Teacher, 33, says leaky Wickes bathroom turned her home 'into a swamp'

Teacher, 33, is forced to leave her flooded home and move into an Airbnb after ‘faulty piping in her new £5,000 Wickes bathroom left it looking like a swamp’

• Fay Guest said her home in Bideford, north Devon, has been ruined by the flood 
• A video showed pools of water in her living room and water leaking from a roof

A heartbroken teacher has been forced to move out of her flooded home after a ‘leaky pipe in her new bathroom’ turned it into ‘a swamp’. 

Devastated Fay Guest has been living in a £500-a-week Airbnb following the nightmare leak, which ruined her two-bedroom house in Bideford, north Devon. 

The 33-year-old had forked out £5,000 on a new bath, shower, sink and toilet from Wickes in Barnstaple, north Devon.

But three days after it was fitted, she claims a faulty pipe caused water to come cascading into her house, wrecking ceilings and walls, destroying her kitchen and flooding every room on the ground floor.  

So extensive is the damage, it has left her terraced house without electricity and looking like something from a ‘horror movie’, she added. 

Teacher Fay Guest has been left devastated after her new bathroom flooded her home in  Bideford, north Devon, leaving carpets waterlogged (above) and her kitchen ruined

‘My home is a swamp’: the teacher bought her bathroom from Wickes but claimed a faulty pipe had caused the huge leak, leaving her home looking like a swamp when she saw the damage 

Fay was alerted to the flooding on January 29 by a panicked friend, who had been cat sitting for her and called the teacher to say water was pouring from the ceiling. 

‘I walked in to see a swamp, that’s the only way I can describe it, said Fay. ‘It had come all through the kitchen – all of my kitchen stuff is ruined. I’ve got no electricity in there, because the water has gone into the electricity.

‘It then flowed into the living room. I’m in a classic terraced house, long and thin, and it managed to get all the way towards the front.

‘I went from stunned disbelief to complete panic. Even upstairs that wasn’t wet felt damp because it was just so full of water. The whole house absolutely stinks now.’

Fay had the bathroom fitted last month and claims she contacted Wickes on the day of the leak.  But the 33-year-old educator has lashed out at the home improvement firm, saying she was ‘fobbed off’ by them. 

On February 13, the furious teacher took to social media to show footage of her trashed home, filming large pools of water on her carpeted living room and her kitchen and recording water pouring through wooden ceiling beams. 

Taking to Twitter, she wrote: ‘Hey @Wickes! Let’s talk about the way your bathroom installation has made my house uninhabitable (please see horror movie below). Your colleagues have decided to ghost me, which is weird, no? #wickes #withWickes.’

Wickes has since apologised for the problem and said it supporting Fay following the damage. 

Water was pictured dripping from the wooden ceiling of Fay’s two-bedroom home after it was flooded by a faulty bathroom pipe

The flooding ruined her kitchen, with water spreading across the ground floor into her living room (seen right)

Fay was left horrified by the scale of the damage, comparing her beloved home to a ‘swamp’ when she first saw the flooding. Pictured are the puddles of water in the kitchen and living room

The devastated homeowner, who claims an installer confirmed the leak was caused by faulty piping under the bathtub, says she’s been forced to move out of home and racked up more than £1,000 in Airbnb fees.

But Fay said: ‘I haven’t been able to live there since. I had to move out that night, and I’ve been in a £500-a-week Airbnb since.

‘I’m devastated. I moved into my house two years ago, and I’ve been spending time trying to get it nice.’

Fay says a drying team provided by her insurance company has ripped up her waterlogged living room carpet and is drying out plug sockets that they hope to use for heating and a dehumidifier.

She added: ‘I said that the bathroom was going to look exquisite when I’d managed to paint it – but that doesn’t make much difference now that the rest of my house is a swamp.

‘Any other thing and it probably wouldn’t cause that much damage but because it’s water, it causes catastrophic damage.

The flooding took place on January 29 and Fay has been living in a £500-a-week Airbnb home ever since 

Fay’s friend was cat sitting, looking after the 33-year-old’s pets (pictured before the flood) when the leak sprung

‘The service from Wickes has not been great. To be honest, it’s been a bit of a traumatic thing anyway.

‘I’m now at the point where I’m getting sick of being fobbed off. It’s a shame it’s come to the point where I’ve put something on Twitter.’

Wickes said they were sorry to hear about the the issue and that their customer relations team ‘would remain in contact with Fay to ensure the issue is fully resolved’. 

A Wickes spokesperson said: ‘We are very sorry to hear about the problem that Miss Guest has experienced with the installation of her bathtub, shower, toilet and sink as we always aim to deliver a high standard of customer service.

‘A designated member of our customer relations team is currently liaising with Miss Guest to understand where we can support and help ease some of the pressures experienced while she goes through the claim process with her insurers.

‘Our customer relations team will remain in contact to ensure the issue is fully resolved and that the work is completed as soon as possible, with the best possible care.’

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