We have a real oak floor which has been down without problems for 9 years.

Recently, over about 3 weeks an area of the floor near the doorway buckled and rose about 3 inches.

The installer closed down several years ago and a carpenter informed us the floor was irreparable.

Our Aviva Insurer sent a surveyor to inspect the problem but says as water is not the cause of the problem we cannot claim on our home insurance. He thought the only cause could be 'ground changes' beneath the house due to excessive wet then excessive dry weather.

Has anyone else had this problem with wooden floors and would it be any use contesting the Insurance Company's decision?

Hello and welcome to CAG.

The insurance guys should be along later with advice for you, please bear with us until they're able to get here, they have day jobs.

My best, HB

You can only claim if damage is caused by an insured peril noted in your policy. So if an escape of water caused the problem, you would be ok. Home Insurance is not a home maintenance policy.

Based on the limited information in your post, I would say that I agree with the surveyor.

What you need to do now is find out why the flooring has buckled. Has someone dropped something heavy near the area of damage ? Has someone banged the door near the damage really hard, causing a nail near the door frame to nudge the flooring ? Or perhaps it was already under pressure and with this hot weather general moisture has expanded it, causing it to lift ? Has a nail or adhessive failed, causing it to become loose ? There could be loads of reasons why after 9 years this has suddenly happened, most of which would have nothing to do with insurance. Well apart from accidental damage if you have it, for which you would have to point to an accident event e.g someone dropping something heavy on it

Thanks for the reply UncleBulgaria - looks like we have to be resigned to not being able to claim on Home Insurance - Boo Hoo - its going to cost the earth to put this right!

UncleBularia - the surveyor seemed to think that the water had seeped up from the ground during a particularly wet period but now dried out (but still buckled) Would insurance cover this type of water seepage???

UncleBularia - the surveyor seemed to think that the water had seeped up from the ground during a particularly wet period but now dried out (but still buckled) Would insurance cover this type of water seepage???

You would have to get evidence of water table flood and then try to pursue a claim for that under the policy. The FOS (financial ombudsman) have ruled that water ingress due to a rising water table can be claimed for under the flood peril.

See what the wording is under your Buildings Insurance for the peril of flood.

Evidence that you would need is another surveyors inspection of the whole floor area, once the flooring is removed, which should show staining across a wide area. Rising water table I believe would cause a muddy brown stain to be left behind.

Start looking into this and speak to your Insurers about this.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/flooding.html

Thank you for this very helpful advice - we are resigned to fact we will have to remove he wooden floor so will look for staining underneath and progress from there. -Thanks again.