Potential damage from sitting water

Snakeweasel

I'm currently looking at purchasing a house which a ceiling collapsed in when a pipe burst from an upstairs shower. The house was unoccupied at the time so there was about a foot high of water sitting throughout the first floor of the property, possibly for a number of months.

I will be getting an engineer to look at the property before I consider making a bid, but am wondering if anyone here would have any ideas of the likely things to appear? ie would it be fairly superficial damage or is it likely to have fairly substantial damage.

ABajaninCork

The damage will be substantial, if it's a flood. Especially as the water damage has not dried out. Strong possibility of mould and damp which will need to be dealt with urgently. By all means get an engineer to assess it, but as a ball park you're looking at plastering, plumbing, new floor and ceilings, possible re-wire and re-decorating.

Snakeweasel

Thats what I was afraid the reply would be, the only damaged ceiling is in the small utility and there is tiled floors throughout most the first floor, the timber flooring that was in some rooms has already been taken up. There is a mark where the water came up to on the walls that I was afraid would mean the whole lot would need replastering, I just didnt know what the possibility of having to rewire would be. I should have mentioned that I am fairly sure that the plumbing is fixed already.

pwurple

If there is tiling, you may be ok. I know when I tiled the floors in my place I used swimming-pool grade grout, in case of water.

Woodwork you lose alright, but you might be ok with plasterwork. Replastering may not be as big a job as you think either, might just be a skim. Hard to tell really without a good look at it.

Electrical, are there sockets at ground level that were submerged? Might just be socket replacements rather than entire re-wiring. Again, it needs to be assessed.

I know there is a flood-line in my friends house in the city from when they flooded a few years ago, and they basically left it there and painted around it.

Snakeweasel

water came to between the skirting and the sockets, in some of the rooms it looks as if you could just paint over the line and not notice it, but I would just be concerned about the effect over time.

the_syco

It burst at the weakest point, but the water may have flooded to the entire area before it went pop. Also, how much under the floorboards does the house go? Is there a septic tank connected? Possibility of human waste float around the house?

Snakeweasel

Its a dormer in the countryside so its concrete right under the flooring. There is a septic tank but highly unlikely that waste was in the house. Would there be any tell tale signs if there was? ie smell, stains? because there was none, just the mark on the wall and the damage in the utility