Should It Be Raining Inside?
This Saturday, we were out at Knott’s Berry Farm with our friend Greg when we got the call. It took us nearly an hour and a half to get back home, and by the time we did it was far too late to do anything about it.
Our upstairs neighbor got home at about the same time we did, in time to turn the valve off on his air conditioner’s water supply. See, our entire building shares a centralized, recirculating, pressurized water supply for each air conditioner, powered by a giant tank on the roof. Our neighbor’s water supply hose came loose, emptying the entire contents of the system onto his floor and, subsequently, into our unit!
Here’s what makes this worse: The water wasn’t really water, it was a water/antifreeze mixture. Also, as soon as the system detected a low water level inside the tank on the roof, it proceeded to refill it. I’d estimate there was as much as several thousand gallons of fluid lost before our upstairs neighbor got home and shut off his valve.
We immediately called a water remediation company, who has already removed all of our flooring. Most of the walls will also have to be removed because they’re made of plaster and can’t be sufficiently dried. They’re moving all of our stuff out, and we’re living in a hotel!
We’ve got really good insurance, and so does our neighbor upstairs, so we’re not really worried about who takes care of what. Right now, we just need to make sure it dries out before mold sets in.
For pictures of the carnage, go to our SmugMug gallery.
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