Flood update

It’s been a rough week.  The water damage specialists came in and cut chunks of drywall out of my ceiling in the basement.  They put big blowers and de-humidifiers in the basement and kitchen to help dry things out.  Maybe I’ll post some pictures of the mess this weekend.  Hopefully they can get the flooring dry in the kitchen.  Yesterday they noticed that the current vinyl and underlayment were put on top of an old layer of vinyl and underlayment.  That dual layer is making it difficult to get all the moisture out. 

The one water damage guy is a real tool.  On the first day, he was ripping off the baseboard in the kitchen, and I really wanted to tell him to “Say no to crack.”  It reminded me of that old SNL skit with Dan Akroyd repairing a refrigerator.  This guy needed some Man Show Crack Spackle.  I pointed it out to Holly, but she refused to look.  If only I had a quarter… Also that first night, he just kept talking and going on about all their qualifications and jobs they’ve done before; typical salesman stuff.  He told me about how much fun he has with this job because he gets to tear up people’s houses.  He also mentioned that they teach them in water damage school how they need to be careful with their customers because some people are so traumatized by water damage, that it’s like a death in the family.  I couldn’t help but thinking, “Why are you telling me all this?  Less talk, more work!”  This guy is probably only a couple of years older than me, but yet every time he leaves, he says “Take it easy, young fella.”  Who says that anyway? 

I’m sleeping a little better now because yesterday we figured out the root cause of the flood.  It turns out that the valve on the dishwasher requires 20–120psi to operate properly.  When I shut the water off, there was very little or no pressure, so I essentially had an open valve on the dishwasher.  Everything would have been fine if the water main was actually off, but it turns out that the valve on my water main is not fully sealed and water was still coming into the house, albeit, at a fairly slow rate.  It found it’s way up the opening in the dishwasher and over the course of the weekend, filled up, and overflowed.  So I need to get a new valve on the water main.  For my peace of mind, I’ll probably just keep the old one on, and have a new one installed, so that I have two shut-offs.  I never want this to happen again.