Leak Damage Repair and Reinstatement in London

Water damage restoration, making good, reinstatement — the trade uses three words for the same thing, which is putting a property back after a leak has been found and repaired. It is the half of the job almost nobody in London sells, and it is the half that decides whether you are finished or holding a hole.

The part of the job nobody else sells

Search for leak detection in London and you will find dozens of firms. Almost all of them stop at the same place: the leak is located, a report is issued, and the invoice arrives. If you are lucky the same firm will also do the plumbing repair. Practically none of them will put your floor back.

So the sequence most people actually live through is this. A detection engineer comes and cuts a hole. A plumber comes and repairs the pipe. Then you spend two weeks finding a builder who will take on a small, awkward job of relaying screed and matching a floor, and when the reinstated section cracks or the new boards cup against the old ones, nobody owns it.

This page exists because we do that third part ourselves. Our reinstatement team are handymen and builders on our own books, working to the same job number as the engineer who found the leak.

What we reinstate

Floors and subfloors

Floorboards refixed or replaced and levelled to the existing run. Chipboard and ply subfloor cut back to sound material over a joist and re-sheeted. Engineered and solid timber relaid, with boards lifted carefully enough to go back down where the finish is not obtainable. Laminate and LVT reclipped or replaced where a run of spares exists. Carpet lifted, stored and refitted with new gripper where the old one is wet.

Screed

Sand-cement screed broken out around the repair and recast, or a latex self-levelling compound where the depth and the floor finish suit it. Screed has to be reinstated to the right depth and given time to cure, and over an underfloor heating repair it has to encase the pipe properly or you get a cold stripe across the room every winter.

Ceilings and plaster

Water-damaged plasterboard cut back to dry, sound board and the edges supported on noggins, then taped, filled and skimmed. Lath and plaster ceilings — still everywhere in Victorian and Edwardian London — patched in a way that holds, or cut out and re-boarded where the key has gone. Blown plaster on walls hacked off to sound brick and re-rendered.

Tiling

Floor and wall tiles lifted where possible and refitted, or replaced from spares. Where no spares exist and the tile is discontinued we will tell you before we lift anything, and discuss whether to break the floor at a grout line, in a cupboard, or under a bath panel instead. Grout and silicone renewed to match.

Decoration

Stain-blocking primer over water marks, because emulsion alone lets a tannin stain ghost back through in a fortnight. Then filling, sanding, and paint to the existing finish. Where a wall cannot be matched we paint corner to corner rather than leaving a patch.

Structural making good

Joists that have been notched badly, softened by long-term saturation or cut by a previous repair are sistered or replaced. Rotten noggins and bearers renewed. This is uncommon, but when a leak has run under a floor for a year or more it is the thing nobody thinks to check until the boards go back down and the floor bounces.

Drying comes before reinstatement, always

The single biggest failure in leak reinstatement is closing up a wet structure. Screed holds an enormous amount of water and looks dry on the surface long before it is. Close a floor over it and you get cupped boards, adhesive failure, blown plaster, and a smell that arrives in month two.

So we take moisture readings before anything goes back, and if the readings are high the answer is dehumidification and a return visit, not a faster programme. If that means two visits instead of one, we will say so at the point the leak is exposed so you can plan around it. A reinstatement done a week later and done once is cheaper than one done immediately and done twice.

What we typically put back after a London leak

• A bathroom floor and the ceiling of the flat below it, after a shower tray or waste failure — see bathroom and shower leak repair.
• A section of screed and tile over an underfloor heating repair in a kitchen or a converted warehouse flat.
• A lath and plaster ceiling below a first-floor bathroom in a Victorian terrace.
• Engineered oak lifted to reach a heating pipe, dried and relaid without a visible join.
• A hallway floor and the drive or path outside it after a supply pipe replacement.
• Kitchen units and plinths taken out and refitted to reach a pipe behind them.

Insurance, and who pays for what

Two different pots of money are involved and they are easy to confuse. The cost of finding the leak and of opening up to reach it is what a policy calls trace and access. The cost of repairing the damage the escaping water caused is the escape of water claim itself. The repair of the failed pipe is usually not covered by either, because insurance covers damage, not wear and tear.

We write the report to cover the first, and our reinstatement can form part of the second. What each policy covers, what the loss adjuster will ask for, and the wording that gets claims declined is set out under insurance claims, and the mechanics of the insurer-funded route on trace, access and reinstatement. Check your own policy wording for the cap on the trace and access limit — it varies a great deal between insurers, and the ABI is a reasonable neutral starting point on how escape of water claims work.

When you do not need us for this

A single water stain on a ceiling from a leak that has been fixed and has fully dried is a tin of stain-block and an afternoon. A lifted corner of laminate that has dried flat again needs nothing. Small cosmetic damage from a leak that is definitely resolved is not worth a call-out, and we would rather tell you that than take the job.

Call us when the damaged area is structural, when it is wet and staying wet, when a ceiling is sagging or bulging, or when the source of the water has not actually been established yet. A bulging ceiling is a safety issue, not a decorating one — see water coming through the ceiling.

What it costs

Reinstatement is charged at our hourly rate, fixed before we attend, plus materials. The rate cannot rise once agreed; the total depends on the area, the finish being matched and how long the structure takes to dry. We scope the making good once the damage is fully exposed and dry, because any figure given before that is a guess. Terms are on the pricing page.