Real Water Damage Stories

Dishwasher Leak Flood Damage: How a Faulty Dishwasher Flooded Our Home

The Morning We Discovered the Flood

It was a beautiful, sunshine-filled morning, with an early start at that – 6:30am, in fact. We wondered why we could hear what sounded like ‘rain’, and lots of it. When we went downstairs, we found a literal sea of water, up to 2 inches deep in places, across the entire main level of our two-storey house. We’re talking an area of around 200sqm, give or take, on this one level – and yes, it was everywhere.

Then, from the kitchen, we heard the gushing of water, only to find our dishwasher pumping out water at a great rate of knots. After quickly disabling it, we surveyed what was a scene of completely water-soaked floors and carpets as far as the eye could see.

When we stepped outside, we could still hear ‘rain’, only to discover that the basement workshop – an area of about 100sqm – was also filling with water, having soaked through the floor above and straight down into the workshop. We rang the insurance company and stood in total disbelief.

The Cause — A Faulty Dishwasher Running Overnight

The culprit? Our (not-so-old) dishwasher, which we had set on auto to run at about 1am while we were sound asleep upstairs. It turned out to have a faulty sensor, meaning the water just kept coming.

The Damage and Insurance Outcome

The result? Complete upheaval of all carpet (and there was heaps), followed by full-strength, industrial-sized dehumidifiers running at full noise for days, 24/7, in various rooms throughout the house. The carpet was taken away, cleaned, and dried, then re-laid – although insurance decided they wouldn’t cover replacing it, despite it being stretched and never the same again.

The Real Cost of Water Damage

Some time later, we ended up spending close to $8,000 to replace it, as we couldn’t stand the baggy, saggy look any longer.

How This Could Have Been Prevented

If only Jesani drains had been around back then, we would have been saved a lot of heartache and money.

Tracy & Steve
Auckland

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