Hey guy's,

We are very close to settling on our house. We were due to do a re inspection this week and sign off on the house. Unfortunately we drove by the house yesterday to see water coming from under the garage sectional door. Upon looking through the windows we found the whole house to be flooded from front to back and the laundry trough tap running into an overflowing trough. As the house was locked all I could do was turn the water off at the mains. I rang the builder today and they went out and had a look. They rang me and said all carpets would have to be ripped up and then the house left for a week to dry out before new carpet is laid.

I asked about Skirting and arcs as I think they are MDF as well as the plaster wall's and kickboards(particle board) and was told its too early to see damage and they will look again when the house dry's out in a week.

So I am looking for advise as to how you tell if Plaster wall's, skirting, arc's and kick boards are damage? Is there any other part of the house I should be concerned about after it being flooded?
Would you urge on the side of caution and try and force the builders hand and get these items replaced?

Many thank's for any advice.

Give their inspector a fair crack at it first - don't prematurely try to force their hand before they have had the opportunity to do their job.

I think your arcs should be fine as I doubt the water would wick up the gyppy that quickly from just surface water, but of course if they have to rip out a wall the arcs for that section have to go as well...

I very much doubt that they would leave water-affected wood/gyppy behind as it will warp/sag eventually and they'll just have to come back later to rip it out/replace it and re-do all of the finishes at a much greater cost to them than fixing it now will involve.

Sucks for you though - someone must have left the laundry trough tap running a little with the drain blocked.

i'd be asking what caused the flooding???
most mew basin's have an overflow plumed into them
is your house a new home or reno?
gyprock can handle a bit of water ,i can't comment on arc's and kick boards though.

MDF skirts will be ruined more than likely, and some water may have traveled to the bottom of the arc's. They will be visually damaged - you should be able to spot the swelling.

Definitely sucks! Yeah, the plug was in the trough and the tap was running full on!!

Plug was left in laundry trough and tap running full on. Our bathroom basins have overflow built in but laundry trough has no overflow.

House is new , was due to settle the week this occurred!! I have since been out to the house and can now see the architraves swelling at the bottom and gaps between wall and skirting appearing. We have decided the only way we could be sure is to hire a independent inspector.

Thanks for this, we certainly can see the swelling!!