something.

Edited 6 February, 201511 yr by JamesVRSmk3

We had similar

 

We actually had a pipe leak under the screed , we thought the leak was limited but like you we had laminate flooring (good stuff) throughout the ground floor and the water had tracked a long way

 

We actually started to repair it ourselves but later called the insurance in and ours was slightly different

 

I) They offered to pay for replacement flooring like for like inc labour up to a door threshold but acknowledged it wouldnt match and that was just tough

 

2) They would give us the money instead and we could put it towards an alternative

 

We took the latter and had tiles laid down , in the end it cost us very little and the insurers were very easy to deal with , of course they wanted to minimise the cost

 

I'd never have wood flooring in a kitchen again nor any room with water in all honesty

 

5 years later a washer in the downstairs loo failed and wrote off three more rooms and the hall , so its all carpet now but we didnt claim for that

I) They offered to pay for replacement flooring like for like inc labour up to a door threshold but acknowledged it wouldnt match and that was just tough

 

2) They would give us the money instead and we could put it towards an alternative

 

We took the latter and had tiles laid down , in the end it cost us very little and the insurers were very easy to deal with , of course they wanted to minimise the cost

 

I'd never have wood flooring in a kitchen again nor any room with water in all honesty

 

5 years later a washer in the downstairs loo failed and wrote off three more rooms and the hall , so its all carpet now but we didnt claim for that

 

Looks like I've been lucky with the offer to replace the whole lot then as it does pass a door thereshold although then is no join - it literally goes straight through the doorway (if that makes sense). Not sure if that is anything to do with the terms of my policy though rather than them being generous as I've yet to come across a generous insurance company.

 

I'm thinking of taking the money and putting down tiles in the kitchen and hall because A) I like them, and b ) it should prevent this ever happening again and save me the trouble and insurance excess and raised premiums for the next year or so.

 

 

Just can't wait to rip up this flooring and dry it out properly...There is only so much fragranced candles I can handle to counteract the damp smell.

Edited 6 February, 201511 yr by JamesVRSmk3

Yes that's how ours was , living room , hall, study , downstairs loo and very large kitchen all flowing room to room , no thresholds. We did have a threshold between the kitchen and conservatory to allow for the temperature variance.

It was easy to cut the wood by the kitchen door and fit a threshold to tiles into the kitchen, our kitchen is quite large and incorporates a dining area, utility room and a separate hall . Seem to recall the tiling was about £3k

Done and settled. Took the cash settlement on the basis of no further damage when kitchen plinths removed as the assessor couldn't get them all off. They said aslong as I take photos of any further damage (if there even is more) there will be no problem in them paying out - I also have this in writing.

 

The fact they wouldn't even be able to start work for another 2 weeks minimum swung it for me. At least I can get cracking tonight ripping up all the old flooring and drying it out. Picking up new tiles on Saturday and have someone coming to put them down mid next week.