What's the probability of a water leak causing subfloor damage?
Ryan Kelly
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
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_sophiewheeler
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Neighbour's boiler leak caused ceiling damage
Comments (4)Hi, I live in a condo which is an 8 unit building with people next to us and above us. Few days back our upstairs neighbour's boiler leaked and we had lot of water leaking from the ceiling of our kitchen and damaged part of our ceiling. The neighbour got their boiler fixed and the leak stopped. They were very nice to accept their responsibility and made an insurance claim. The problem is that their insurance is offering us only $500 whereas the work to fix the ceiling would cost more than $2000 as appraised by an appraiser. We don't have insurance and are now in a fix as to what needs to be done. If we proceed legally can we get them to pay the remaining amount? Any advice will be very much appreciated. Thanks...See MoreWater damage from leak
Comments (3)You should also have a mold assessment done by someone who is IMPARTIAL. That means the assessor does the inspection and reports his findings and recommendations, but does not do the recommended remediation because that would be a conflict of interest. Mold remediation can be costly and disruptive. But in your case, since the problem apparently originated recently, with the water leak, it should be possible to correct without too much fuss. The assessment consists of visual inspections ( and sniffing) and also taking air samples and having them tested in a lab. The remediation consists of wiping all surfaces suspected of harboring mold and having airscrubbers run for a few hours or a couple of days, depending on the extent of the problem. The airscrubbers are essentially very large vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters that blow the vacuumed air out to the outdoors. You should also make sure that none of the leaked water got into the AC ducts, because that would definitely harbor mold, and then you would also need to have the ducts cleaned out. I had the misfortune of having this kind of problem in our home last year. It was costly to fix and very inconvenient. Not fun....See MoreDamaged ceiling from water leak 2 weeks after moving in:(
Comments (7)This is late, but I wanted to say I had a similar experience a few weeks after we moved into our new home. In our case, a brown water spot showed up on the dining room ceiling, right under the master bath. Naturally assumed it to be leaking pipes in the bathroom, but surprise surprise, it turned out to be a leaking plumbing vent pipe's boot on the roof of the house, over the master bath. (Of course that was not known or realized until the dining room ceiling was opened up by the plumber in four places seeking a leaking pipe!) The rain water found a path through the roof, down the exterior wall, bypassing the master bath ceiling, and then it hooked to the left and emptied into the dining room ceiling. Those details aren't my point here - I'm just saying these water leak sources can be tricky to locate. And yes, the people who sold the house to us were well aware of the problem and had shoved foam rubber into the vent pipe's boot from the attic in a feeble and irresponsible attempt to remedy the problem. $150 for a roofer to fix that boot would have prevented costlier damage that we paid for. $500 insurance deductible meant we paid the entire $480 repairs out of pocket ($150 to fix the boot and the balance to fix the dining room ceiling that never should have had to been torn up!!). And yes, we too had paid an inspector good money to look things over prior to purchase but he didn't see this at all. By the way, that was just the beginning of my roof vent pipe boot failures - a second one failed soon after, filling a bathroom light fixture with water - just like on the 3 Stooges episodes!! We ended up replacing all of the boots even though the house was just 7 years old. I hope you didn't get too discouraged - I find that home ownership is a roller coaster ride of good times and costly repair times! Overall though, you'll probably make money off of the investment in your home in the long run. Godspeed to you....See MoreWhat caused the water damage to the bathroom ceiling?
Comments (11)We've closed down that bathroom--I think actually it hasn't been used since the 16th, when I took those pics. I'm going to pressure DH to go ask the upstairs neighbor to run her shower for a while (I want to mark the edges of some of the bubbles, so we can compare). A few points people raised-- ⢠shower organizer hanging off the shower head--Our showerhead is on the opposite (non-bubbling) wall. ⢠tub spout--no tub. These are both stall showers. But to speak to the similar issue of moisture going through a uncaulked hole for a pipe--all the pipes are in the opposite wall, I'm certain. ⢠fan / ventilation: there isn't one; there's a window, which usually isn't opened during a shower. We can change that. (It's just that we've run showers in there for this long before, often, and this is a pretty sudden arrival. And he doesn't shower daily--more like weekly. (I know, I know.) ) â¢I really don't want to change the shower curtain to allow steam to escape around the edges--that's what's keeping The Kid from flooding out the guy downstairs w/ water that gets outside the shower enclosure. ⢠kind of paint: It's a latex made for bathrooms....See MoreSammy
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRyan Kelly
5 years agohandymac
5 years agoJenn TheCaLLisComingFromInsideTheHouse
5 years agoci_lantro
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSJ McCarthy
5 years agoRyan Kelly
5 years ago_sophiewheeler
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSJ McCarthy
5 years agoMichael
5 years ago
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Ryan KellyOriginal Author