You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I don’t know where to look for help so I thought I’d try here for a start. We have our washing machine and freezer in our garage which is connected to the house, all properly plumbed in and lagged not a cowboy job. The pipes run along the rafters and the cold water one burst right above the freezer and washing machine and electric lawnmower. It was pouring over them for up to 6 hours. Do I need to scrap the appliances or do I bring them inside and dry them out?
One for your insurers IMO. 6 hours of water pouring over household appliances and they're scrap I reckon. The lawnmower will be slightly weather resistant but it's not built for it either.
If it was me I'd bin them and possibly claim on the house insurance too. No point in risking it where water and electricity is concerned.
By law, you should act as the "prudent uninsured", which would mean do whatever you would do if you didn't have a policy in place and try and save as much value as possible.
Which in theory means try to mitigate the damage to the machinery as much as possible, drying them out etc.
However, in reality, they are scrap and the insurance companies generally don't hold to people to that rule. I have heard stories of people coming back to their homes completely flooded out by a burst pipe and simply shutting the door and not even trying to turn the water off. The insurance company still paid out.
It sounds definitely like a house insurance claim as that water will probably of done a lot more damage than just the appliances, even in a garage.
Thanks for the replies, scrap was the way I was leaning towards. Gobuchul you’re right, the appliances are the the tip of the iceberg but I’ve got to start somewhere!
best advice i can give, get a heater and dehumidifier in. obviously a plumber. get all the wet plasterboard and insulation and any other fabrics binned. in terms of appliances drain all the water off that you can and get them next to heat to dry them out. don't attempt to turn them on for a few days, might have to open the backs to see if water is inside.
you'll probably end up with an insurance claim, but there's no harm having a tinker.