home insurance

bkearns

Hi Guys

I'm looking for a bit of home insurance advice. I've had home insurance for 20 years and never had cause to claim. Until possibly now. I woke up yesterday morning to a pool of water on the floor in a corner where my downstairs hall and two bedrooms all meet. All 3 rooms have wooden floors. All 3 room floors "oozed" water when walked on particularly from the foam underneath the wood flooring. I also noticed typical water damage marks in one of room ceilings above. Not sure where the water was coming from I searched above in the attic. I found 3/4" Qualplex line with a hole in it. I proceeded to drain down the heating system to stop the leak and started the drying up process, to try and save as much as I could. I also rented a dehumidifier and left it running. Once I dried up as much water as possible. I cut out the damaged section of Qualplex and fitted a Tectite straight fitting. Recharged the heating system and turned it on to help with the drying out. While checking the attic to ensure the repair was good, I noticed another leak about 2 ft and a joist away from the first. This time I also saw some rodent droppings nearby. Drained down system again, repaired 1/2" line, dried up as much water as possible, recharged system and started to dry out area. I also bought and set a pile of traps.

This morning I noticed a ceiling water stain at the other end of the house, above the front room. Unfortunately this was more difficult to access as I'd to lift both carpet and plywood flooring in the bedroom above to access. Once accessed, I found 3 more leaks in the same general area. 1 on a cold water pipe supply to a downstairs toilet and two on a supply pipe to the front room radiator. Again drained down systems, dried up all the water sitting on the ceiling plasterboards, soaked into joists and repaired leaks. Heating now back on again trying to dry out the areas.

After discovering the first leak, I called my insurance company to understand where I stand. If I were to claim, I've a 500 euro excess, and a hit to my no claims. Also with Covid they are not in a position to send out an accessor. I'd also have to find a builder myself, etc. After the first leak my plan was to contain the problem myself as it wasn't worth the insurance costs / hassle. However after the 5 leaks in two days, my questions are as follows

What exactly am I entitled to claim for?
Who knows what other pipe work has been compromised in the attic and may only leak in a few months time. Could I ask for replacement of all attic Qualplex pipework ? This would mean ripping up flooring in multiple rooms upstairs, pulling carpets etc.
If a small corner (2m x 1m) of wood flooring is slightly water damaged. Can I claim for it to be replaced? Its 20 years old, also if not able to be matched to original does the whole floor get replaced and costs covered , that would be about 20 m2 ?
If the carpet in the bedroom does not return to its previous state (example a seam can be seen, as it was glued and stapled down) can this also be claimed for.

Any advice or previous experience from similar situations would be appreciated.