Thursday, August 16th, 2007: 7:00AM
| We woke to water dripping through the kitchen ceiling by the back door. We immediately turned the a/c off as we assumed this was another a/c issue similar to our previous leak from the upstairs air handler (that's another story). We contacted AHS, our home warranty company, to request service. AirWise was dispatched. Even after having the a/c turned off all day, water continued to drip from the ceiling. |  |
Sunday, August 19th, 2007: Around 3:00PM
 |
Still no word from AirWise. We turned off water to the house to replace faulty faucet stems in the upstairs shower. The water drips slowed and even appeared to cease after a while. After replacing the stems between 7 and 8:00PM that evening, we turned the water to the house back on. The water drips began within the hour. We ended up turning the a/c back on as we then assumed that it was strictly a plumbing issue. Why would the leak not stop if the a/c was turned off for 4 days? |
Monday, August 20th, 2007
Still no word from AirWise. Contacted AHS to request a plumber.
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007: 6:00PM
AHS-contracted plumber (Angel Plumbing) says he doesn't think it's a plumbing leak as the leak detecting triangle on the water meter was not visibly moving. We asked about the possibility of a leak at a sweat joint. The plumber said those are very rare and told us that he suspects the water is an a/c problem. I'm sure he would rather confirm that it's not a plumbing issue before cutting into the sheet rock. The service request is transferred to AirWise, who is now expected to be at the house on Saturday.
Friday, August 24th, 2007:
The a/c guy blows out the drain pipe thinking the water is overflowing from a clog. He leaves, telling us that the water will take a while to drain out of the ceiling. The water continues to drip through the evening and into the next week. We contacted AHS again to let them know that the leak still exists and to dispatch AirWise again. They're scheduled to come back on September 4th to replace a separate air handler, so they'll look at it then.
Monday, September 3rd, 2007:
|
We're both frustrated that the leak continues. When we woke up this morning, we found that it spread to more locations: from the plenum ceiling, inside the cabinet, along the tiles behind the desk, etc. I'm very frustrated. Our walls are damaged, the cabinets and desk are damaged, the baseboards around the desk are damaged, and who knows what else is. We're collecting about a gallon of water in 8 hours or less. We decide to go ahead and cut into the sheet rock to start some troubleshooting ourselves. We first cut a 3"x3" square to get an idea of what's behind the wall. The sheet rock is totally saturated...it's like clay. We can see a pool of water and pipes galore, but no visible drips or wet pipes. |
 |
  |
We cut the hole a little bigger to fit the wet vac hose to try to stop the immediate dripping and prevent further damage. After removing most of the standing water, we notice a little puddle movement as if the water was sizzling. You can see the ripples in the photo on the left. Look just in front of the horizontal 2x4 at the reflection of the pvc pipe. After some feeling around, Will felt a fine mist hitting his hand. We cut the hole just a bit bigger so we could see further up, and bingo! There's a very fine spray shooting out of a welded joint of copper tubing! To temporarily reroute water, we hung a funnel by a wire coat hanger from a 2x4, attached to a 4' piece of plastic tubing, which drains into a 5 gallon bucket sitting on the desk. It works, we don't have to empty pails or cups for the time being, and it's allowing the sheet rock to start the drying process. Angel Plumbing should be out again tomorrow (hopefully) to repair the pipe. Our claim is being assigned to an adjuster tomorrow morning and hopefully soon we'll get an idea of the extent of the damage. It sucks, but I'm glad we decided to dig into the wall ourselves. |
Thursday, September 6th, 2007:
|
The plumber replaced the leaky pipe and left us with an even larger hole in the sheet rock. No worries, as that entire piece of wall will have to be replaced. The sheet rock has already started to dry out nicely in the few days we had our funnel contraption set up. |
 |
 
|
|
Friday, September 7th, 2007:
Our insurance adjustor surveyed the damage, ran some numbers, and cut us a check for repairs. Yay!
