HELP! First Home Crisis

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm a bit panicked so this might be more disjointed than usual.

I just finished playing upstairs and I was heading downstairs to get a snack. As I walk into the kitchen, I'm shocked to find that the ceiling is leaking quite a lot of water! After circling around the area for a bit in shock, I start thinking logically, and head upstairs to see if I can figure out the source of the leak. Apparently, one of my cats turned on the water in our upstairs bathroom sink. Also, apparently either my wife or I left the plunger thingie down in that sink. Needless to say, that sink was overflowing and who knows how long it had been doing so :( The sink doesn't have any water leaking underneath it, and there is not a significant amount of water on the floor, so I'm a bit mystified how water is getting from this sink to the part of the kitchen roof where it is leaking. Most of the leaking is coming from near an air conditioner vent over an island in our kitchen. The island and the stuff on it are very wet. I checked the hotwater heater in the attic and that doesn't appear to be leaking at all.

So, now I find myself facing a decision in the morning.

Do I:

1. Call a plumber as a pipe must be damaged and causing the leaking?

2. Call an AC guy as most (but not all) of the kitchen leaking is coming from around a vent?

3. Do nothing since most of the leaking has stopped since I've turned off the upstairs water. Ok, actually I wouldn't do nothing. I would make sure that the bathroom doors remain closed so that the cats don't do this again in the future. Actually this part applies to all options..

4. Do something else (please specify.)


Thanks.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, if I'm reading this right at this hour of the morning ...
-- you know where the water appears to have originated from, a fluky incident involving the bathroom sink overflowing
-- once you shut off the faucet, the leak slowed noticeably

My guess would be that the reason there's no water in the bathroom floor is that most of it found an escape route -- check along the baseboards in that room, check along the edges of the tub/shower, the bottom of the sink, etc.

Most likely, the water exited the room through some crevice, made it's way into the area between the two floors, then either found its way into the ductwork for the AC or isn't actually coming from the duct into the kitchen but rather from around the duct that vents into the kitchen.

Biggest worries that I see would be about where that water went (since it wasn't in the bathroom & it didn't magically vanish), what path it traveled & how much damage if any it caused to whatever was along the way. I'd be particularly concerned about whatever material is around that AC vent (sheetrock? Celotex tiles? whatever), that's probably the most likely place you'll have noticeable damage if there is any.

My advice would be to try to figure out a little more of what's likely to have been affected & then figure out who to call (if anybody) based on that. At this point, if you've stopped the source of the water, then this sounds like it will keep until morning.

Good luck.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ok, there is quite a bit of moisture along the one baseboard by the bottom of the sink. It appears that the water traveled there and flowed through the ceiling and then to the kitchen vent, and looking closer, most of the water appears to be leaking from around the vent. What is worrysome is that a bit of water is actually leaking from the ceiling itself, dripping through the material of the ceiling (sheetrock.) So, I think it might not be a pipe problem, but it is more of a matter of how much damage is done to the ceiling. Right now it just looks very wet around the vent and there is no more dripping that I can see. It slowed down by a vast amount once I drained the sink.

So, I guess I make sure I get up early in the morning and re-assess. Right now, I'm leaning towards no need for a plumber, but I might need someone to assess the ceiling if it looks damaged in the morning.

However, I'd certainly love to hear any other people's thoughts.

This was much too much like the nightmare I had a month or so ago where my ceiling started caving in on me.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -


I've been repeatedly re-assessing the rest of the house over the last 20 or 30 minutes since I discovered this to see if there was any other damage anywhere else. I just heard a noice that sounded sort of like a dripping from the computer room which freaked me out. Turns out that it was a reverberation from the other hallway where one of the cats was using the litter. I love my cats, and I don't blame them for this, but that was really the wrong time for him to be using the litter ;)

Re-assessing the damage, it doesn't look like that much water dripped down. It is hard to say since the water is spread out around the big vent, but I'd guess it is only a cup or two that has fallen. It's almost stopped now. Still, I'm really worried that their might be ceiling damage particularly at the one spot where water is actually dripping through the ceiling itself. :(

[yabanci]

4. Do something else (please specify.)


kill the damn cat?

[sovereignstar]

Is your cat named Mr. Jinks?

[Pyser]

id wipe up what you can, and go to sleep. let mother nature take care of most of the water, and then check the damage in the light of tomorrow.

if it looks bad, call someone. but id bet things are ok, and its not likely that this would happen again. its not like the water came from rain :)

good luck!

[albionmoonlight]

You live in Louisiana, which suggests two things to me (both of which you probably already know).

1.) Mold can be an issue. Depending on how ventilated the parts are that got soaked (sheetrock, etc.), they may not dry out and may quickly become moldy. Then you have all sorts of problems. I, unfortunately, don't really know anything about preventing mold, other than that you should.

2.) Assuming that there is some semi-significant to significant damage, I would still hesitate to make a claim on your homeowner's policy. From what I can tell post-Katrina, insurers are looking for reasons to drop people in Louisiana right now.

Good luck.

[Castlerock]

Wait and see how it dries. I had a pipe freeze and burst a couple of years ago on the 3rd floor. I woke up to the sound of rain. Many, many gallons of water. It was raining out of the ceiling in the living room. Water was running like hose out of a light fixture in the kitchen. Water pouring through the microwave. After cleanup, the actual damage was water stains on the ceiling. Nothing else. Even the hardwood floors which were "cupped" for a few days, flattened out on their own. House was built in 1809 so I didn't have things like sheetrock but don't freak out.

[Arctus]

I think your only real issue at this point is mold. My wife and I had a mold issue in our house a while back. We had some work done on our air conditioner. It wasn't sealed properly and we got mold in our ductwork. Please keep in mind that my situation is much different than yours in that we had a moisture problem for an extended period of time.

Its pointless to try to kill mold until the source of the moisture is eliminated. It seems like you have already solved this problem.

We solved our problem by first properly sealing our air conditioner. Then we removed all of our vent covers and sprayed a mixture of TSP and bleach into the vents (using a spray bottle). This solved all of our problems.

If you have significant water stains on your kitchen ceiling, you may want to go ahead and cut a square of the drywall out and use a hairdryer to dry things out. This is probably not really necessary though.

Your incident seems pretty minor, there is probably no need to go on a mold crusade. Just be aware of any musty smells in the house at times that you run your AC. This is what eventually tipped us off to our problem.

[Grammaticus]

Sounds like the water ran down between the baseboard and floor, maybe dripped down on an AC air flow hose and ran down to the ceiling vent over the kitchen. Where is soaked through the dry wall. If you are worried about a pipe, call a plumber. It won't cost that much for him/her to tell you if everything is okay. Then you will rest easy. I guess your bathroom sinks do not have overflow drains, that is too bad.

Whew, good thing you didn't have NCAA 07 yet or you would have never taken a break!

[Maple Leafs]

As someone dealing with my own water issue right now (described here (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=50736)), I'll give you some additional advice about mold: don't bother looking online for information.

To save you time, I'll summarize every web site with mold information:
- If you have ever had water or any other type of moisture in any part of your home, you have a mold problem.
- It's deadly black mold, and it has spread everywhere. It watches your children while they sleep.
- The only way to get rid of it is to rip out walls and floors, pile it all on a truck, drive it onto an ice flow and set it on fire
- Luckily, we're willing to do this for you. Please call today to book an appointment!

[Maple Leafs]

Dola.

On a serious note, if you're worried about a leaky pipe -- why not turn off all the water in the house, check your water meter, then see if it's changed a half hour later?

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm not worried about a leaky pipe anymore. There is no sign of further water leakage and it seems highly likely that the overflowing sink was the culprit. Most of the ceiling is completely dried and looks absolutely normal. However, there is a bit of a crack in the paint and perhaps deeper where I saw the water actually dripping through the roof. That looks like it will probably need to be repaired at some point. My biggest concern at this point (as others have mentioned) is will mold become a problem? I'm going to watch very closely to see if I need to start tearing out the ceiling and have it sent to an iceflow and set on fire ;)

[revrew]

Regarding mold...

I worked for a time as a contractor for insurance companies when a home was damaged by water or fire. There are different kinds and degrees of mold...the "black mold" that is so feared and spoken of in awe is different from mildew, which on sheetrock is, in fact, black, but is merely mildew. Mildew can be a problem, especially in ceiling sheetrock.

If you have no sightline access to the space above the ceiling (so you don't really know what's going on up there) and don't want to replace the sheetrock, but some discoloring or mildew is visible, your first line of defense would be a stain and mildew sealer. I highly recommend Zinsser's B.I.N. product, which is alcohol based and effective at stopping mildew discoloration. It's basically a primer that you use to cover and contain your discoloration, then paint over it. Unlike the more common KILZ product, BIN can be painted over with latex or oil paint, is more effective against mildew, and--because it's alcohol-based--requires the applyer to have heavy ventilation and/or a painter's gas mask. The fumes can make you pretty loopy--I know.

The dreaded "black mold" requires more serious measures.

[Eaglesfan27]

Regarding mold...

I worked for a time as a contractor for insurance companies when a home was damaged by water or fire. There are different kinds and degrees of mold...the "black mold" that is so feared and spoken of in awe is different from mildew, which on sheetrock is, in fact, black, but is merely mildew. Mildew can be a problem, especially in ceiling sheetrock.

If you have no sightline access to the space above the ceiling (so you don't really know what's going on up there) and don't want to replace the sheetrock, but some discoloring or mildew is visible, your first line of defense would be a stain and mildew sealer. I highly recommend Zinsser's B.I.N. product, which is alcohol based and effective at stopping mildew discoloration. It's basically a primer that you use to cover and contain your discoloration, then paint over it. Unlike the more common KILZ product, BIN can be painted over with latex or oil paint, is more effective against mildew, and--because it's alcohol-based--requires the applyer to have heavy ventilation and/or a painter's gas mask. The fumes can make you pretty loopy--I know.

The dreaded "black mold" requires more serious measures.

Thanks to you and everyone else for the info and replies. Also, I definitely agree about not using my home owner's insurance if this requires more serious repairs, given the propensity of insurance companies to drop people in Louisiana right now. I doubt/hope this won't cost as much as my deductible to fix anyway if I do have to call in professionals (deductible is 2,500.)

[Eaglesfan27]

This isn't another big home crisis, but it is another "kill the cat" moment.. I really love my cats, but sometimes they upset me so much (even though I know this wasn't their fault.)

I just went downstairs a few minutes ago to mix up a drink or two for the game. So, I'm walking out of the kitchen with a large glass in my hand filled with a decent amount of vodka, Kaluha, and milk (hey I'm not ashamed to say I like White Russians.) Anyway, next thing I know my feet go sliding out from under me, I land on my hard wood floor hard on my back, and I have spilled vodka all around me.

I'm hurting and trying to figure out WTF just happened. I get up after a minute, and it turns out one of my cats threw up all over the hard wood floor in the living room. I'm not sure how I missed seeing it or stepping in it my first few times through the living room. Regardless, I then had to proceed to change my clothes, clean up the spilled beverage, and then clean up the cat vomit. The cats both smartly went into hiding after I fell.

[Runtheball]

That was good for a laugh!

[st.cronin]

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/3061/dsc01949pj4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Rizon]

My best advice to you is to get rid of the cats.

And then:

Call a plumber
Cut out and patch all the wet wood (it's GOT to come out, or you'll regret it later)

How long ago did you get your house? (I forget) Seems like a potential problem like that (if the sink didn't overflow) should have been found during a home inspection. Were the buying and selling agents from the same office?

[WSUCougar]

Ah, ye olde "Stepping in Yon Cat Gack" scenario. Just stepped in some Sunday morning. Nothing says how-do-you-do like a footful of feline vomit.

[Maple Leafs]

See, my cat is considerate enough to hide that stuff where we won't find it for months.

[Ksyrup]

http://www.pineapple-girl.com/images/helmet.jpg

[RPI-Fan]

The cat doesn't have thumbs!