Water Damage Can of Worms

As you can see, it has been that kind of week.  You know, the ones that make you break your "dry" January and head straight for the liquor store.  And stop for cookies along the way.  Seriously.

On Sunday Morning I woke up to a luke warm shower.  Realizing something was up with our hot water tank as the pilot light was out we shut the gas off and the company that had installed the original unit was called.  As it was a non-emergency they came on Monday and changed the unit out.  Ahhhh we had hot water again and we were out $997 as the unit was exactly 10 years old (you can tell from the serial number and that was when our house was built).  Monday, we had the company who did our flooring (twice due to faulty flooring product the first time) come in to address some very minor buckling under the kitchen stove.   Then we discovered it wasn't a flooring issue, it was in fact a water issue.  Our insurance deductible for water damage is $2000 and insurance does not cover the hot water tank or the repair to the offending plumbing, only resulting damage.  At this point we think we will be under the deductible.  On the other side of the wall is the garage so either later today/tomorrow the plumber will show up and tell us where he thinks we need to cut holes in the garage drywall to find the leak so he can fix it.  Hubby and I will then pull out any wet insulation and see the full damage.  If it is limited to the amount of flooring we have pulled up in the kitchen we should be well under $2000.  If not we may need to open an insurance claim - and at that point we are still on the hook for the cost of the hot water tank, cost of the plumber to fix the pipe so costs of upwards of $3200 total.  We are hoping for the best.  I had budgeted $3000 in household maintenance/repairs this year - I didn't mean for us to spend it all in January.  

Ironically, most water damage is from hot water heaters but our hot water tank is two feet off the ground in the garage and there was no water loss - the damage we believe occurred before the tank died and is likely at a plumbing joint behind the water heater, or the plumber would have noticed.  

The final result means it will be likely 2 months before I will have the floor fixed.  At least 3 weeks drying time/get in line for installation/order new flooring.  Oh yeah, even though they still make the flooring because it is coming from a different lot it will possibly have a different sheen/look slightly different.  We can live with that - after talking to the original installer said who worse  case scenario he can put the one box of flooring we still have every other board to make it look like it was meant to be like that and unnoticeable. He is a good installer and installed the previous two floors.  He is a straight shooter, rough around the edges and he doesn't like talking to clients but after doing two floors at our house we trust him and know he knows what he is talking about.  All the salesman/owners were pushing us to go through insurance as then they refloor the entire house - not something I want to live through a 3rd time in 3 years.

On the upside (if there is one) is that there is zero damage under our big fridge.  Even with water meters it is dry as a bone and none of the floor there was damaged so it stays.  Only the kitchen and garage will be a war zone for while but the rest of our living space will fortunately remain intact.

So anyway, 72 hours in and we still don't know exactly where the leak is (the plumbers are backed up but for now it is not damaging anything else so we will wait for them) until tonight or tomorrow.  Oh yeah, we can't use the stove as need the floor to dry out there so will be back to bbqing, cooking things on the griddle and slow  cooking.  All this around one of the busiest months ever for our business that we operate out of our house.  Things are a little tense around here needless to say.  Moral of the story is even though we bought a newer house it is 10 years old and homes of any age can have issues.