Upstairs plumbing supply leak $300k damage

[Bruce A. King]

I am doing draw inspections on this 1 or 2 year old 1 mil+ house that had a leak upstairs from a supply line while the house was occupied. When a repair company started tearing out damaged drywall they found more issues with water damage and mold. The cost is around 300k to fix everything.
A different contractor is now taking over and I went out to see what they had planned.

The exterior had water running down the brick for a long time even with a kickout divertor present. The wall sheathing picture is the other side of that brick wall. The other picture is a small example of the demolition done so far on the lower level. The upper level is gutted pretty well too.

When someone else is paying, the costs are really inflated.

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Who's paying? Most insurance companies won't pay unless it's a sudden leak.

[James H. Bushart]

While there, did you overflow the shower pan on the second floor to see if it would leak?

[Bruce A. King]

From what I was told the owners insurance has settled with him. I don't know if they are paying the whole tab but got the impression they are. The mortgage company is making sure they do the repairs instead of walking away. We'll see how it goes.

I believe the tile shower was on the lower floor, I did not get paid to go in the crawlspace. I did snap a picture from the door and saw that the insulation was gone and the ground muddy.

I had a nice chat with the GC, I hope he listened to me...... because I will not be offering any more advice, future trips will be progress report only.

[Tom Leahy]

With all that damage and occupied, makes me wonder if the homeowners were blind . Seems somebody would have noticed something was wrong. By the look of the brick wall, seems to have been leaking awhile versus a blowout. How long was it leaking?

[Bruce A. King]

Originally Posted by tleahy

With all that damage and occupied, makes me wonder if the homeowners were blind . Seems somebody would have noticed something was wrong. By the look of the brick wall, seems to have been leaking awhile versus a blowout. How long was it leaking?

The damage is related to more than one issue.
An "occupied" house can be unoccupied for many days, its called vacation.
Supply line leaks are much worse than drain leaks and roof leaks, they can wreak havoc while you are at work, especially when upstairs.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Had a neighbor across the street have a supply line to the toilet break while on vacation. Several of us noticed when a waterfall started to cascade over his front balcony onto the street below. Took the fire department an hour to get there and get in (we'd already shut everything off at the street). They estimated the line had busted 2 days earlier and pretty much the whole house was water damaged and had to be gutted.

I went out the next day and replaced all the sink & toilet lines in my house!

[Gary Farnsworth]

"The main water cut off valve is located here. It is always a good idea to turn off the main water supply to the home when leaving for extended periods of time".