Can water damage be taken care of? Do you do it yourself or who would you call?
Question:Our upstairs shower came away from the wall and damaged it, also put a spot in the ceiling on the main floor.
Answers:
If I were your husband, I would do it myself, I think you should do it yourself, nothing too complicated.
The spot on the ceiling is easy enough. You can use a stain killer (I will only use Kilz orginal). It may need 2 coats of the stain killer, then just paint over it. This is provided it's just a stain. If it damaged the drywall the repair is much more intensive.
As for the shower, the whole thing will need to come out. Assess how much damage was caused when this happened. Studding, subfloor, drywall, etc. Repair this damage and replace the shower. It isn't as easy as "put a couple of screws in it to get it back to the wall".
Whether or not you can do this yourself depends on how handy you are. If this happened in my house, I would have no qualms of my husband and I taking care of the repair. He is the guts, I am the cosmetic. But, after being a Realtor for 7 years, I know that those who are repair-challenged should never take on something of this extent themselves. A bad repair job will cost you more on loss-of-investment than if you pay someone to do it.
You can take care of the water damage yourself, however, it would depend on how comfortable you are with patching drywall to determine if you would want to do it yourself. If your upstairs shower has leaked into the ceiling below, you have moisture trapped inside of the ceiling. This creates the potential for mold growth. The best resolution is to remove the affected area of sheetrock, remove any moist insulation (if applicable), and treat the wood inside the ceiling with a 10 part water to 1 part bleach solution ( a stronger mixture could cause the mold spores to "off-gas" or spread). Allow the affected area to dry for at least 48 hours after it has been treated. Once the area is dry, replace insulation (if applicable), the replace the sheetrock, tape, texture and paint. During the 48 hour dry time, you will obviously want to repair the shower surround that has pulled away from the wall. You will most likely have water damage to the wall behind the surround as well. Prior to repairing the surround you will want to follow the same process that you did for the ceiling.
Hopefully this will help you make a decision and give you some guidance should you chose to do the work yourself.
Our washer hose came off our washer a few years ago and flooded our basement, My homeowners insurance covered it, i called a local company that specialized in home damage and they brought a big fan to dry things out and then my insurance company came in and assessed the damage. nothing was damaged structurally but I did have to replace my carpet and they covered all but my deductible.
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