I am now officially a homewrecker
Feb. 13th, 2005 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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psongster reminded me that I haven't posted an update on the carpet-stain-from-hell in a while:
After last week's exciting episode, we called our favorite plumber and told him about the leak in the garage ceiling and the running water. When he came over to take a look, I showed him the whole situation, including the wet floorboards in the bedroom.
(To recap: the problems we were having with wet floor and carpet occurred in the hallway to the master bedroom. There is a small bathroom right next to this hallway, where we could hear water running even when no one was using the water. The garage is beneath the house, and the leak in the garage ceiling was somewhere underneath both rooms.)
The plumber and I spent a lot of time going back and forth between the bathroom and the garage, trying to get the lay of the land and figure out where the most likely spot for the leak was. By turning valves on and off and listening for running water he established that the leak was in the hot water line for the bathroom sink. At one point he punched a hole between the bedroom closet and the bathroom, trying to find the pipe itself, and the drywall just crumbled to the touch — it was completely damp through. More bad omens.
Finally, we went down to the garage, took a hammer and started knocking holes in the ceiling... and water started pouring out in a steady stream. As it petered out, he pulled down a large amount of soaked drywall and then a large amount of soaked insulation. He kept pulling down wallboard and insulation until he found the pipe that leads to the bathroom sink. No replacement part on hand, but they came by the next day and replaced the pipe. The leak is gone and we have heard no more sounds of running water, so I believe they got the right one.
So we think we solved the underlying problem. The next day or so, I took a prybar borrowed fromjacflash and started pulling up the ruined particleboard in the bedroom hall. It took an hour or so but I got almost all of it up, revealing a layer of soaked plywood. Leaving that exposed for a couple of days seems to have helped, as it is now pretty much completely dry. There's a little more carpet and particleboard to pull up, but now we have more confidence that we probably don't have to go lower. I am now officially a homewrecker.
Over the next few days I will be pulling apart more wall, floor and ceiling to get a sense of how extensive the damage is. We've begun calling contractors to try to find someone who can give us an estimate on the repair, and we will be calling in Jeff May to evaluate the mold problem.
LOTS OF FUN!
Ugh.
psongster reminded me that I haven't posted an update on the carpet-stain-from-hell in a while:After last week's exciting episode, we called our favorite plumber and told him about the leak in the garage ceiling and the running water. When he came over to take a look, I showed him the whole situation, including the wet floorboards in the bedroom.
(To recap: the problems we were having with wet floor and carpet occurred in the hallway to the master bedroom. There is a small bathroom right next to this hallway, where we could hear water running even when no one was using the water. The garage is beneath the house, and the leak in the garage ceiling was somewhere underneath both rooms.)
The plumber and I spent a lot of time going back and forth between the bathroom and the garage, trying to get the lay of the land and figure out where the most likely spot for the leak was. By turning valves on and off and listening for running water he established that the leak was in the hot water line for the bathroom sink. At one point he punched a hole between the bedroom closet and the bathroom, trying to find the pipe itself, and the drywall just crumbled to the touch — it was completely damp through. More bad omens.
Finally, we went down to the garage, took a hammer and started knocking holes in the ceiling... and water started pouring out in a steady stream. As it petered out, he pulled down a large amount of soaked drywall and then a large amount of soaked insulation. He kept pulling down wallboard and insulation until he found the pipe that leads to the bathroom sink. No replacement part on hand, but they came by the next day and replaced the pipe. The leak is gone and we have heard no more sounds of running water, so I believe they got the right one.
So we think we solved the underlying problem. The next day or so, I took a prybar borrowed from
jacflash and started pulling up the ruined particleboard in the bedroom hall. It took an hour or so but I got almost all of it up, revealing a layer of soaked plywood. Leaving that exposed for a couple of days seems to have helped, as it is now pretty much completely dry. There's a little more carpet and particleboard to pull up, but now we have more confidence that we probably don't have to go lower. I am now officially a homewrecker.Over the next few days I will be pulling apart more wall, floor and ceiling to get a sense of how extensive the damage is. We've begun calling contractors to try to find someone who can give us an estimate on the repair, and we will be calling in Jeff May to evaluate the mold problem.
LOTS OF FUN!
Ugh.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 07:33 pm (UTC)My deepest condolences. I hope you can get this resolved without excessive pain.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 09:40 pm (UTC)Funny, and sad, how familiar problems can make us completely miss new problems when they show up...
no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 09:50 pm (UTC)Plus the stopped-grocery-line karma. I'm thinking maybe I shoved my way onto a Titanic lifeboat or something...
no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-14 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-14 07:13 pm (UTC)Glad you managed to find the source of the problem, at least.