Dishwasher Leak - Now What?

Correct, it's a "walk out basement" style home built on a hillside. So, technically downstairs is a finished basement/living area.

quote:

---

Space is above a bedroom downstairs which shows no visible damage to the ceiling, but I'm concerned about the extent of damage.

---

If the ceiling is drywall, I would say you can be fairly confident it hasn’t caused any major damage. If you really want to be sure, cut out some of the drywall and check from beneath. If the subfloor is solid, let everything dry out and repair the drywall. If not, well...

Good luck. I had a leak at the supply line to my fridge’s ice maker that ended up with us ripping out >1,000 square feet of subfloor. It was ultimately a positive as it was the catalyst for a renovation we had been wanting to do, and was partly subsidized by our homeowner’s insurance.

If it’s a leak that was hidden, it should be covered by insurance, so long as you took action to stop the leak as soon as it was discovered. If the leak is extensive, costs will add up fast— especially given the current price of building materials. And word to the wise, even if you see anything resembling mold, do NOT tell the insurance company. You likely have a $5-10K mold limit and they will likely try to screw you. I had to fight tooth and nail with my insurance company to get them to do the right thing.

If it goes south, ping me and I’m happy to share what helped in my dealings.

Don’t depend on the water remediation guy’s advice on insurance. My leak had to be going on for months. The line had cracked where it was coming up through the floor. My wife asked me about a stain in the cabinet next to the fridge and it was clearly a water stain. I pulled out the fridge and everything was bone dry (was a tile floor). Went into the attic to check for a roof leak that may have been running down the wall, but nothing. Crawled under the house (was sprayed with closed cell) and didn’t see anything, until my flashlight caught a drip. Immediately shut the water, pulled out the fridge and busted a couple of tiles out. Soaked subfloor. The water had been migrating between two layers of subfloor and spread to 6 other rooms.

Don’t volunteer any opinion to the insurance company or adjuster relative to how long it’s been going on, just point out that it wasn’t visible and you acted immediately upon finding it. Take pics if you tear anything out.

There’s an adjuster on the board; hopefully he’ll come by and give some feedback.

quote:

---

Unless there’s evident decay from the OP’s leak, I see no reason he can’t claim it’s sudden and accidental. It doesn’t take long for a leak like that to get out of control and he has no idea on if it’s gone on for some time. Like I said, offer no opinion

---

You would be wrong in your opinion. An experienced adjuster is going to know it is ongoing and deny the damage. Your decision to withhold information doesn’t change the facts of the claim

Some insurance carriers are more lax in their definition of an ongoing leak than others or you just got rookie adjuster that didn’t know what they were doing.

Mitigation folks verified spread to downstairs, going to a big deal, much of kitchen needs to be pulled out.

For insurance to respond, the leak must be “sudden and accidental.”

Doesn’t sound like this water leak was “sudden.”

Means downstairs ceiling may need to be removed/replaced. Hoping cutting a few holes and drying will be enough.