worst day evar.
Or at least in living memory.
It started out like it was going to be interesting, I got a call late last night from a friend who was pitching a bid for doing a racing game to a client and needed some 3d assets for said game. In between his call and me downloading the sample files, the toilet started overflowing. I didn't notice because I was doing something or other on the computer waiting for the files to download. (they took just under an hour)
My chair sits on a sheet of wood to keep from making permanent divots in the carpet padding. So I didn't notice anything was amiss until I stood up to do something and the carpet goes squish and there's water welling up from below. I think "oh damn, I've spilled something" except that I only have one glass of water (and the omnipresent mug of coke) in my room and the aforementioned glass of water is half full and unspilled on the shelf just like I left it. Also, I notice that I can't see a visible spill on the carpet, but everywhere I step, it's wet.
I get to the hall and it's full of water. Pretty much the entirety of the first floor is soaked. I run for the wet/dry vac and get it set up in the kitchen, which is the easiest place to start because I can dump the contents in the backyard from there. Also, it has a pergo floor, which makes cleaning it up pretty easy. With a little help, the cleanup on the hardwood floored rooms takes a mere 6 or 7 hours. The carpeted rooms will need to be emptied and stripped down because the carpet pads are soaked with water, which is more or less impossible to get to while the carpet is in place.
The next day is even worse. After nearly no sleep, and no shower because, if I forgot to mention it, the pipes leading to the sewers is clogged. So it's time to get out the snake and try to unclog whatever it is that's clogged the pipe. Doesn't work. Go to the back yard to check the access pipe and it's full of nasty water. Out comes the wet/dry vac and after several loads, it's obvious that there's water leaking back into the pipe from somewhere. Which is odd, because nothing in the house is draining water into that pipe. Until another check of the bathroom reveals that the toilet is still leaking. This time it only takes a little time to clean up the mess because it only flooded part of the bathroom and a little in the hallway.
In case you've never dealt with a snake, it's a coiled wire springlike cable with a loose spiraled bit at the end designed to auger into clogs and break them up. You attach this to a power drill and rotate it while pushing it along until it reaches the clog. Several attempts to thread the snake into the pipes end in failure. So off to Home Depot to buy a new one that has fewer kinks in it. Still no good. The next approach is to dig holes to get to the pipe that needed repair last time. Nobody knows exactly where that was, so several holes are dug with no luck. So back to Home Depot to rent an industrial strength snake. This one is electrically powered, so no dealing with hand drills. Also, instead of a spring, it's a flexible cable with a cutting head to chew through clogs.
This thing does the trick in half an hour. Wish we'd thought of that first, because we wasted 8 hours trying to get to the clogged pipe.
The good news is that with that clog eliminated, we can use the shower again.
I can't describe the stench generated by trying to get through all of the backed up sewer juice. It's just as well that I have a lousy sense of smell. Now I have to unload everything out of my room and get the carpet out. Currently, it's still a little swampish back here.
Tomorrow can't possibly be worse. Saturday, I'm going to see the Watchmen movie. At this point, I don't even care how it is - I just need an escape for a few hours.
It started out like it was going to be interesting, I got a call late last night from a friend who was pitching a bid for doing a racing game to a client and needed some 3d assets for said game. In between his call and me downloading the sample files, the toilet started overflowing. I didn't notice because I was doing something or other on the computer waiting for the files to download. (they took just under an hour)
My chair sits on a sheet of wood to keep from making permanent divots in the carpet padding. So I didn't notice anything was amiss until I stood up to do something and the carpet goes squish and there's water welling up from below. I think "oh damn, I've spilled something" except that I only have one glass of water (and the omnipresent mug of coke) in my room and the aforementioned glass of water is half full and unspilled on the shelf just like I left it. Also, I notice that I can't see a visible spill on the carpet, but everywhere I step, it's wet.
I get to the hall and it's full of water. Pretty much the entirety of the first floor is soaked. I run for the wet/dry vac and get it set up in the kitchen, which is the easiest place to start because I can dump the contents in the backyard from there. Also, it has a pergo floor, which makes cleaning it up pretty easy. With a little help, the cleanup on the hardwood floored rooms takes a mere 6 or 7 hours. The carpeted rooms will need to be emptied and stripped down because the carpet pads are soaked with water, which is more or less impossible to get to while the carpet is in place.
The next day is even worse. After nearly no sleep, and no shower because, if I forgot to mention it, the pipes leading to the sewers is clogged. So it's time to get out the snake and try to unclog whatever it is that's clogged the pipe. Doesn't work. Go to the back yard to check the access pipe and it's full of nasty water. Out comes the wet/dry vac and after several loads, it's obvious that there's water leaking back into the pipe from somewhere. Which is odd, because nothing in the house is draining water into that pipe. Until another check of the bathroom reveals that the toilet is still leaking. This time it only takes a little time to clean up the mess because it only flooded part of the bathroom and a little in the hallway.
In case you've never dealt with a snake, it's a coiled wire springlike cable with a loose spiraled bit at the end designed to auger into clogs and break them up. You attach this to a power drill and rotate it while pushing it along until it reaches the clog. Several attempts to thread the snake into the pipes end in failure. So off to Home Depot to buy a new one that has fewer kinks in it. Still no good. The next approach is to dig holes to get to the pipe that needed repair last time. Nobody knows exactly where that was, so several holes are dug with no luck. So back to Home Depot to rent an industrial strength snake. This one is electrically powered, so no dealing with hand drills. Also, instead of a spring, it's a flexible cable with a cutting head to chew through clogs.
This thing does the trick in half an hour. Wish we'd thought of that first, because we wasted 8 hours trying to get to the clogged pipe.
The good news is that with that clog eliminated, we can use the shower again.
I can't describe the stench generated by trying to get through all of the backed up sewer juice. It's just as well that I have a lousy sense of smell. Now I have to unload everything out of my room and get the carpet out. Currently, it's still a little swampish back here.
Tomorrow can't possibly be worse. Saturday, I'm going to see the Watchmen movie. At this point, I don't even care how it is - I just need an escape for a few hours.