Builders advise please - flooding

[Messie]

My house was flooded on Friday night, because of a burst water main near to me. Only a little water came in through the front door and I thought I'd escaped lightly, until the chaps from Anglian Water turned up and asked if I had a cellar. I had - one that was tanked and nice and dry and used as a sitting room/study area and spare bedroom when needed.
I opened it's door to see 4 inches of water! The pressure from the mains was so great it had forced it's way up and into the room.

Anglian Water have been pretty good, and I now have very noisy driers in the cellar. When it's dry they will assess the damage

But last night, after they'd gone, I noticed more damage. There is a large crack in a wall I share with neighbours, which is possibly getting bigger. And my roof now leaks in two places.
Could these have been caused by the flood? Are they related to each other?

I'm so worried about it all now. I know so many others have had it much worse in other parts of the country, so I don't want to make a fuss. But I can't sleep and just sit here stressing that my house is falling down!

Can any of you builders reassure me please?

[Paul the 6th]

Specialmoan, owenski or roberrrt would be able to advise on this I think sally, it's not something I know too much about - good luck with it all though, do you have home insurance and are you covered by it?

[Messie]

Home insurance will cover it, but Anglian Water have said they'll cover it too. That was I don't have to pay £200 excess and suffer raised premiums

[Paul the 6th]

ah brilliant - well just hang fire and see what our resident civil engineering/architect/builder types say and hopefully it won't be too bad to get sorted? fingers crossed for yee

[Paul the 6th]

edit: also speedplay has worked in construction in various guises over the years

[Messie]

Fank ewe x

[dizzyblonde]

Sorry to hear this Messie, not a nice experience. I've had roof issues which I fought tooth and nail over with the neighbours council run landlords.

Have you asked your neighbours if they have any cracks, or problems from above. I do hope its not made your property subside with so much water damage. No expert, but its suspicious to say the keast when you say there's a big crack in the cellar and coincidental issues in the roof

Draw a pencil line on/over the crack and measure the width of the hole....and keep measuring to see if it gets wider or longer. Write everything you find down....don't be the one forking out with your insurance.

[Messie]

Unfortunately the house next door, with which I share the wall, is currently unoccupied. The landlord is having some work done before it's rented out again. No-one has been able to contact him or get inside as yet.

The crack is actually in the front room, not the cellar, which seems weird to me, but I have no understanding of how buildings work at all.

My house is 166 yeras old. I'm sure it's seen worse

My initial thoughts are if the basement/cellar was all properly tanked/ waterproofed and the pressure of the water was high enough to push though that, then there may have been slight movement in the foundations/underbuilding.

I would just wait until everything has dried out and the waterboard have fixed the main. if you don't want to go through your insurance, get them to provide a building surveyor/ engineer to come out and provide a structural report on the property so you have something in writing. and then get quotes/ estimates for carrying out the repair work for cracks and anything else that needs sorting.

you probably knew most of this, but I think it's a case of waiting and seeing what the waterboard do first.

[dizzyblonde]

Oh dear, you really do need the landlords cooperation, even if its just to confirm he has no damage. If he does, joining forces to get your property repaired by Anglian water could well happen.

Me and the neighbours joined forces to tackle damage to both our homes, due to negligence by council workmen. The final straw was when their roof nearly fell into my car last year. An independent deemed in my favour to get the lot done costing not one penny to me, as a broke owner vs big company!.


I know its totally different, but, if this ends being a large messy job, I'd expect a fight with the water company to fix it. They tend to shy out of the responsibility, whilst you have a headache and a wet and damaged property.