My brother woke up and found wet carpet in his room (he is staying in our downstairs room). We looked around and found discoloration of the wall near the carpeting in the room, as well as discoloration of the grout surrounding the tile near that wall in the hallway. On the outside, I remained quite calm, but inside I was freaking out! I was worried that there was a leak in the foundation. We had some strong rain that morning, and the leak seemed to be coming UP from the floorboards, not DOWN along the walls. YIKES!
I ran around looking for builder people to harass. Unfortunately, the guys that usually take care of us didn't seem to be around. Thank goodness I had the phone number of some important person in my phone, called and left a message. Unfortunately (again), it was the Friday before Christmas and a bunch of people took the day off, including that guy. BUT fortunately for me, one of the VPs of the company was covering for him AND lives in the neighborhood. In fact, in a house with the same floor plan! He was great. He grabbed a ladder and went up into the attic to crawl around to see if there was a leak in the roof that was dripping down the AC duct (which is right next to the leaky wall). Surprisingly, the roof seemed all dry (but he managed to remove some garbage that construction folks left in our attic). He then went down to stare at the wall some more and we discovered another wet spot along roof of that wall. Whew, he was relieved as this suggests that there may be a leaky pipe in the walls, NOT defective foundation. Since the walls were all wet, he went ahead and started cutting into our walls to look for the pipe. And here are the results of his investigation:
2 big holes in the ceiling of my downstairs hallway
And here's the leaky culprit!
He quickly called the plumber and got them to come over by 1pm. The plumber quickly finished the leak and went on his way. Then the "restoration" guy came to clean up the mess and start drying out the walls and carpet. Apparently, there is a company that the builders hire that take care of this type of mess--they clean it up, patch it up, and restore it back to the way it was. Whew!
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So the restoration guy is cutting out all the "bad" parts of the walls and ceilings. As he cut into the ceiling, he cut some more out, and boom! All this water came pouring down his face. Turns out there was ANOTHER leaky pipe right next to the first one. He kept cutting and taking care of his business, and I ran around looking for the VP to tell him the bad news (and to get the plumber to come back!). Couldn't find him anywhere, so I ended up going to his house and knocking on his door. Boy, I felt very intrusive. But he was cool about it.... I asked him how many people had bugged him at home since he lived right here (He moved in over a year ago). He said before me, only 2 (but one was some annoying guy who kept asking him about security). Ooops! Ha ha ha...
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(By the way, I talked to one of the sales agents about our problem and she said we were really lucky that the VP guy was there to help out. She says he's one of the few who know the houses well inside and out. I guess that's something to be thankful for, huh?)
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Anyways, so here are the final results of the day:
Check out how much has been cut off! He left 2 fans and a Air Scrubber to be on 24/7 until he comes back on Tuesday! TUESDAY! The day after Christmas! Yes, lucky us get to have super annoying fans making a racket in our home for Christmas weekend. Sheesh.
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Hallway wall and ceiling
(with a plastic sheeting separating this area from the rest of the house)
Close-up of Leak #2
Inside the hallway closet (with a big fan)
Hallway floor (with a Air Scrubber, aka gigantic air purifier)
Bedroom floor with a fan drying out the carpeting and wall
Anyways, the plumber came back and fixed our second leak. He said it was a bit surprising because the two leaks were right side by side and in different pipelines (one hot, the other cold). He said that some people at his company are sure going to get in trouble. They keep a log of who works on what part of which house at what time at all times. Dang, I hope whoever screwed my house up gets in big BIG trouble....
Another positive outlook is thank goodness this happened sooner rather than later, so it's still covered under the builders' warranty!
Besides that, we had a nice 10 course banquet meal at a great Chinese restaurant, China Max Seafood, this evening with family. Yum!
Another positive outlook is thank goodness this happened sooner rather than later, so it's still covered under the builders' warranty!
Besides that, we had a nice 10 course banquet meal at a great Chinese restaurant, China Max Seafood, this evening with family. Yum!
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