Well, they guy we hired to do the flooring and stairs finished up last week, just in time for SLW to head to LAX for a week to celebrate her oldest son's birthday. I picked her up at the airport this afternoon, and we got back here around 1730. A little before 1800 I went out to the garage and noticed water on the floor. And it was coming from a drywall seam in the dropped ceiling....never a good sign, as the ceiling is dropped here for pipe access to the upstairs bathrooms. I ran out and grabbed a bucket, shut the water off to the two upstairs toilets, and knocked a hole in the drywall to let it drain.
I noticed the drywall was soggy for quite a few inches along the seam, so, since it all has to come out, I opened it up some more to see what's up there.
RATS! It's packed full of (now very soggy) fiberglass batts for insulation, since the garage isn't heated, and would be a huge heat loss through the floor.
Since it was now open and drained, I then turned on the water to one toilet, flushed it twice, shut the water back off, and went down to look. The wife's toilet didn't cause any new water to appear, so I went back upstairs, turned the water back on for the toilet in the master bedroom, flushed it twice, turned the water off, and went back down.
Yep, water was now running out, confirming it's that one particular toilet.
SLW called #1 Sone who's a cracker-jack Home Improvement guy (way better than Tim, and equal to Al), and the first thing he asked was whether the flooring guy had "doubled up" on the wax sealing rings for the toilets. I know he put new ones in, but only used a single sealing ring.
Since the new flooring is 7.6mm thick, and the underlayment is 1.4mm thick, it means the toilets are now 9mm (.35") higher than they were before. #1 Son says that's more than the rings can accommodate, so now I have to get a plumber out here tomorrow to redo the rings, and make sure everything else is up-to-snuff.
Yeah, I know, it's a First World Problem, and when I think of all the people that don't have indoor plumbing, I'm grateful (in a way...) to have these "problems".
Bummer!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the flooring guy did his best, but I don't think he has experience with this kind of "subtle" change.
DeleteHomeownership - no end of maintenance items it seems. But, as you say, we could be living in grass huts somewhere.
ReplyDeleteLat Spring we had the big tree limb come down, and this year it's a plumbing issue. As long as stuff like this only happens once a year, I can live with it...
DeleteAnd you're gonna be ripping out ceiling and replacing all the soggy glass, otherwise you'll end up with black mold!
ReplyDeleteWe had him check both upstairs toilets, and both were improperly done. He's coming back tomorrow to check/repair the two downstairs ones. I tore all the soggy drywall and insulation bats out of the garage, and put a BMF fan blowing on it. The plumber said it's good we got on it so fast, as the wood hadn't soaked up any water. It ran down the outside of the drain pipe, and then dripped onto the drywall ceiling in the garage. He gave us a reference to a good drywall guy, and he'll come to knock out the rest, and then replace the insulation and drywall.
DeleteWater always finds a way. I have a leak in my roof that comes at certain times depending on which way the rain is being blown. I've had many repairs and even ended up paying for a new roof. I thought it had been cured but then a few weeks ago it started dripping in two bedrooms as before. Right over the place you put your weary head.
ReplyDeleteIt sure does! We dodged a big one on this. The water ran down the outside of the pipe, and then dripped off into the ceiling of the garage. No major damage, but a major PITA!
ReplyDelete