Flood Damage

(A) The central air conditioning unit is located behind the half-height door and the intake vent has been removed from below the door.

(B) Just out of frame is the entrance to the guest bath where the toilet is clogged and it has backed-up into the bathtub. Basic plunging has been performed on the toilet but the clog remains. The toilet is clogged but the bathroom floor is dry.

For some unknown reason the carpet began to saturate with sewage and the source of the water was not evident.

Looking through the AC vent hole shows about 2"-3" of standing sewage below the AC unit. (C) shows the AC condensation tube running down from the AC unit and into the foundation. This home rests on a slab foundation and has no basement.

The water has been removed from under the AC unit. (D) Is the condensation tube from the AC central air.

(E) Is something we've never seen before; it is the source of the flood. The builder drilled a hole through the foundation and into the main sewer line. This hole was probably meant for the AC condensation tube but for some reason it was not used. The builder plugged the hole with a rubber donut that compresses and seals the hole when the wing nut is tightened down.

The rubber donut degraded over time and no longer provided enough of a seal to stop sewage from leaking into the house. Water finds the path of least-resistance and in this case it was the rubber donut. As the guest toilet was plunged the water leaked past the donut and into the space under the AC unit.

(A) The central AC is just around the corner and out of frame.

(B) This view taken from the living shows the second AC vent has been removed from the wall. A hazardous material team has cut away the carpet, removed about 8" of drywall and exposed the studs.

(D) A guest bedroom and closet adjoin the walls with the central AC unit. The hazardous material team continued removing soaked carpet, padding, and drywall.

(E) The AC unit is located behind this wall.

This is a view of the guest bedroom closet with drywall and carpet removed.

(A) The hazardous materials team continued removing carpet and drywall. The AC unit half-height door is just visible at the top of this picture.

The AC unit half-height door has been removed and the space is being prepared for a full sized door.

(B) This is the guest bath with the clogged toilet. Even though no water actually spilled on to the floor in this room the haz-mat team drilled holes through the toe-kick of this relatively new vanity cabinet to provide ventilation and drying.

They also drilled similar holes in the kitchen cabinets. You can see here that the holes are randomly placed and not in a straight line. From a cosmetic point of view these holes will have to be covered. It's a small problem but it has to be dealt with.

After drying (about a week) haz-mat treats all of the affected areas with an anti-microbial solution.

This is a fraction of the affected material that was removed from the house.