Out for a few more days

[Sal1950]

I have only been able to drop in the forum for a minute or two per day. Just so much to do.

Sorry to hear of your troubles.
Take all the time you need to look after your wife and life.
This here is all fun and games.
Sal

 

[Kaiju]

Hello you all.
.......

I have only been able to drop in the forum for a minute or two per day. Just so much to do.

Sorry to hear Amir, wish speed recovery of your wife.
And, Hope everything will be good as they were.

Till then we will enjoy good tunes.

 

[gameswong]

Amirm, I am very sorry to hear what happen to your house, and feel terrible to hear your wife got insured. Hope everything will be alright soon. Please take your time. Family comes first, and forum can wait.

 

[bequietjk]

This will be a good chance to do what you can and what you cannot do, listen to some tunes with your wife!

Wishing you all the best and that everything gets squared away.

Push through adversity and the results will be great!

 

[TimF]

Now you have an incentive to invent a device to draw shallow water off a broad section of floor. A floor sucker. Light weight, small unit with panels you roll our or assemble. Of course, you know, electrical shielding will be important for such a device. I hope you get all the problems well solved. I can foresee big sales in the not too distant future in large parts of Florida, Delaware and Louisiana.

 

[sam_adams]

Hello you all. You probably noticed I have been away from the forum a few days.

And here I had visions of you and the family huddled in the garage around a small fire made from the pieces of broken up speaker cabinets eating the last of your emergency supplies wondering when help would arrive. Thank goodness it is only a minor, non-life threatening inconvenience. Hopefully you will get someone to solve this pesky leak issue in a timely manner. Best wishes to the bride for a speedy recovery.

 

[mastachio]

Sending prayer and positive vibes your way

 

[PeteL]

Good luck with all that and wish prompt recovery to your wife.

 

[Dmitri]

So sorry to hear of your troubles Amir. I have images of you bravely trying to shut off frozen valves and shore up cracked seams while your submarine is jolted by another round of depth charges. My mind does weird things sometimes.

I hope your wife is OK and that your home can be put to rights soon....that you come out of this with stories to tell and frustrations forgotten. Take care of yourself, your home and family...and take comfort in knowing that though most of us are suffering from horrific DT’s in your absence, we will survive. If it doesn’t kill us, it’ll make us stronger. ; )

Best of luck to you.

 

[Nigel Pickmere]

Amir
Speedy recovery to your wife and your flood situation!
We are about to be hit with a "tropical" cyclone in New Zealand and all hope to not be in your situation in a few days time.

All the best from "downunder"

 

[NoteMakoti]

Not gonna lie, I thought you got COVID like everyone else right now.

 

[xarkkon]

Very sorry to hear Amir. Hoping things start getting better soon!

 

[amirm]

A few of these will help, but only if you have somewhere else to put the water. Might need to run them all to a tank halfway up and then another two to dump directly into the drain.

Oh my gosh. Wish I had know about this! Will have to pick one up as they have it even in stock at our local store! Thanks so much!

 

[DualTriode]

@amirm,

I am a commercial building consultant of many years.

In order of importance:

Original design; gravel leach/drainage pipes, sumps and pumps

Drainage

Sealing the exterior floors foundations and walls.



If things remain wet or damp slimly stuff and molds will continue to haunt you.



You may need to consider going after the original Architect, Contractor, subcontractors and original owner.

If real estate laws in Washington are similar to California water leaks and toxic mold are required to be disclosed when you sell the property.

 

[amirm]

Not gonna lie, I thought you got COVID like everyone else right now.

Could have definitely been the case. Thankfully it was not as I am pretty sure that would have been worse than what we are dealing with.

 

[bakker_be]

Take care. After all, there are more important things than Hi-Fi!

 

[amirm]

If real estate laws in Washington are similar to California water leaks and toxic mold are required to be disclosed when you sell the property.

It is the same here and we will be disclosing it together with the fix (did that with the last house we sold). The issue here is one weak point by the corner of the building foundation. All the rest is incredibly heavy clay that acts as a water block. But in that one corner, it was filled with sand so passed the moisture through the foundation given the record breaking rain and moisture this year. The corner by the way was our dedicated home theater!

So far, no indication of mold or mildew. Day one I bought a bunch of blowers and have as I mentioned around the clock, drying the place with every means possible. Unlike a regular flood, this was all a quarter of an inch or less. Half the area is tile so didn't care. The carpet through soaked it up but I have been working on drying it each time after the leak which has been the source of exhaustion. Dehumidifier is running around the clock as well.

I also bought an ozone generator to kill bad stuff in combination with the blower.

Ultimately if we have to rip out the carpet and drywall, that is what we have to do but right now, I am hopeful we don't have to.

On litigation, there is blame to be had by folks who did the original drainage but I don't know that I want to pursue it. One option that I am thinking about is the county. There is a road that leads to our driveway and with rain, it becomes a river, dumping all the water into our yard. It does not have drainage ditch. I complained to the county two years ago but they just dismissed it. The original owners of the land donated this part of the property to the county so that they would maintain it. But naturally they have not.

 

[amirm]

This will be a good chance to do what you can and what you cannot do, listen to some tunes with your wife!

We did something close to it. Just stopped working and decided to watch a movie tonight. It was the Australian "The Dry." Nice way to keep our minds away from this disaster. First time we have done anything in a week not related to the flooding...

 

[jhaider]

Oh man, that's awful. I hope your wife is recovering well. Water intrusion sucks and it sucks even more in actual living space. I feel for you. What a huge effing pain. Our old house (built in the early 1920s, with dugout basement that had dirt walls on 3 sides) would occasionally get some water intrusion on one side during heavy rains. But the basement was unfinished and the seller disclosed, so I knew that anything stored down there should be on a shelving unit and not the floor!

Also, not an attorney licensed to practice in your state and the following is not legal advice, but I'd be careful re initiating [edit] any litigation against the county. They may be able to claim sovereign immunity as an absolute defense, and then proceed to make your life hell. This happened recently to someone I know: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/at...s-pay-clean-it-up/NMARLKCLWBDWDGP7B2D7VNDR54/.

 

[Blumlein 88]

It is the same here and we will be disclosing it together with the fix (did that with the last house we sold). The issue here is one weak point by the corner of the building foundation. All the rest is incredibly heavy clay that acts as a water block. But in that one corner, it was filled with sand so passed the moisture through the foundation given the record breaking rain and moisture this year. The corner by the way was our dedicated home theater!

So far, no indication of mold or mildew. Day one I bought a bunch of blowers and have as I mentioned around the clock, drying the place with every means possible. Unlike a regular flood, this was all a quarter of an inch or less. Half the area is tile so didn't care. The carpet through soaked it up but I have been working on drying it each time after the leak which has been the source of exhaustion. Dehumidifier is running around the clock as well.

I also bought an ozone generator to kill bad stuff in combination with the blower.

Ultimately if we have to rip out the carpet and drywall, that is what we have to do but right now, I am hopeful we don't have to.

On litigation, there is blame to be had by folks who did the original drainage but I don't know that I want to pursue it. One option that I am thinking about is the county. There is a road that leads to our driveway and with rain, it becomes a river, dumping all the water into our yard. It does not have drainage ditch. I complained to the county two years ago but they just dismissed it. The original owners of the land donated this part of the property to the county so that they would maintain it. But naturally they have not.

In my experience don't waste your time with carpet. Tear out the carpet as the pad underneath is nearly impossible to truly dry out. Drywall might only need replacing a foot up from the floor depending upon your particular situation.

If you insist on saving the carpet you'll still need to pull it up and tear out the padding to be replaced. Padding once soaked just about cannot be dried again certainly not with the carpet still in place.