I have a small flood

[katb]

in my laundry room and the front of the basement's main room.  My DH is at work.  I doubt we will go through insurance but obviously  I want to start cleaning this up now (the sump pump failed).  Well both of them must have failed because we have two.  There is prob 2 inches of water in the laundry room (tiny - about a 5x7ish space) with more water running into the back of the laundry room.  The front of the basement's rug is soaked!!  I don't think it was tall enough to hit the dry wall - just the baseboards.   Pictures are good enough right?  Do I need to keep what I throw away if I wanted to go through insurance?  If I can get everything in the laundry quickly I don't think I will have to throw away a lot.

[Deleted]

I feel like you should get the stuff out of the water, turn it off and THEN post on a message board.

[Deleted]

Also, drywall usually goes to or close to the floor, so I bet it is wicking up water.

[katb]

It was the sump pump that was causing the backage of water. I had fixed that BEFORE posting. My Dh is home from work now. He used the dry/wet vac on the carpet and the dehumidifier and floor fan are going. I was just really worried about what I needed to do if we went the insurance way. DH has a moisture detector that he will use on the walls tomorrow to see if they are holding moisture. If the carpet dries and the walls are okay, then no need for insurance claim. I did probably throw away 30 random too small socks that were in the corner of the laundry room. I think I can save everything else.

[lilac05]

That really sucks. Been there, done that.

If you haven't already, you should pull the carpet up. There's a small window to get the backing on the carpet dry before it will start to break down. The pad should probably be replaced. It sucks, but it's better than having bigger issues down the road!

[bugandbibs]

Call your insurance. Even if you decide not to make a claim they can tell you what you need.

We had a very tiny leak in our fridge line and it caused way more damage then it was initially thought. Insurance got everything fixed better than it was before.

[themoneytree]

Call insurance. We just had our hot water heater burst and the insurance claim is apparently $25,000 + which just seems ridiculous to me. We don't even have furniture down there.

[emoflamingo]

Call the insurance company unless you enjoy moldy carpet pad and drywall.

They will close the claim if it's unnecessary.