chas
November 20th, 2006, 12:54 PM
Hi all,
I'm looking for some answers. About a year ago, a friend called me to say her kitchen floor had flooded in front of the sink and dishwasher, and also had water on the ceiling of the basement bathroom below the kitchen. I went over and looked - took toe-kicks off and dishwasher bottom. There was some evidence of water, but after running the dishwasher and sink, we were unable to reproduce a leak. The water ruined part of her laminate kitchen floor. We speculated that perhaps she had used too much soap in her dishwasher (she has a water softener). She called her insurance company but after hearing that we couldn't reproduce it, they simply suggested she wait to file a claim if she wanted the kitchen floor fixed sometime before she sold the house. They also told her it may not be worth it to file a claim since her deductible was 1000.00.
She had evidence of a little water about 6 months later, but again figured she had put too much soap in the dishwasher.
Now, this past weekend she called to tell me that she had been washing dishes in her sink and when she let the water out of the sink, the bathroom below was flooding. When I went over and ran just a little water into the sink, it was immediately showing up running down walls of the room below.
This morning she was calling her insurance company and had called a plumber to find the source of the problem. Since she had to be at work, I let the plumber in.
We found the source of the problem to be a cracked ABS sch-40 drain. We had to pull a kitchen corner base cabinet to expose the cavity where the drain line runs. This drain only serves the kitchen sink area.
I've attached a couple of pictures. The first is the drain pipe in the kitchen wall. The 2nd is the joist cavity just below the kitchen. The vertical section of drain/vent pipe in the kitchen wall is cracked/split along the entire foot-long section from the elbow fitting in the joist cavity to the T-fitting that joins the sink drain to the assembly. The crack is on the backside of the pipe so you can't actually see the split in the picture. I found the split when I wrapped my hand around the pipe.
Her insurance company told her to stop whatever work the plumber was doing until an adjuster could look at things. At least the problem has been identified and exposed. They also suggested that unless this was a "burst" pipe, her insurance may not cover things. She was astounded at that answer.
This house was built in the early 1980's.
Have you guys ever seen a drain pipe just split open like this? Obviously, it has opened up worse just this past weekend since there has not been any obvious leaking before now. It may have been leaking a bit, but nothing that one could really see.
Would such a thing normally be covered by a decent homeowners insurance policy ?
Sorry for the long story. Thanks for any observations.
Charlie
I'm looking for some answers. About a year ago, a friend called me to say her kitchen floor had flooded in front of the sink and dishwasher, and also had water on the ceiling of the basement bathroom below the kitchen. I went over and looked - took toe-kicks off and dishwasher bottom. There was some evidence of water, but after running the dishwasher and sink, we were unable to reproduce a leak. The water ruined part of her laminate kitchen floor. We speculated that perhaps she had used too much soap in her dishwasher (she has a water softener). She called her insurance company but after hearing that we couldn't reproduce it, they simply suggested she wait to file a claim if she wanted the kitchen floor fixed sometime before she sold the house. They also told her it may not be worth it to file a claim since her deductible was 1000.00.
She had evidence of a little water about 6 months later, but again figured she had put too much soap in the dishwasher.
Now, this past weekend she called to tell me that she had been washing dishes in her sink and when she let the water out of the sink, the bathroom below was flooding. When I went over and ran just a little water into the sink, it was immediately showing up running down walls of the room below.
This morning she was calling her insurance company and had called a plumber to find the source of the problem. Since she had to be at work, I let the plumber in.
We found the source of the problem to be a cracked ABS sch-40 drain. We had to pull a kitchen corner base cabinet to expose the cavity where the drain line runs. This drain only serves the kitchen sink area.
I've attached a couple of pictures. The first is the drain pipe in the kitchen wall. The 2nd is the joist cavity just below the kitchen. The vertical section of drain/vent pipe in the kitchen wall is cracked/split along the entire foot-long section from the elbow fitting in the joist cavity to the T-fitting that joins the sink drain to the assembly. The crack is on the backside of the pipe so you can't actually see the split in the picture. I found the split when I wrapped my hand around the pipe.
Her insurance company told her to stop whatever work the plumber was doing until an adjuster could look at things. At least the problem has been identified and exposed. They also suggested that unless this was a "burst" pipe, her insurance may not cover things. She was astounded at that answer.
This house was built in the early 1980's.
Have you guys ever seen a drain pipe just split open like this? Obviously, it has opened up worse just this past weekend since there has not been any obvious leaking before now. It may have been leaking a bit, but nothing that one could really see.
Would such a thing normally be covered by a decent homeowners insurance policy ?
Sorry for the long story. Thanks for any observations.
Charlie