Hi,
My friend is a landlord. He had an escape of water in the bathroom from the back of the wash basin in a property he is renting out.
The home emergency fixed the leak (leak maybe going on for sometime).
He contacted the insurance company and they sent builders (builders are not part of insurance company, they take work from insurance company) to assess the work.
The claim was approved.
The builders changed the vinyl floor and the plywood below it.
Builders did not check the floor boards properly or even the joist below the floor board to see if there is any damage.
My friend showed some floor boards in the bathroom near the washbasin which are damaged (he could see them only after the vinyl and plywood was removed). But the builders said they are âdry rotâ and your insurance company does not cover dry rot.
Finally, the builders changed one or two really damaged floor board pieces. Then they installed the vinyl.
There are floor board with dry rot (may be corner of floor board turning to dust - nearly white colour) in some other areas in the bathroom as well . He can peal the top part a floor board with hand.
But the builders did not change those boards saying insurance company does not cover dry rot (my friend thinks the escape of water caused damages to the floor boards).
Can the escape of water cause dry rot? In that case the builders are supposed to change them?
Are the builders not supposed to check whether there is any damage to the joist below the floor board?
Are they not supposed to deal with all the floor boards including the dry rot floor boards when they do the job in the bathroom?
I have heard usually insurance companies do not deal with dry rot. But, in this case we do not know whether the dry rot is due to the escape of water or not.
The builders say, the dry rot looks like years old dry rot. If that is the case, not sure whether the insurance company will replace it.
Also the builders say, it is not close to the escape of water area.
Thanks
I would not believe everything the builder tells you
They donât know much when you challenge them on the science
If I had a penny for every time a builder talked detritus Iâd be on the Sunday Times rich list âŚ.
Speak to the insurance company and find out for yourself
Dry rot is essentially fungus
It requires humidity to grow
Humidity above 60% facilitates fungal growth
The fact there was a leak means there was damp and that would facilitate fungal growth
It does not need to be in the direct area . Itâs the fact the damp increased humidity and created ideal conditions for fungal growth
Do you have a picture ?
Is there active fungal growth with fluffy fungal masses or has the timber cracked in the characteristic cuboidal fashion
There may be old and new signs depending on the stage of the fungus
I have done a fair few dry rot jobs ,if it has also got into the brickwork it will need drilling and fungus killer inserting. You should have got back to the insurance over this. Whatever you do, do not ignore it. Dry rot to a house is like cancer to a human
Please see the attached images. This bathroom was fully renovated 6 years ago and at that time, we believe this dry rot was not there. So, it looks like this happened in the last 6 years time. Escape of water happened (from the wash basin) a few centimetres away from these floor boards.
That fluffy stuff looks like fresh growth or is it cobwebs ?some is established some is new
Speak to your insurers
You need experts eg rentokil
Pay for their survey donât know whatâs needed as they are good at this stuff
They will tell you what to do to treat or replace
If the insurers send out a surveyor make sure youâve had your own independent survey first. Iâve been caught out where insurance surveyors minimise damage to reduce the claim for the insurance company .
I personally would use rentokil but I know the chap for my region is very good ( I have had a less experienced chap try to fob me off and sell a product to get his numbers up) . Thats not to say they do make mistakes and as Iâve gone grey I go on my own experience too .
Youâll have to judge each surveyor them on their own merit .
Peter cox was bought out by rentokil so essentially it may be the same surveyor .
Colin may be able to advise as he may have more experience than I .
I would add in the second picture you have holes . Is that woodworm ?
It may be old or active.
If you knock on it and dust comes out ( frass) that indicates active woodwork . If there is no frass itâs old and inactive .
I wouldnât trust a builder or the insurers, get your own independent survey and present the findings to the insurers then find a builder capable of doing the job.
Iâm going through a similar situation with subsidence cracks, the insurers finally checked the drains using a contractor who was professional and impartial as I was looking over his shoulder at the camera in the drains and witnessed the failures. However I fully expect them to try to dismiss some of the costs of the remedial works as there was some historic differential settlement. I believe they will also try to wriggle out of the loss of rent claim because we discovered the cracks upon vacation inspections of the previous tenant and I refused to relet it until the issue is resolved, therefore technically it was unoccupied at the time of the claim. The insurers have been dragging their heels, 2 months to send an inspector, 5 further months to organise the drains inspection and no action since 2 further months other than to rob me on the renewal premium with a 43% increase, presumably hence the scrapped heels⌠I trust them not a jot.
We believe the the escape of water (presence of water) may have caused dry rot or even if there was dry rot in the past, the escape of water may have made it worse.
Thanks
