The disaster - part 1 of my hectic fortnight
At least it wasn't a fire.
We came home Monday, August 3rd, and discovered water on half the floor of our garage. Our first thought was the water heater, situated in the back corner of the garage, next to the washing machine. Toby ran to check if but found it wasn't the culprit. The water, we quickly deduced, was coming from inside the house. We passed through the kitchen (dry) into the bedroom (carpet squishy), and discovered the tank to our toilet had cracked. The pump was working away, trying to fill the tank until the float ball reached the predetermined level, which of course,since all the water was leaking out the back and bottom of the tank, it never did.
Toby turned the water off on the toilet, and Anne and I quickly set about moving things from the floor of my bedroom and closet out into the kitchen/ dining room/ living room area. Toby disappeared while we were doing this, and I found out later that he was looking up our Homeowners Warranty Information and Insurance information, and making calls to both companies to find out what was the next step.
Anne went to Home Depot for us and bought a shop vac/ Wet vac, and I set to drying things that were on the floor, and doing laundry (the hamper was between the bathroom door and the closet door, and has a grid-type bottom. Water started being absorbed by clothes on the bottom of the hamper, and the damp had crept about halfway up the hamper-full by the time we got home. Luggage and shoes went on the back patio to dry, some things got tossed, and I was sad to see 6 books - two manga of mine, 2 borrowed (signed) comic books, and 2 passports, were part of the waterlogged damage.
I ended up trashing two pairs of shoes, and some miscellaneous travel supplies (a travel kit from one of the trains or planes that Toby and I had been on). When the first load of laundry was done, Toby took it over to Alison's to use her dryer (the offer was much appreciated!), and I put in a second load of laundry. Anne arrived with the wet vac, and I put it together, and sent her out to the grocery store to get litter and un-sweet iced tea (for Toby), and a pizza from Little Ceasers. I was vacuuming when she came back with the food. She was unable to get litter because the roof of the supermarket had a leak, and that aisle had flooded.
We used the wet vac for several passes, but we discovered that it only was able to draw up the water that was on the surface, that is, in the carpet. It was the carpet pad, underneath, that was acting like a sponge. We made another pass, with Toby operating the wet vac, dragging it across the floor behind my foot, which I was using to press water out of the carpet pad. We finally gave up, and settled in to the fold-out sofa.
We came home Monday, August 3rd, and discovered water on half the floor of our garage. Our first thought was the water heater, situated in the back corner of the garage, next to the washing machine. Toby ran to check if but found it wasn't the culprit. The water, we quickly deduced, was coming from inside the house. We passed through the kitchen (dry) into the bedroom (carpet squishy), and discovered the tank to our toilet had cracked. The pump was working away, trying to fill the tank until the float ball reached the predetermined level, which of course,since all the water was leaking out the back and bottom of the tank, it never did.
Toby turned the water off on the toilet, and Anne and I quickly set about moving things from the floor of my bedroom and closet out into the kitchen/ dining room/ living room area. Toby disappeared while we were doing this, and I found out later that he was looking up our Homeowners Warranty Information and Insurance information, and making calls to both companies to find out what was the next step.
Anne went to Home Depot for us and bought a shop vac/ Wet vac, and I set to drying things that were on the floor, and doing laundry (the hamper was between the bathroom door and the closet door, and has a grid-type bottom. Water started being absorbed by clothes on the bottom of the hamper, and the damp had crept about halfway up the hamper-full by the time we got home. Luggage and shoes went on the back patio to dry, some things got tossed, and I was sad to see 6 books - two manga of mine, 2 borrowed (signed) comic books, and 2 passports, were part of the waterlogged damage.
I ended up trashing two pairs of shoes, and some miscellaneous travel supplies (a travel kit from one of the trains or planes that Toby and I had been on). When the first load of laundry was done, Toby took it over to Alison's to use her dryer (the offer was much appreciated!), and I put in a second load of laundry. Anne arrived with the wet vac, and I put it together, and sent her out to the grocery store to get litter and un-sweet iced tea (for Toby), and a pizza from Little Ceasers. I was vacuuming when she came back with the food. She was unable to get litter because the roof of the supermarket had a leak, and that aisle had flooded.
We used the wet vac for several passes, but we discovered that it only was able to draw up the water that was on the surface, that is, in the carpet. It was the carpet pad, underneath, that was acting like a sponge. We made another pass, with Toby operating the wet vac, dragging it across the floor behind my foot, which I was using to press water out of the carpet pad. We finally gave up, and settled in to the fold-out sofa.