Has your contractor offered to repair and clean the damage to your lower level? It would be covered by his insurance or at his expense. I would also ask to have him run a test to ensure the shower is leak proof before preceding onward. Good luck

I would guess that Joseph is right. Is the hot water heater reconnected and working without leaking? Did they do something to fix it? They're responsible for both fixing what they broke, and the consequences of that breakage. What about the floor and ceiling?

If it was indeed a simple spill of a bucket, then the ceiling drywall
should be undamaged and structurally it should be fine when it dries out, though it may beed a new coat of paint. I'd offset the
cost of a deep cleaning for the rug and couch and a coat of paint on the
ceiling (of required).

I don't recommend you yourself turn the hot water on. Despite anything your GC or plumber says.

I agree with the other posters. If the hot water is still off, I'd have the GC and his plumber over when it is turned on. There's a possibility that a plumbing union didn't get soldered or a union was improperly made up inside the wall. Hot water ON = leak on the hot water side. Could be a slow leak, or a fast one.

Thank you all. We turned the hot water on with no issues. We needed to shower! Our contractor assured us they would take care of any staining. Wishing we knew what happened. Contractor never responded after we told him we found the hot water off. It was incredibly strange, our master bedroom was found perfect. Laundry we left out folded, etc. Things in better shape then when we had left. Weird. Yet, then there were random dirty towels. Mine! Couch moved. I just wish I knew the extent of the water. Monday morning will be an interesting discussion.

I emailed the contractor again today. So we have been assured it was a bucket. Our contractor says the plumber turned off the hot water when looking at something else and forgot to turn it back on. I honestly have no idea how the test for leaks. I will ask tomorrow. This is a company that we have the utmost confidence in. We truly respect their work. They have essentially rebuilt more than 2/3s of our house. Hence, why we had no issue being out of town while work was being done. I'm a little concerned about mold. We arrived home and the inside temp was well in the 80s. No fans or air on. We put the air on right away.

There is no way a bucket, even a full 5-gallon pail, did that much damage. No possible way. Now you have to ask why this trusted contractor is lying.

Well Joseph you were correct. I'm not sure where the original story came from but the foreman came clean this morning. No bucket involved. Tile installer tried to move a ring around some plumbing that shouldn't have been moved. I actually don't even know where to start my list of concern with the contractor. They assured we the shower is water proofed so the tile work continued. Mold, electrical, ceiling, couch.

So sorry you are going through this, it's one thing to have mistakes made but an entirely different matter when you lose the trust. I hope it all works out for you.

Several months ago I was reinstalling an undermount stainless steel sink in a granite top, a job I've done at least 50 times. These things might weight 5 lbs. It fell on top of the PVC supply lines and snapped one off, so I'm pumping a hose full of water onto the tile kitchen floor.

I calmly went outside to the shutoff valve, turned it, and heard the homeowner shout it's not working. That was not good. Less than a minute had passed.

I ran to my truck, got some tools, popped the lid on the curb box, turned the valve, and stopped the water. Maybe 5 minutes.

There was an inch of water on the kitchen floor, fortunately I was able to sweep it onto the concrete garage floor immediately. I reinstalled the sink, no charge, and told the homeowner to call a plumber in the morning.

The homeowner's insurance company sent a certified letter saying they were subrogating the damages to my liability insurance and they did. Despite the documentation of deteriorating PVC in Florida, cleaning ladies have snapped pipes with mops and homeowners have snapped pipes turning valves, I believe my insurance company paid the claim because it's cheaper than arguing. I saved a broken piece of pipe for forensic testing, to no avail:

I check every shutoff every time now.