Wednesday, January 25, 2017

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.   

30 comments:

  1. Oh dear, what a complicated mess. Time for a "wet" January and cookie time may be in order. You definitely did not want to spend your whole $3,000 yearly budget in the first month!

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    1. You are right about that! I will have to do some downward adjusting in other categories where there is wiggle room to keep on budget :(

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  2. Oh gosh.....after replacing your kitchen floor twice already.
    So sorry this is happening.

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  3. Sorry to hear this but at least you have Greece to look forward to.

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    1. Yes, the exact reason why it is good to have things to look forward to! I keep reminding myself nobody died and this will not break us financially. My new mantra

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  4. Sorry you have to deal again with the floor and ouch, financially.

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    1. Thanks Sam. It could be far worse, we are actually thankful that most of the floor can be saved. Now to find the leak

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  5. Oh my! When it rains and all that. Surely this will be the last time you have to have something done to the kitchen floor. Fingers crossed and hoping for the best once you find the cause of the damage.

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    1. If things come in threes then this is the third floor maybe?

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  6. ouch. I was talking about appliance with a friend it seem like they don't hold up like they use to.
    Been lucky so far but our dishwasher went out in about a year...
    Hope all works out...can you take off any of your taxes?

    Coffee is on

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    1. They definitely don't last like they used to. I thought our washer/dryer would go first and expected another year or two out of the hot water tank

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  7. I'm so sorry this happened to you brand new floor! Being a homeowner is not for wimps. We recently had some bad storms which awoke a leak in our roof causing a big stain on the kitchen ceiling. The previous owner rented this place out. He did a lot of DIY work, including the roof. We also recently discovered he painted the bottom of our tub. It started peeling last week revealing black scratches under the paint. We will have to remove all the paint and cover the bottom of the tub with an adhesive mat until we can afford to replace the tub with a walk in shower. It's always something.

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  8. We have a leak in our system somewhere as before we switch heating or hot water on we have to re-pressurise the system. We had a new boiler and new rads fitted when we did our extension in 2015. According to boiler people it's not the boiler leaking so we then paid £500 for thermal imaging with no leak found but the problem still persists. We have new tiled flooring all through so don't fancy having to dig it up lol. There is something to be said for downsizing to a smaller property with simpler management and it will happen in a few years. Good luck with finding your leak.

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    1. Very strange with your boiler. I am actually glad our leak happened on this wall, if we can find it the repair will be much easier as we can go through the garage wall and not tear any kitchen wall out, only the bit of flooring. Fingers crossed.

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  9. Oh, crap! I hope there are no more surprises. This is more like living poor on the expensive.

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    1. That's funny! Let's hope the expensive part ends soon

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  10. Oh man what a headache! all at the same time too! I wish all your house woes end right now and that you won't have any issues with the house this year.
    Your floor was so beautiful! So take a deep breath, pour yourself a glass ,grab a cookie and hang in there!

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  11. How awful for you. I am so very sorry that you have to endure this. Definitely time to add a bottle of wine to the dinner menu this week.

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  12. Wow, the stress that brings is nasty. I see wine in your future...

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    1. Yes stressful, also tired of waiting on other people, want to get in their and rip out the wall myself but the plumber suggested waiting until they get here to give us some guidance.

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  13. Feeling your pain! You have had more than your fair share of flooring woes. I'm glad it isn't weather related with all the precipitation you get out there. Weirdly we have had oodles of rain this month and I keep checking the floor in the basement just in case. Hope you can find the problem REALLY SOON and repairs can move forward.

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    1. When we lived in Alberta the first house hubby and I owned together was built in 1967 and had seepage issues in the basement...we spent a lot of money fixing that issue. Glad you haven't seen any of that

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  14. We had a similar problem but it was a leaking hose on our ice maker for our fridge. When we got a new fridge since the old one was 23 years old we did not hook up the ice maker. We damaged the kitchen floor, sheetrock and the garage ceiling. We used our insurance because it was a large amount but they responded by raising our rates. Oh well at least it got fixed.

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  15. Well we thought it might be that too. The plumber was here yesterday, we cut small holes all down the wall. Not a plumbing issue but the plumber was great and we think it is a roof problem based on where the water is coming in. We have a roofer coming today. Once we find out the scope of damage we can determine if we are opening a claim. It would have to go over $2200 for repairs (to damage, not to roof as they won't cover that) for us to open a claim though

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  16. OH, the joys of home-ownership!!
    I would like to say that 2017 will only get better from here, but I definitely don't want to Jinx You!! Just be glad you are well-planned enough to have some kind of a 'contingency'!!
    GOOD LUCK!!

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    1. A condo is looking pretty good right now but we want to stay at least 10 more years here. I hate rules and condos come with them :)

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  17. Water damage is sometimes hard to trace. One time it was the line going to our fridge to the ice machine inside. It was a slow drip and finally worked it's way to the wood flooring out in front where we could see it. We had a parquet floor so all the tiles had the little strips of wood curling up. They were so old they couldn't be matched so we had to redo everything. I went to tile just in case. - Margy

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