Help some water damage

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Newaryon

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The recent weather in NY has caused me some water damage. Trying to decide what needs to be done.

The house is a 1960's split level. The damage is in the foyer and half bath that is at ground level. Some water seemed to be pooling up from below the floor and seeping in around the floor tiles there.

At first I wasn't sure where it was coming from. I was worried there might be a crack in the foundation, or that it was coming in under the sliding door to the back yard.

Right next to this area is a part of the house that includes a basement. The basement has a sump pump. The first thing I did was to get a plumber to examine the pipes and pump and he found a problem there. It seems likely that the pump was not operating properly and some water was spraying out of the pipes inside the house, which then soaked the basement wall and the ceiling and therefore the floor above. I fixed this and the leaking has stopped, but that area was drenched and I can see and smell mold.

What are the steps I need to take to repair this type of a problem? I am thinking I probably need to tear up that floor and completely redo that bathroom.
 
First thing to do is call your homeowners insurance agent. Many policies don't cover groundwater seepage, but they will pay for damage caused by plumbing leaks. Technically speaking, your sump pump and outfall are classified as plumbing features (a plumber made the repairs, yes?), and therefore could be (should be) covered. I received a very nice check from State Farm when one of my pipes burst and did several thousand dollars' worth of damage.

Let us know if your agent doesn't agree, and we'll give you some suggestions on where to start making things right yourself.
 
I'd also call an exterminator. They can spray a boron soloution to kill that mold.
Is this a crawl space? There should be a layer of 6 mil. plactic down on the ground under the whole house.
 
Can you provide us picture of the affected era(s)?.. Maybe we can have a better idea if your insurance doesn't work out.

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Okay I attached this rough sketch I drew of the area. The gray area is the basement. The tan area is a ground level foyer that is higher than the basement and to the side. The water damaged area in green includes the half bath and part of the foyer by a sliding door to the backyard.

I am pretty sure now it was the malfunctioning sump pump which caused the problem. Looks like the pipes that empty the sump were getting clogged or overflowing and the water exploded up and to the right, drenching the floor of the foyer and bathroom on the level above.

Now that the sump pump was replaced, we haven't gotten any new leaking and the floor is slowly drying out.

The wall of that bathroom is totally rotten and the advice I have gotten is to tear it all out and rebuild with new drywall. I can see some mold on the beams in that area. Some kind of mold-killing treatment sounds like a good idea. One company said I needed a dehumidifier in the basement to get moisture out of the air down there.

The floor is old asbestos tile and while it isn't rotting from the wet surely getting it replaced with some new mold moisture-resistant product should be part of the program.

Insurance company said to get them estimates... I do think it will turn out some part of this will be covered.

basement.jpg
 
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Okay here are some pictures I took back when all of this started after Tropical Storm Irene passed through. This has all dried up now and the smell has pretty much gone away.

I see some mold in the basement on wood on that wall near the sump pump but it doesn't look too bad. I am afraid of what might be inside the walls. From the bathroom I can see light in the basement where the drywall is completely rotted through.

watersump.jpg

waterbath.jpg

waterback.jpg
 
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How bad is the mold really?... The green in the picture is water damage or mold
So your saying totally new bathroom which I can understand
Rip it all out then let it air out with dehumitifirer and maybe air recycling machine.

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I'd also call an exterminator. They can spray a boron soloution to kill that mold.
Is this a crawl space? There should be a layer of 6 mil. plactic down on the ground under the whole house.

You don't need to just kill the mold. Dead mold spores can still and will cause allergic reactions just like the living stuff. Killing it isn't enough to remove the problem. If its topical mold then you need to obviously clean it off, but if its a deeper issue, some of the affected sections may need to be replaced. I would call a mold inspector to give you more accurate feed back and to let you know how serious the issue is, and what it will take to clean it up.
 
SnellExperts said:
You don't need to just kill the mold. Dead mold spores can still and will cause allergic reactions just like the living stuff. Killing it isn't enough to remove the problem. If its topical mold then you need to obviously clean it off, but if its a deeper issue, some of the affected sections may need to be replaced. I would call a mold inspector to give you more accurate feed back and to let you know how serious the issue is, and what it will take to clean it up.

If the wall in the bathroom is rotted out then most of the wood is no good if not all the wood that holds the bathroom together will need to be done. Mold is no joke it's one thing to just replace x amount of sheet rock but wood?....

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Looks like someone used a bunch of patched together differant types of pipes to run that sump pump and also steped it down from the port size on the output side of the pump. It should have been run with all the same size pipe from pump to outside with just a check valve in line to stop back flow.
How far from the foundation is the piping run outside from the foundation?
If it's being dump just outside the foundation it's going to leak right back in.
That whole wall and floor needs to come out in that bathroom, all the mold killed.
How far is it from a soild surface IE: deck, stoop, step) from that door threshold? It needs to be a min. of 4" below it or water will get in under that door and take out the flooring, oh I see it already has. I'd be that door also was not set in a sill pan to stop water from getting in.
 
If the wall in the bathroom is rotted out then most of the wood is no good if not all the wood that holds the bathroom together will need to be done. Mold is no joke it's one thing to just replace x amount of sheet rock but wood?....

Sent from my iPhone iOS5

Yeah, we have seen some jobs where the entire section of the home had to be replaced because of mold. A lot of people think that they can fix it themselves with bleach just to turn around and call us in a year later because their problem got a lot worse. When you come across jobs like that it can get very very pricy. :(
 
Has the wet drywall and insulation been removed yet. That needs to be done so the framing can dry out and then look at what needs to be done. You don't have rotting wood from a storm this fall, there must other sorces of water that must be found.
 
Talked to insurance people. They don't think the sump pump is the cause of the problem and that there must be other sources of water over a long period of time. Above this bathroom is the main bath that may have been leaking. We have ripped out the ceiling to look at those pipes and while I don't see any water dripping I do see corrosion. Another possibility is there may be some seepage from the roof down through the kitchen (he pointed out some stains behind the refridgerator) and then down to this ground level. :eek:
 
I was about to ask about roof leaks. I have found for us that that is a common source of mold problems because it can leak into the walls and you may not even notice it for quite some time until the mold has already began growing and spreading. If you are seeing stains then it is very probable that a roof leak could be part of the problem.
 
Has anyone got on the roof and check the seals around the vent stacks.
Happens all the time, the seals dry out and crack. It's about a $12.00 item or less to fix.
 
Just looked at new photos this has to be a foundation problem by looking at the bath and by sliding glass windows room
I can't engine this being caused by bad roof boot with out noticing water damage in wall and ceiling doesn't rule it out but I'm not convinced. Tha bath up top was leaking? If so were exactly?...
 
Really common the have a leaking drain in the tub or shower.
The seals in the cartrages or shaft seals can leak and run back down behind the escuntions, tub spout leaking inside and running back down inside the wall.
No way to tell unless you open up the wall behind the control valve all the way down to the floor and look.
 
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I believe mold spores are everywhere, add water and they grow. A one time flood that gets drywall wet, the mold will attack the drywall first and if is removed all can dry out cleaned up and repaired. So I will ask again. Did all the wet drywall get removed?
 
joecaption said:
Really common the have a leaking drain in the tub or shower.
The seals in the cartrages or shaft seals can leak and run back down behind the escuntions, tub spout leaking inside and running back down inside the wall.
No way to tell unless you open up the wall behind the control valve all the way down to the floor and look.

That's true
 
Okay got in behind the walls. Some mold but not as bad as I expected. Some corrosion on the pipes above and signs of some leaking from there.

strippedbath.jpg

strippedpipes.jpg
 
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