August 7, 2007
Water Damage
Yesterday, I noticed that there was some serious dripping going on outside our apartment. I called the building engineer and offered to go up on the roof. She said, "uh, no, no residents on the roof." So, that was that, she told me that she'd get the landlord to call his roofer, which he did do.
So, this is pretty much what we saw when we woke up this morning, only it was wet instead of dry.
And it was spreading. As you can see it made it all the way from corner to corner.
And, this was well on it's way to becoming what you see here.
So, I called our landlord and let him know about the amount of water coming into our apartment and he said that he'd call his roofer right away, again. As of writing this post the roofer has been called at least twice and hasn't returned our landlord's calls.
When we got home from work, though, the problem had spread. Especially when I noticed this.
Yeah, I don't believe it either, take another look, closer.
Closer look And, to the right
But that isn't what bothered me the most, really, the smell of re-wet paint isn't cool, still. Here's what's really bugging me:Dude this sucks. Because,This is what it was.
Which was precipitated by this:Drip Drip Drop
Our landlord is being cool and taking full responsibility for this. I think he's even going to drop me a check for getting up on the roof and helping him unclog his roof drains, which I was happy to do for free in order to keep our belongings from getting any worse.
Another wet book. If I see one more of those this week I'm going be ornery.
If you need to store any belongings in our apartment just drop by. My home is yours.
Posted by: Andrew at August 7, 2007 11:49 PMUhm, Andrew, isn't it the other way around? Didn't I hear that you were hanging out on Mendon's futon until further notice?
Mensch, What a mess! You may want to move anything precious out from under the saggy parts of the ceiling. If you have another heavy rain (we have it predicted for Thursday), it might just give way, raining wet plaster and other heavy stuff down on your belongings. That is what happened to us in our apartment in Lakewood. Yuck!
Posted by: Ma at August 8, 2007 10:26 AMMaman,
Andrew was only staying in our flat until Helen Grace and Dan departed (which they did last saturday). As for our apartment, I went up on the roof last night and took a look. The problem was that the drains had backed up and there was an inch and a half of standing water from several heavy rains. I believe that the problem was a problem with some flashing that was submerged by the various inundations. The roof is a rubber roof that's about 23 years old, but it still looks like it's in pretty good condition. Maybe it could use a new coat of reflective material but I suspect that it's at least a 50 year roof (I need to talk to Papa about that). We've cleaned out the drains, it appears that everything will be okay if there's another heavy storm. The biggest issue is that our apartment is going to look like bunk when you come and visit (Mr. Newton is embarrassed, though, I'd like you to meet him, he's been dealing with a bad case of Leukemia). Even still, we've moved our rug out of the way in case anything collapses today.
I'm crushed. I'm just crushed.
Posted by: Mara at August 8, 2007 3:21 PMp.s, I would like to see more photos of your flat, tho'!
Posted by: Mara at August 8, 2007 4:36 PMWet book. You're link text said it all: Dude, this sucks.
It totally sucks! Ugh!
I'm sorry that it's raining inside your flat.
Once, a long time ago, when we lived in Lakewood, there was a really bad storm and it rained and there was this terrible noise in the middle of the night and in the morning the ceiling was on the dining room table. It's true. Mara was two, so it would have been 1977.
Posted by: Nathan at August 11, 2007 5:21 PMOh, also, it's really cool that you had the presence of mind to take pictures as it was happening. I only occasionally remember to do that sort of thing.
Posted by: Nathan at August 11, 2007 5:22 PMI opened your blog and thought I was looking at photos of my last apartment...seruiuosly. And it took over nine months for the real estate agency to fix the cause and the damage. I hope things turn out better for you.
Posted by: R.T. Bean at August 12, 2007 9:49 PMMensch,
Something should be making it's way to you via post very soon. Look out for it.
Posted by: Mark at August 13, 2007 9:39 AM