So, my family lake house flooded in the middle of a drought
And I missed the first 6 innings of the baseball game because I had to go out to the lakehouse and deal with it, since I'm the only family member that lives in Austin.
What appears to have happened is that the water line to the fridge/freezer burst sometime in the past 2 weeks. The last time I was out at the lake was during the weekend of the 6th, and it was fine then. A neighbor noticed it this evening, and from the amount of water in the house and the amount of absorption into the sheetrock, it's been like that for a while. The freezer and fridge went out at some point, so all the food in there was spoiled.
That ruined all the sheetrock behind the fridge first. Also, the cabinets that are near the fridge took in a lot of moisture. It remains to be seen if they'll need to be replaced. After that, the rest of the house flooded. The water level was up to at least 1/4 of an inch in most of the house, including all 3 bedrooms and the bathroom. All of the rugs were soaked, obviously. Much of the funiture has absorbed a lot of water. I'm pretty sure a lot of it will have to be thrown out.
The worst part is probably the walls. The sheet rock had absorbed water up to at least 3 feet, so that will all need to be taken out and replaced. The water was seeping out of the bottom of the house at the foundation at multiple points. All of the exterior walls will have to have the lowest 3 or 4 feet of insulation removed to make sure there's no mold. It looks like even the bottom part of the siding might be bad - but that's just from my eye test, nothing official.
We called and got some remediation people out there tonight. They got most of the standing water out, tore out all of the baseboards. put all of the furniture up on blocks for airflow, and have about a dozen fans and 2 huge dehumidifiers running all night. The AC is also on, because that should help dehudifiy the air. They will be back out there tomorrow to take off the sheetrock, etc. After that we will really know how extensive the damage was.
About the good news is that with the carport, the back patio, and the pop-up-tent, there should be a lot of covered areas to put furniture when it needs to come out. I can also take some and store it at my house if need be while work is going on. And, apparently, the fact that house is all tile now is going to help cut down the chances of mold considerably.
I wish I wasn't studying for the bar right now, in a normal summer I would have been out there more often and maybe found it sooner.
What appears to have happened is that the water line to the fridge/freezer burst sometime in the past 2 weeks. The last time I was out at the lake was during the weekend of the 6th, and it was fine then. A neighbor noticed it this evening, and from the amount of water in the house and the amount of absorption into the sheetrock, it's been like that for a while. The freezer and fridge went out at some point, so all the food in there was spoiled.
That ruined all the sheetrock behind the fridge first. Also, the cabinets that are near the fridge took in a lot of moisture. It remains to be seen if they'll need to be replaced. After that, the rest of the house flooded. The water level was up to at least 1/4 of an inch in most of the house, including all 3 bedrooms and the bathroom. All of the rugs were soaked, obviously. Much of the funiture has absorbed a lot of water. I'm pretty sure a lot of it will have to be thrown out.
The worst part is probably the walls. The sheet rock had absorbed water up to at least 3 feet, so that will all need to be taken out and replaced. The water was seeping out of the bottom of the house at the foundation at multiple points. All of the exterior walls will have to have the lowest 3 or 4 feet of insulation removed to make sure there's no mold. It looks like even the bottom part of the siding might be bad - but that's just from my eye test, nothing official.
We called and got some remediation people out there tonight. They got most of the standing water out, tore out all of the baseboards. put all of the furniture up on blocks for airflow, and have about a dozen fans and 2 huge dehumidifiers running all night. The AC is also on, because that should help dehudifiy the air. They will be back out there tomorrow to take off the sheetrock, etc. After that we will really know how extensive the damage was.
About the good news is that with the carport, the back patio, and the pop-up-tent, there should be a lot of covered areas to put furniture when it needs to come out. I can also take some and store it at my house if need be while work is going on. And, apparently, the fact that house is all tile now is going to help cut down the chances of mold considerably.
I wish I wasn't studying for the bar right now, in a normal summer I would have been out there more often and maybe found it sooner.