The Joys of Homeownership
Around midnight last night, as we were trying to sleep, I noticed a sort of clicking sound. It was driving me nuts, so we got up to see if we could find out what was causing it. After several minutes of searching we discovered that it was water dripping from the area around the air intake for our house fan/the heating and cooling systems. We looked around enough last night to verify that we could leave the problem for today, put a bucket under the drip and went to sleep.
This morning, my dad came out with a taller ladder and we looked up in the attic. Our heating system is based on recirculating water and apparently one of the pipes having to do with this system is leaking--into our second floor ceiling. The drywall in the area was so soaked as to be mushy and not structurally stable. The surrounding drywall is apparently growing mold as is the insulation in the attic. It is not looking cheap.
Right now, we have cut out the worst of the drywall, leaving a fairly good sized hole in the ceiling, and have a funnel and hose system under the drip directing it to a bucket. As I don't wish to pay emergency rates, the plumber will be here Tuesday. We'll probably have to remove at least a two-foot radius of drywall and insulation, of course in an area that is over a wall intersection, let it dry out, and then have the drywall guy out to repair the damage. Oh, and we'll need to paint after that.
I'm trying to convince myself that this could have been worse. It could have been in an area where it had to soak through the ceiling, taking days, before dripping out. The pipe could have burst instead of leaking. We could have not been home when the dripping started and be looking at carpeting in addition to everything else. Still...Aargh!
This morning, my dad came out with a taller ladder and we looked up in the attic. Our heating system is based on recirculating water and apparently one of the pipes having to do with this system is leaking--into our second floor ceiling. The drywall in the area was so soaked as to be mushy and not structurally stable. The surrounding drywall is apparently growing mold as is the insulation in the attic. It is not looking cheap.
Right now, we have cut out the worst of the drywall, leaving a fairly good sized hole in the ceiling, and have a funnel and hose system under the drip directing it to a bucket. As I don't wish to pay emergency rates, the plumber will be here Tuesday. We'll probably have to remove at least a two-foot radius of drywall and insulation, of course in an area that is over a wall intersection, let it dry out, and then have the drywall guy out to repair the damage. Oh, and we'll need to paint after that.
I'm trying to convince myself that this could have been worse. It could have been in an area where it had to soak through the ceiling, taking days, before dripping out. The pipe could have burst instead of leaking. We could have not been home when the dripping started and be looking at carpeting in addition to everything else. Still...Aargh!