The Water From Above

Let me start this story off right, with a small bit of history. Our first home in Vancouver, Washington: Two days after moving in the water line connected to the dishwasher springs a leak and floods the entire downstairs while we sleep. Our second house in Battle Ground, Washington: One month after we move in a heavy rain storm floods out the septic system and destroys all of the electronics. House number three, here in Kuna, Idaho: The seal in the master bath shower fails and over the course of several days the void below it fills with water and eventually destroys the downstairs ceiling.

That last part happened yesterday morning. Deb gets a call from the house cleaners, "Your ceiling is about to burst!" It turns into a mad rush to the house to shut off the water. Deb, the builder and I show up to a large swelling of water hanging from the ceiling in the sitting room. Water is dripping everywhere and the Sheetrock is heavy with fluid but it has not crashed down... yet. Ladder, buckets, wet-vac and some finesse and disaster is averted. The ceiling is toast. We discover that a broken pipe is not the cause, as we all originally thought; the seal in the shower has failed, and we are looking at the result of many days of water build up.

The photos do not do the mess justice. This will all need to be ripped out and replaced.

Couldn't have picked a more complicated ceiling destroy.

Wet carpet I can handle! This could have been much worse.

This morning a crew shows up and starts to rip out the water logged flooring.

Two days ago this was a shower.

Well, while we are at it lets rip out the entire master bath Travertine tile floor! Why? Because the floor is supposed to be heated, and due to a small break in the wire element somewhere, it has never heated up. The answer, rip it all out and start over.

Here is some of the rubble from the bathroom floor and shower. Note the wire in the upper left? It failed somewhere.

The supplies necessary to redo the master bathroom. The supplies for replacing the ceiling in the sitting room arrive tomorrow.

This job will take the rest of the week to complete. The house is already trashed with paper taped down to protect the floors from the master bath all the way to the garage. Two trailers are parked in the driveway; one for the tools and one for all of the waste being hauled out of the bathroom and sitting room. The garage is a warehouse for all of the supplies needed to complete the construction.

We'll get all of the bugs worked out someday. Until then there is something to blog about!