Water Damage!

Sorry for not posting sooner. We had a major water leak at our home last Tuesday. One of our bathroom toilet hoses broke and it looks as if it had been running for most of the afternoon. Thankfully it was clean water. 

My wife got home first and shut the water off and I was 10mins behind. I quickly began to vacuum up the standing water while my wife called the insurance company. My kids were real troopers – they ran around picking up all they could off the floor. My sister even came over to help vacuum water but we realized it was just too much water and we called a water extraction company and they showed up an hour later.

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The water extraction team finished around midnight that night, pulling up carpet, removing the pad (which is like a sponge) and removing baseboards. Then they put in some dryers and de-humidifiers to suck out all the moisture. These blowers had to run for about 4 days straight. The didn’t pull the last one until just yesterday.

Only three rooms were spared. The dinning room, kitchen and my study. But I’m thankful it was only water. While the house dried we stayed at my wife’s father’s condo to rest. It was close to the kid’s school so we took them to school the next day and practices – we tried to keep them on a schedule. I would then periodically come over to the house to check on it. Man those blowers were hot. 

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Wednesday I was busy all morning making phone calls and scheduled insurance adjusters, contractors and dealing my work. Our house is in such disarray when the big fans and de-humidifiers were blowing through the house plus all of my son’s clothes are on his bed since we had to rip out his closet shelves to pull out the carpet padding. These drying machines were big and they even tripped our breakers once (while my wife and I were at the house trying to assess damages on Wed) and that scared me so I pulled all my external drives and brought them with me to the condo. My drives are my life.

On Saturday we all came over to pick up the wet stuff and wash it. Then on Sunday I was able to stay in my house. The wife and kids still stayed at the condo. 

So now on Tuesday, I begin my vacation because I’m having the house foundation “leveled.” Yes, that added an extra wrinkle to the problem.

See, you don’t want to put down new carpet or sheet rock if the house is going to be raised! You might get a wrinkle in the carpet or sheet rock may crack. So…we are proceeding with the foundation work. We can’t fix the carpet or sheet rock until the house is raised. The five day construction begins today and will finish next Monday. I”ll post about that too. 

It’s crazy – all this coordination. Thank goodness I work at a job that requires me to juggle multiple projects with some wicked deadlines. Friday, Monday and Tuesday were spent with plumbers, carpet and construction guys. Now to submit it all to the insurance for payment. Then to begin our personal belongings damages.

One thing I’m glad is it was not a fire. We’ve lost some items but I’m glad we still have our home. 

And it’s funny – this has happened to a lot of folks. When I mention it to them, they nod their head and recount their stories. Then I mention the house foundation, they laugh and start to tell me, “When it rains, it pours.”

…well I know we need the rain…but I’m tired of getting wet. 

Beto