The joys of home ownership

[RobL]

Aw, man.

For those of you keeping track of my escapades on EI, I've been having a problem with my downstairs toilet. Well, when I came home yesterday, I found a 3X2 puddle of water in my kitchen/bathroom area. Thinking the problem was the toilet overflowing, I just cleaned it up.

However, when I got up this morning, the puddle was back. And it was obviously not the toilet. (I isolated the toilet from the wall next to the toilet. Towels by the toilet were dry, towels around the wall were soaked)

Looks like its the wall behind the toilet, and its just leaking out the side wall as well for whatever reason. Needless to say, I'm not happy spending my only day off fucking with this stupid problem.

I'm ready to cap off some hollowpoints at this stupid toilet/wall/whatever.

 

[curiousa2z]

Rob, IIRC, in chat one time you mentioned you were in a townhouse...are you sure this is your problem, and not coming from the person next to you?

You have my sympathy, btw: ...coupla years ago my toilet decided to leak into the wall behind it, so there were no signs in the bathroom anything was amiss.


...But when the ceiling of the dining room below bubbled out.....

 

[RobL]

Rob, IIRC, in chat one time you mentioned you were in a townhouse...are you sure this is your problem, and not coming from the person next to you?

You have my sympathy, btw: ...coupla years ago my toilet decided to leak into the wall behind it, so there were no signs in the bathroom anything was amiss.


...But when the ceiling of the dining room below bubbled out.....

Good question. We'll find out when the plumber gets here. (Anytime between now and noon PST).

If it is coming from next door, I think that unit is empty. I'll just.....well, I better not say.

Good thing this is the downstairs bath. I have tile downstairs. So I'll only have to replace the drywall.....and I have one of those "homeowner protection plans" you buy when you purchase a home. I re-upped it when it expired. I'm thinking that its going to be the best $250 I ever spent. They do all the drywall replacing and shit, I sit back and watch. Hopefully.

 

[Pryce]

Sorry to hear your still having problems.....Water problems are the worst in my opinion, they lead to other problems....ick!

If the unit next to you is empty, could be that the heat is not on or high enough to keep the pipes from freezing on those really cold nights. Particularly if its on an outside wall. And one of the pipes froze, yep.. one could have split.....leaking now into your unit....

Glad you called 'the man' to see whats up....I hate hate hate doing plumbing, its not my strong point. I would rather be building something.

 

[RobL]

Got a diagnosis.

Basically, its a slab leak in the hot water line. As such, my home warranty thing won't cover it, they basically said "call your association". Which is fucking great, as they don't return phone calls on a timely basis.

Fuck. This is exactly what I don't need.

 

[Gagh]

Aw, man.

For those of you keeping track of my escapades on EI, I've been having a problem with my downstairs toilet. Well, when I came home yesterday, I found a 3X2 puddle of water in my kitchen/bathroom area. Thinking the problem was the toilet overflowing, I just cleaned it up.

However, when I got up this morning, the puddle was back. And it was obviously not the toilet. (I isolated the toilet from the wall next to the toilet. Towels by the toilet were dry, towels around the wall were soaked)

Looks like its the wall behind the toilet, and its just leaking out the side wall as well for whatever reason. Needless to say, I'm not happy spending my only day off fucking with this stupid problem.

I'm ready to cap off some hollowpoints at this stupid toilet/wall/whatever.

It's a pain in the arse, isn't it? We had a leak under the kitchen sink when I moved in. Luckily, I'm mates with a plumber so he came and fixed it.

That doesn't make all the f'ing decorating any easier though.

 

[RobL]

At this point, I'm more worried about the homeowner's association.

They are basically slum lords. They haven't done any kind of maintenance on any of the buildings since they were built in the 80's. They've only just started paining the first few buildings, and its taken a year to do four buildings. We have 80 total.

I called the bitch in charge of the management company, twice, in the last four hours, and she hasn't called me back yet. You would think "slab leak" and "3' X 2' puddle of water in my kitchen" would get at least a "gee, that sucks" phone call.

And, we pay the most per-month in the Santa Clarita Valley.

 

[Big Dick McGee]

I used to get water in my finished basement. Not like flooding, but enought to make the carpet actually slosh in some areas. I realized it was coming up through tiny cracks in the slab. Well, that, and the stone infill had settled to a low level in the 70-odd years since the house had been built.

The only solution was to jackhammer sections of the slab and install a French drain. By necessity, the contractor had to tear down a lot of the sheetrock. Total cost to install the French drain, install a new ejector pump, and do the concrete work was $7,000.

I then had another contractor repair the sheetrock, and we decided to add some cedarwood wainscoating, about 3' from the slab. Looks amazing. Cost (with minor additional work) was like $4,000. So, yeah, we spent over eleven thousand dollars fixing a water infiltration problem, and repairing the resulting damage.

RobL, I sincerely wish you the best with your problem!!!

 

[Gagh]

I was lucky that I grew up in the carpet business to some extent. As a kid, I was a carpet fitter's assistant, so I layed all the carpets myself - a skill that has never left me. That saved a bundle because I managed to get some really expensive carpet on the cheap. Most of the painiting has been done, but we're still working on wallpaper in a couple of rooms.

The loft extension is nice, but the previous owners really neglected it, so once the walls are replastered, and we get some new doors, it'll be ready to fully deck out. At the moment it has boxes of crap in it. I really should be doing some work now....

 

[RobL]

Okey dokie.

Association just called. The lady said "yeah, that's typical". :roll:

Though, they said that they would call out their plumber. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[RobL]

This shit just gets better and better.

Association's plumber just left. He said "Yep, its a slab leak, we've done lots for these units just like it."

Right now, they're discussing jackhammering out my slab in the bathroom and kitchen. As the lower floor of my unit is tiled all the same, that means all the tile will have to be replaced. There also going to have to rip out the drywall, and section off most of the lower part (including the part where my computer is, probably) and set up a fan system because of possible mold issues. And he's said the toilet is cracked.

Well. On the bright side, at least I get my plugged up toilet problem fixed.

 

[Gagh]

Well. On the bright side, at least I get my plugged up toilet problem fixed.

You'll be the only 'plugged' thing, if they don't hurry up and fix that crapper

 

[curiousa2z]

So does that mean the Association will pay for cost of labour and supplies?

you're still going to have the inconvenience and PITA of unwanted 'renovations" - it does not seem fair that you also have to foot the bill, as this was none of your doing.

 

[RobL]

We'll see. Either way, its got to be fixed.

Apparently, its a major leak, as they are jackhammering at the moment, and water is spurting (sp? I don't have access to my spellcheck) up around the jackhammer tip.

Funny note: When they pulled up the toilet, it had a hairline crack in it, so its going regardless. Also, it had two seals in it. Guy said that was probably the cause of the plugged up crapper. Let the ladys at EI know, I know that had them upset.

 

[RobL]

Plumbers are gone for the day. Fortunately, they isolated the problem, and it was in a water line in the slab of the bathroom. So, most of the tile in the house can stay. The bathroom will have different tile, but as its its own seperate room, I think that it will be fine.

Apparently, its a known issue with these units. The guys seem to know their way around them. They knew exactly where the studs were and where to stop cutting so that they wouldn't cut into them.

They said that they will re-route the most problem pipes (the one that broke) so that they won't have to break any more concrete slab.

 

[T'Bonz]

What a thorough pain in the ass. I too, hate associations. Ours is assessing us up the ass for hurricane Wilma debris and such.

Reminds me, we must find a roofer before next hurricane season. Goddamned hurricane Wilma. Bitch, whore, jezebel!

 

[Pryce]

Plumbers are gone for the day. Fortunately, they isolated the problem, and it was in a water line in the slab of the bathroom. So, most of the tile in the house can stay. The bathroom will have different tile, but as its its own seperate room, I think that it will be fine.

Apparently, its a known issue with these units. The guys seem to know their way around them. They knew exactly where the studs were and where to stop cutting so that they wouldn't cut into them.

They said that they will re-route the most problem pipes (the one that broke) so that they won't have to break any more concrete slab.

So glad that work is under way already. The good thing is that you'll never have this problem again during your lifetime living in this home. A different tile in the bathroom will be a nice change from the rest of the house.

*giggle*......studs are 16 inch on center as a rule in most general construction ....
But the plumbers knowning these type units is alway an advantage, unless there has been some prior repairs that are unknown to them. I've had that happen in some of my remodeling projects....Been cutting and opps that not suppose to be there......

Thats great news that the pipes can be re-route. You don't want to mess around with the integrity of the concrete anymore than necessary. Breaking up slabs only causes stress fractures that can lead to other problems later down the road.

Ahhh a new toliet ...... but 2 seals on the old one...WTF???? lol......

The good news is this problem could have been much bigger and much more costly. What has happened as you discribed, is a middle of the road homeowners snafu. Comes with the territory.

Happiness if being a homeowner!

 

[RobL]

Well, now they've decided that they are going to play games.

I had an agreement with the foreman of the crew who was here yesterday. He said that he'd come back today at noon, and leave at 4pm so I can go to work. We'd work out a schedule for next week when he's here.

Well, then this morning another moron (not from the same crew) comes banging on my door, saying to me in broken english "I come to fix laundry leak". Yeah. Right. With a fucking flashlight. :roll: . I promptly tell him "They said noon" and told him to come back.

Well, the plumbing company called back about two minutes later, and said that they have a working agreement with the association to do all work between 830AM and 5PM, regardless of what the homeowner says. I promptly tell them that's fine, but I had a verbal argeement with the foreman for todays work. She had to call her boss to figure out what to tell me. (she said she'd call back). She also said "Oh, just leave your door open, and we'll let ourselves in". Yeah. Right. Fuck that.

I kind of like that "Regardless of what the homeowener says" bit. Kind of like "please sue us." :lol:

 

[RobL]

*giggle*......studs are 16 inch on center as a rule in most general construction ....

Yeah, but with this complex, anything is possible. Hot water comes out of the cold pipes, cold comes out of the hot. Most of the time, anyway.

 

[RobL]

I measured the studs, for the sake of argument.

On the wall between units, it seems as though its a 12 inch space between studs, but it varies. On the inside wall between the kitchen and bathroom, it also varies. Of course, the wall is only about 4 feet wide, so its not going to be standard. Max is 14 inches between studs on those.