Major Water Leaks & Flooded Houses

What is a Major Water Leak?

A major water leak can, in many ways, be almost like having a flooded house. In fact, in severe cases, you can get standing water that cannot be contained to one location and can affect a whole floor of a house, or even more if it is upstairs. Major water leaks, like flooded houses, are far more likely to need full water damage restoration at your property as well as other extra flood damage repairs.

Remember that in some cases, you’ll need to think about who is responsible for a water leak and how to report a leak to your water company, if it turns out it is their responsibility. This useful image will help as a guide…

Remember that, at full pressure and flow (measured by a water flow meter), a major water leak can deposit a lot of water in your property. For example, using our water leak calculator, you can see that at medium pressure of 12 litres per minute that equates to:

• 720 litres per hour of water leaked into your home
• 17,280 litres per day, or over half a million litres per month!
• And the cost of that (on water alone) could be many hundreds of pounds

There are two main things different about a major water leak vs flooding. Firstly the water is generally clean, fresh water (that said it can be contaminated by coming into contact with other materials, making it far from pure water) and secondly, you can often do something quickly about it – for example turning off your stop tap. That is assuming you are at home when it happens and you hear it quickly.

A great piece of advice is to always know where your internal stop tap is in your property and isolation valves too. You would be amazed at how many people let leaks flow not knowing this. It can make a huge difference to stop a leak quickly. Even if you do not know exactly where the leak is, starving it of water can be very beneficial. Clearly this can work even if you do not know for sure where the leak is in your property.

The other ‘advantage’ of a major water leak (not that it is much consolation) is that it is very likely that you will spot it quicker than a slow leak which you may not realise is there for weeks or months.

Then, the next question is…

What do you do after a Major Water Leak?

If you have a major water leak or flooded house, get help from a professional water damage restoration company such as ourselves. We are very experienced in not not only leak detection, but also water damage repairs, drying properties and that covers even for a flooded house.

Clearly the scale of work will depend on the size of leak, where it is and what is affected. Also the structure of your house will have a difference – for example a flooded house basement.

In a very bad water leak or flooded house, the scale of work could be significant which is where our expertise. As you can see in our guide to water damage repairs, we go through 25 areas that need considering and, the larger the leak, the more likely these are to be required.

A good example is water extraction, which would not always be needed on a regular leak but is far more common on major water leaks and a flooded house. If you have a flooded house, you may find it is likely a loss adjuster is involved.

How do I find a Major Water Leak?

Clearly, as we said earlier, a faster water leak will very likely be more noticeable and somewhat simpler to locate but that does not mean that it will necessarily be easy to find. Many of the same principles apply to a major leak as do to smaller ones, especially if it is hidden which can be the case with loft tank leaks.

Remember, you can use your water meter (if you have one) to understand the scale of water in a leak. Our guide to reading a water meter will tell you how to understand the volumes of water. As will this explainer video…

One of the differences on a major water leak will be that things like the signs of damp, or the noise from the leak (using acoustic listening leak detection) will likely be more prominent. It is also be the case that its very likely that the signs of a major water leak will be clearer.

How do I dry out after a Major Water Leak?

Much like the earlier comments about what to do after a major water leak or flooded house apply here. However, it is very likely that industrial drying equipment – air movers, heaters (depending on the time of year), and industrial dehumidifiers will be needed. There is also the possibility that specialist drying equipment will be needed, as well as other things such as electrical checks. We can help with all of those things if you are unfortunate enough to be affected that badly.

Clean-up after Major Water Leak

The other thing that comes into effect with a major water leak or flooded house is the clean up process. It is more likely that the damage to other areas (both buildings and contents) and the debris will be more. This is, in turn, likely to mean that clean up, sanitisation and disposal etc is more likely. We can help with both delivering this process but also the methodical documentation of it.

Alongside this, we can help with reinstating your property to help get it back to normal which can include reconstructive building work and redecoration etc. We will also give you a drying certificate to certify that your property is stabilised back to pre-incident conditions. This helps to give that extra piece of mind for you after suffering from a flooded house.

We are experienced in providing insurance grade reports, so if you have a major water leak or flooded house, get in touch with our friendly team today and we will be glad to help. We offer this service to homeowners and businesses, with our Commercial Leak Detection Service. We understand that businesses are concerned over business interruption insurance claims too.