We got a call from our landlord while we were in PA visiting family for the 4th of July weekend. He told us that our neighbor had called him because the smoke detectors in the house were going off while we were out of town. When he went by in the middle of the night to check it out, there was water on all three floors of the house, flowing through the light fixtures and smoke alarms. Come to find out that the plastic pump piece in the toilet tank in our 2nd floor bathroom had a "pretty good crack" (the plumber's words) and started leaking water onto the floor sometime after we left. It could have been leaking for up to 24-36 hours all the way down into the basement before our neighbor heard the alarms and called the landlord.So they had a restoration company come in right away with their huge gale force wind fans, industrial dehumidifers, etc. We decided not to come home earlier than planned from our travels because we would not have been able to stay in the house for the first few days anyway. Scott had a friend come over to move some items he knew of that could have been wet (thanks, Steve!). Other than that, we didn't really know what would be damaged when we got home.
When we did arrive, the place was a mess with every piece of furniture moved, carpet and linoleum pulled up, closets emptied, fans, dehumidifiers, and the AC running non-stop, and one broken toilet. The restoration company came by daily for about 10 days to check the moisture in the walls and remove a fan or two in areas that had dried so work schedules had to be rearranged around that. A plumber had to come to replace the toilet guts (in both toilets according to the insurance), and the landlord's insurance adjuster came to assess the damage to the house. Nearly four weeks later, we are gearing up for the repairs to be completed this week, mostly addressing the flooring, carpeting, and drywall. Thankfully, we had almost no damage to our things- luckily the water was focused in the center of the house where there just happens to not be much in the way of furniture on either floor, and the part of the basement we don't really use just happens to be below that area (lucky!). The downside is that we've been stuck with a partially functional house for the month, especially since we have limited control over the speed of the insurance and repair efforts of a rental. We needed to move all the bathroom stuff out of the upstairs bathroom and into our secondary bathroom (which thankfully is a full bath so we can get showers), and were sleeping in sleeper sofa because our heavy wooden bed is shoved in a corner up against the wall. I put away most things that were out or moved during the drying process away for the repairs since everything has to be moved for the carpeting (unfortunately, after all that we are not getting new carpets) and the drywall will be messy. While the inconvenience has not been fun, it could have been significantly worse.
If you're reading this, I highly recommend that you shut off the water to your house when you leave for an extended period of time. We literally do everything else to "prepare" to leave, but will now be adding that to our list. We are away only a couple weeks out of the year when we are visiting family, and of course the toilet breaks during one of those trips. Now taking bets for how much higher my water and electric bills will be this month. Life experience!
The offending toilet and ruined linoleum
Punched some holes in the kitchen wall to help it dry
Update: Water bill for July was the same as usual, but the electric bill was $150 more than June.
Update: Water bill for July was the same as usual, but the electric bill was $150 more than June.
