Water Overflow and possible damage

Factual Questions
1

So, my idiot brother overflowed the toilet yesterday. Then he didn’t tell anyone and left to go party with his buds. The toilet continued to overflow for eight hours before I got home and shut off the water. The room below was soaked completely. Water dripped into the garage below that.

Today a plumber came and repaired the toilet. It’s hot here this week, so we’ve had the windows open all day and we can do that as long as we need to. What else do I need to do (besides yell at my brother)? Am I going to have to rip out the walls?

Thanks for the help.

2

Pull off the baseboard asap then cut out the sheet rock behind the baseboard. That exposes the bottom 2x4 and give a few inches access to the insides of the walls. Set up as many fans and humidifiers as possible.

Your now a day late which may indeed leave you a dollar short.

You have severe water damage. The first step should have been to call in a claim with your homeowners insurance. They have companies specifically for such incidents they call.

Everything needs to be opened up and dried out to prevent rot and mold.

3

I’m not insured for this type of damage.

4

Have you checked? Most policies include coverage for burst pipes and such this would likely fall in the same category. Flood insurance is a different animal meant to cover water from outside sources.

5

I checked. It’s not covered.

6

You could try and handle the cleanup yourself and those here can give you advice along with any other site with information or you could google flood damage contractors in your area find someone you’re confident with and let them handle it.

The advantage of a contractor is they come with experience and all the fans and such they need for the job.

7

And by humidifiers, you mean DEhumidifiers. And with that, if it’s humid outside, close the windows and crank up the AC. Also, if the damage is really bad, call your insurance agent and find out if this is covered (and what the limit is). It’s probably easier to call in a restoration company. They do this for a living. They can bring in their monster fans and huge dehumidifiers, they’ll cut out the drywall and tear out the carpet, they’ll haul the garbage out etc…

8

Good news. Had someone come over, apparently the damage isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was. Shop vac has happened and dehumidifiers are in place. I’ll have to replace some sheet rock and maybe the carpet in one room, but that’s hopefully it.