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Today, we went out of the house for about an hour and when we came back the whole kitchen was flooded. Turned out the cold water soft connection for the kitchen sink had somehow disconnected (?).

We have a finished basement underneath which was flooded too.

I immediately shut off the water and got rid of it but the question is whether I can do anything else to help the situation.

The floor is red oak and is not finished with polyurethane but with OSMO polyx oil (natural oil and wax). As far as I remember it has the subfloor underneath and that black tar paper or whatever it is on top of it below the hardwood floor.

There's sound insulation (ROXUL Safe'n'Sound) between the joists.

The dry wall everywhere (including the basement ceiling) is the green mold resistant drywall. The paint is Benjamine Moore Aura Bath & Spa.

The basement ceiling shows only slight signs of damage (you can now kinda tell where the sheets meet). The kitchen floor was OK initially but after a few hours the edges between the pieces of wood raised a bit and became black. Overall, the damages are minor and almost invisible.

What I worry about is that water is probably still trapped in the floor b/n the hardwood floor and the drywall below. I worry about developing mold and health issues more than the visible damages. What should I do?

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    be sure to contact your home owners insurance company immediately. You may be covered and they will bring in a water damage specialist to evaluate the extent of damage and what needs to be done to repair it. Don't wait, do it now so steps can be taken to mitigate damages or your insurance may deny any later claims.
    – shirlock homes
    Aug 21, 2011 at 12:38
  • The damage is really minor. You could hardly see it. In fact I don't think I'm going to fix anything. So $0. Also, I don't like the idea of making a claim. I've heard if you make enough claims they raise the premiums. For that reason I have the highest possible deductible and will only use it if there's a true disaster.
    – Peter Q
    Aug 21, 2011 at 16:17

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DIY: Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. You want to RUSH to Home Depot and get some of those giant fans ... plus a couple of dehumidifiers. If you have air conditioning, crank it as low as it will go for a few days.

Personally, I would call in a company like ServPro that does emergency water remediation to evaluate and help fix the problems.

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  • Thanks. I did put a dehumidifier and run the AC on low temp. Now things are OK I think. Not sure about ServPro, it might be an overkill at this point.
    – Peter Q
    Aug 21, 2011 at 14:57
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    The thing you have to be aware of is not just the surface signs of damage, but the moisture that is on the backside of the drywall, which will rot and mildew if not addressed. You might want to open a hole in your ceiling to see what the backside of the drywall looks like and make sure it's not really wet. If it is damp in there, you'll want to open up more drywall so that it can dry out without molding.
    – Karl Katzke
    Aug 22, 2011 at 15:07
  • Yes, I did open a few holes and everything is dry. Guess, I was lucky. The only thing that slightly bothers me at this point is that the wood floor raised at the edges of the pieces a bit. Maybe if I ran the dehumidifier immediately I could have prevented this. But it's not a big deal.
    – Peter Q
    Aug 25, 2011 at 12:41

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