Welcome to Home Ownership!
Recently, we had some pipes leak in our upstairs bathroom. The pipes in the shower wall. The water dripping from these leaks landed in the ceiling of the living room, and eventually seeped through, causing significant damage to the ceiling. We had a plumber come out to replace the shower faucet (one of the leaks was in the faucet pipe itself) and in doing so, he discovered that the moisture had damaged the cementboard. He advised patching it and retiling/grouting/caulking around the new faucet + handles.
This is why we have been showering in the basement emergency shower for the last few weeks.
This thursday past, we had quite a thunder storm. Becca and I were downstairs playing soem Warcraft when we heard this strange noise. We were hearing the sump pump for the first time.
“Good!” I thought, “At least the sump pump is doing its job!”
The sump pump, unfortunately, is not connected to a particularly long chunk of pvc pipe. The water just goes right back down into the water table alongside the house.
Additionally, during this storm, the City of Akron unfortunately had some construction workers break a sewage drain near White Pond Drive. The result? 5 residential blocks full of houses whose basement drains have started spouting Category 3 water. Sewer runoff. Biohazard type goodness.
I was asleep at the time, but when I woke up Friday morning, ready to do my morning routine of Wii Fit and exerbiking, I noticed a faint buzzing. ABout halfway down the stairs I realized it was the sound of Becca’s uninterruptible power supply dying. The east end of the finished basement had standing water. The UPSes were fried. The carpet was soaked.
I immediately thought it was something wrong with the house, that this was rain water. So I sopped a bunch of it up and then went outside to unclog my gutters. It was only when my neighbor, Theresa, saw me on the roof and came over to tell us that everyone’s basement had flooded that we found out what had happened. We called the city and our insurance and got the ball rolling on getting Stanley Steemer over to take care of the situation. they eventually came over and removed our carpet, and a big chunk of the drywall, and sanitized the basement. It was crazy. The construction company will supposedly be reimbursing us for our deductible, and we’re insured for the rest. Now we’re just waiting on our adjustor and contractors.
Sigh.
So yesterday I placed the shower tiles and adhered them with mastic, and hopefully tomorrow or so I can get started on grouting/sealing them and gettign my shower back in working order. Whee!
-E
