Burst pipes... Kill me now. UPDATE

ashleyamberRN · January 2014

Ugh!!! Due to this horrible cold weather I think a pipe burst in our basement; it is completely flooded and the wall and ceiling is soaked and starting to peel. We had to turn off the water, how do you take care of a baby with no running water?! She won't sleep good at night without her bath time.

Anybody ever have experience with this? We rent our house, the landlord hasn't shown up yet. Of course you don't know if you can't see it, but do you think they'll have to tear down the dry wall and stuff? I'm sure this is going to be a moldy disaster, that can't be healthy for a baby! DH thinks I'm jumping ahead of myself by think we're gonna just need to move out ASAP

UPDATE: landlord came but mainly to take pictures for his home owner insurance. DH called a plumber and they came, put a hole in the wall and isolated that one pipe so we can slowly start turning the water one. I'm nervous to even plug fans and stuff down there because the walls are so wet I'm scared to get electrocuted from using the outlets, is that crazy. We're nomads now going between my dads house and our house. We'll see what the landlord does next... He doesn't seem to care to much about his house; thank goodness if it's bad enough we can always move. We don't use that living space to regularly so not THAT much of our stuff is damaged, it could definitely be worse. Thanks for all the well wishes, I think our next move is to look into renting a shop vac!

CaliforniaDream87 · January 2014

I have no experience just wanted to give ((hugs)). That's stressful.

janneann1127 · January 2014

I have no idea but that doesn't sound fun at all. I'm sorry. Can you check into a hotel for the night?

LokiLahve · January 2014

Our finished basement flooded 2 years ago. It was a HUGE pain in the ass. We had to tear up all the carpet and the bottom foot of drywall around the entire space. Then we had to spray treatment on the exposed studs to kill the mold.
To this day it's still all torn up because we discovered whatever moron finished it used untreated studs. Basically we need to tear down ALL the walls and rebuild.
At least you are renting and it's on the landlord to foot the bill. But yes, I would be worried about mold. Have someone come out and test in a few weeks to make sure it doesn't start growing after the clean up.
I'm sorry.

MrsI · January 2014

Depends how fast they can get it dry. With the proper equipment they can dry it out without completely tearing everything out. Some may have to be torn out to get to the pipes though. Insurance will probably cover it so the job should be done to code, unless your landlord tries to do it himself and then I'd be more worried.

ashleyamberRN · January 2014

janneann1127 said:
I have no idea but that doesn't sound fun at all. I'm sorry. Can you check into a hotel for the night?

I work night shift, I'm going to attempt to go to work tonight. I think DH is going to bring baby to my dads. I'm here now so I could at least shower.

Now that I've taken a deep breath, and a shower, I feel really guilty I kind of ditched DH with the baby at home.

LokiLahve · January 2014

Andplusalso a pipe burst at my office today and the first floor is under a foot of water. WTF

ashleyamberRN · January 2014

@lokilahve if it comes to that, I'm sure we would move out, it's just easier when you rent. So annoying though.

@mrsl this is what worries me! Our landlord is definitely the type to try and fix it himself. This is the guy that when our frig broke, he brought us a smaller, used one, with no drawers at the bottom and spilled dirty water from the old frig everywhere and peaced out!

ashleyamberRN · January 2014

LokiLahve said:
Andplusalso a pipe burst at my office today and the first floor is under a foot of water. WTF

This sucks! You're in DC/md area too right?

LokiLahve · January 2014

ashleyamberRN said:

LokiLahve said:
Andplusalso a pipe burst at my office today and the first floor is under a foot of water. WTF
This sucks! You're in DC/md area too right?

Yes. Thankfully I'm on the second floor, but the fire dept shut our entire building down. It was great to have a "me" day, but I know it's going to suck bad when we are back next week trying to play catch up.

Revez · January 2014

It's definitely a "wait and see" situation, the damage might not be too bad. I'd stay in a hotel for a while (worst case scenario) if there is mold found.

As for night time baths, you could buy a cooler jug of water and warm it on the stove if you needed to. Just a thought.

Sorry you're going through this, must be super stressful.

PrettyAccountant · January 2014

MrsI said:
Depends how fast they can get it dry. With the proper equipment they can dry it out without completely tearing everything out. Some may have to be torn out to get to the pipes though. Insurance will probably cover it so the job should be done to code, unless your landlord tries to do it himself and then I'd be more worried.

Not true - it will have to be torn down. Once Sheetrock get wet and starts peeling - it has to be replaced.

katharine25 · January 2014

We had a burst pipe last year in our basement. We caught it early so it really didn't do much damage to the plywood walls and floor other than leave a bit of a stain. But our basement is always moist due to sitting on bedrock, so we have a permanent dehumidifier down there. The part that sucked for us was the furnace shut down since it's water pressure was low, so we had no heat.

You should be able to isolate the burst pipe and just shut that one off so you can Have water again though.

sfeebs13 · January 2014

No plumbing experience, but I wanted to send you hugs, that sounds like nightmare.

Emeraldeyed315 · January 2014

I'm sorry you are going through that. Def be glad you are a renter!

WheeLinTheSky3 · January 2014

I'm sorry you are going through that! I'm in the DC area also and had to babysit a frozen pipe all day yesterday to get it thawed out. Our basement flooded this summer from the AC unit and my dad is in the fire/water damage business so here is my advice:

get your landlord over there ASAP. This is definitely an emergency.

A plumber needs to come out to fix the burst pipe. This is not something the landlord should be doing on his own.

Have the landlord (or you all) suck up any visible water with a shop vac . Run any and every fan you have in the wet area. If you have a dehumidifier, run it to pull moisture from the air/walls.

The sooner you do this, the less likely it is that mold will grow.

Be aggressive with the landlord and good luck!!!

mommabmb · January 2014

I hope the landlord comes through for you!

TexasGirl81 · January 2014

Terrible! I'm so sorry! Keep us updated on what the landlord does or says.

BelhurstBride · January 2014

Ugh, I am so sorry you are dealing with this! Keep us updated!

Coconuthead · January 2014

That sucks big time! I hope it gets resolved quickly!

TrueBeliever925 · January 2014

I can't really believe that his main concern is making sure that his insurance kicks in right away. You figured he would have some money set aside to help you guys out a little bit by maybe renting the shop vac for you/doing the work for you. I mean.. I've dealt with landlords that aren't very hands on, but I've always received a discount off rent when showing receipts and things to that nature. I just figure in a crisis situation like that, especially with the little one, that he would take care of you guys. Hopefully everything works out!

PB102012 · January 2014

That's awful! I am so sorry that this happened to you!

Burst pipes... Kill me now. UPDATE

Re: Burst pipes... Kill me now. UPDATE

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