happy homeownerdom

[topaz]

About a week ago the cat peed on the carpet. This shouldn't be such a big problem. We poured some stain remover on it, wiped it off, went to bed. Only then we did a stupid thing. We poured some more stain remover on it, ultimately most of a bottle. Then when it didn't seem to be getting dry, we used a wet/dry vac to pull up as much liquid as we could, and rented a steam cleaner to get rid of the stain. That seemed to work but the next day it was all soggy again.

By this time the hallway to the bedroom was starting to resemble a swamp. The wet/dry vac was no longer doing any good. I pulled up the corner of the carpet and realized -- duh -- that the carpet pad underneath was completely soaked through. So tonight, I pulled up most of the carpet in the hallway -- which required removing the door -- and tore out the sopping wet carpet pad. The substrate is particle board, and it too looks pretty saturated.

After ripping out the tack strips, I don't quite have the energy to pull up the flooring itself. So I used the wet/dry vac to get up what surface liquid I could, threw down an old carpet remnant on the nasty wet floor, and am going to wash up so I can continue to tackle this problem tomorrow. At the beginning of the project, the goal was to clean the carpet. I have given up on the carpet and understand now that the goal is to salvage as much of the floor as possible.

(In the process, we discovered a leak in the floor below the bedroom floor -- water is dripping into the garage through the ceiling. I don't think this is actually related but I could be wrong. I can hear the sound of running water when I stand at the bedroom door, so I suspect a leak in a pipe.)

Note to self. When something happens to the carpet, go gingerly with any liquid cleaner. And problems that involve too much liquid are unlikely to be solved by applying more liquid.

Comments

[rwx.livejournal.com]

And problems that involve too much liquid are unlikely to be solved by applying more liquid.

I help out a bar from time to time. You'd be amazed how true this is.

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. That sucks. We use a plumber called Joe The Plumber. They do things by the job, not by the hour. I think I remember them doing free estimates.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Thanks! We have two plumbers we like a fair bit -- Ray Bowdoin P&H, and Eric Foster. But if we have problems with these guys I'll look into Joe. :-)

[points.livejournal.com]

Oy gevault. *hugs* The ever growing project.

[psongster.livejournal.com]

If the floorboards are that soaked, it sounds to me like you are dealing with more liquid than could have come out of any bottle of stain remover that I've ever seen. I'm wondering whether the primary source of water could be that leaky pipe you are hearing -- in which case the problem really needs a plumber, but isn't of your creation.

In any case -- good luck in fixing the situation. Houses really don't like that corrosive solvent known as water :-).

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

This is a good point. Those floorboards are pretty damn wet...

[phornax.livejournal.com]

Ruh-roh. Sorry to hear you guys have experienced woes similar to the ones we went through three weeks ago. I'm beginning to suspect that there's an LJ karma - keyne commented on our plumbing situation, and then ...

...oops, I guess I should shut up, unless I want to get repaid with a karmic favor. :^) As I type, the handymen are here finishing off the dry wall behind the formerly flooded kitchenette.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

eeek! *sympathy*