I tried to turn the water off at the heater while calling my husband. The spigot at the top the heater was stiff and caked with calcium. I could not budge it. Steve suggested that I try to shut off the water at the street. I opened the lid to the water shut-off valve at the street, but even with the shut-off key, the valve wouldn't budge. I then tried to call a plumber we had used before. Benjamin Franklin Plumbing told me that they didn't have any openings, but they could come out for an emergency after 5 PM for $180 an hour. That was not an option. Next I went to Google and typed in "Plumber in McKinney." 'Al's Plumbing and Heating' stood out, so I called them. They were very helpful on the phone. They said that we needed the to get the water turned off and since they couldn't get there right away, they said to call the fire department. They gave me a number to call them so I wouldn't have to call 911. The fire department got here very quickly and they were WONDERFUL! Kudos to the McKinney fire department! They couldn't turn off the water at the heater, so they went to turn the water off at the street. That was even difficult because of where the shut-off valve was, right up against the inside of the hole, but they shut it off quickly. Then they went into the attic, using our little carpet cleaner, they sucked a bunch of water out. They were so nice and reassuring. They told us to contact our insurance company.
Steve got here when the fire department was here. I can imagine what he must have thought, seeing the huge fire truck sitting in front of our house with it's lights blinking. Steve was wonderful. He went and picked up Jeffrey at work at the Heard after helping me find paperwork with our homeowners' insurance number on it. I am very thankful that I was able to speak with an insurance agent at this time because when I tried to contact them a few days later on an issue regarding restoration, everyone in the office was in a meeting and nobody was available to talk.
Then, my brother and I had to get the cats so they wouldn't dash outside or up into the attic. They were freaked out by all of the activity, the water in the house, the fire department and stuff like that. Finding them was not easy, although it was easy to find Sprinkles. She was on top of the refrigerator, her latest secure spot to keep away from the other cats. We found Tiger. We had a lot of trouble finding Yukki, she was really freaked out. After what seemed like an hour, my brother finally found Yukki and we put her with the other cats in the master bedroom, which is off to the side and thankfully was unaffected by the water.
Then, Al's plumbing arrived and got started. At least the water hadn't gushed out of the water heater tank; they had to drain the tank and it's a 50 gallon water heater. They got it replaced pretty quickly.They hauled out the old one and hauled the new one up the stairs and up into the attic. That was a feat there because you have to get to the attic using this extending ladder. The plumbers would have hauled off the old water heater, but the insurance company told us to hang on to it so they can see it. Now we look like hillbillies with an old water heater sitting out in the backyard. The plumbers recommended a company called 'Dry Force' to come in and dry out the mess. They called them for us. I had to get an okay from the insurance company because they had another company coming out, but we never heard from their company and we were told that the drying process has to begin as soon as possible. The new water heater was installed and ready to go. That was expensive! I'm glad this house doesn't have two water heaters like some do!
Dry Force arrived and the doorbell rang once again. Our dog, Mocha, was going nuts because every time the doorbell rings, she thinks it's the pizza man arriving. She really likes the pizza man. She really likes pizza. The guys from Dry Force were wonderful. They were very reassuring and explained everything they were doing. The plumbers said these guys would find the water, and that they did. When water leaks, it does all kinds of things and goes everywhere. When I had first come home, it was only raining upstairs. Then it started raining through the air vent in the downstairs bathroom under the stairs. After that, it started raining in the garage. These guys have electronic sensors that beep and light up red when moisture is detected. They were running these sensors all over walls where the water had come down and finding out where the water went.
I'm sure we were real popular with the neighbors that day, we live on a small street and at one point there were two Dry Force vans and two plumbing trucks in front of our house and that was after the big fire truck had been parked in front of our house a little earlier.
The ceiling of our garage with water coming through and the tape sagging down with water.
They told me that if the water isn't taken care of in 48 to 72 hours, that mold would start to grow. At first, one insurance agent had told us not to start anything. Then, one of the guys from Dry Force and I had a conversation with another insurance agent over a speaker phone and this guy said it was our responsibility to get the water taken care of as soon as possible and gave Dry Force the okay to start drying things out.
They had to tear out wooden flooring in the attic, baseboards along the wall under the water heater. They had to remove lots of insulation. I saw it sitting in a huge plastic bag with water pooling in the bottom of the bag. I was very happy that they were taking care of it. They also had to rip out wet padding under the carpet; the carpet in that area had squished with every step. They cut two holes in the ceiling of the bathroom downstairs so that the inside of those walls could be dried out.
Ceiling of our downstairs bathroom with holes
Then they had to remove the ceiling sheet rock in most of the garage as well as some of one of the walls. You could see where the water had run across the ceiling. There were stains around the tape. I'm just glad that most of it was in the garage and hadn't gone into the kids' rooms or any rooms containing a TV or computer, or my husband's guitars. Then they brought in the air movers and dehumidifiers. The air movers are large squirrel-cage fans that really put out the air. The dehumidifiers were about the size of skinny dishwashers, much bigger than the kind we used to put in our basements in Ohio. One day earlier at the Fort Worth Zoo, there was a tube you could get into to feel the force of 80 mph wind like from a tornado. Jeffrey tried it and I'm sure a fan like this was used in that tube.
Jeffrey in tornado wind booth at the Fort Worth Zoo
An Air Mover
Air movers and a dehumidifier drying out the upstairs hallway
They worked until about 11:30 PM, they even had another shift of technicians come in about 8 or 9 PM. They would have been there all night if we let them, but we asked them if they could stop work at 11:30 PM and start where they left off the next day. The humming and whirring of fans and dehumidifiers had begun. On Tuesday, the Dry Force technicians returned and continued their hard work. There was one guy named 'Jesse' that was particularly nice. He explained everything that they were doing and why it had to be done. I was so glad they were there. It smelled damp, like a dank basement up north, especially in the garage. It was quite humid in the garage.
Garage Ceiling After the Drying Out
The Dry Force technicians really worked hard and gave it all they've got. In the evening, Steve, Stacy and I were watching TV in the bedroom when the whirring and rumbling of fans got louder. A dehumidifier that's almost as big as a washing machine was put in our downstairs living room. The Dry Force guys had been doing the math and figuring out the square footage of the area that has to be dried. Based on that, they set up another dehumidifier, that big sucker that was in our living room. Then came the plastic, lots and lot of plastic. It kind-of reminded me of 'ET.' I've met customers at the grocery store, who can't stand the feel of plastic and this would have freaked them out. We had plastic sheets hanging in the doorways to the kitchen and the computer room as well as the window between the kitchen and downstairs living room. The Garage was a plastic wonderland with plastic draped over all of our stuff. There was even plastic over the garage fridge, which we had to move to the side every time we needed to get anything out of the fridge.
It's Plastic Land!
We had to keep the cats contained in the back bedroom, except for Sprinkles because she doesn't get along with the other cats. She stayed in Jeff's room. All week long, 24/7 was the constant whirring of the fans and dehumidifiers. It didn't bother me that much because I grew up in a house that didn't have central air-conditioning. We had 2 window units and fans set up all over the house to circulate the air, so I was used to the whirring fans all summer long. In fact, here, when the weather cools off and the air-conditioning doesn't run as much, it's almost a little too quiet. The only thing was, we couldn't hear the doorbell, we relied on the dog to let us know when we had visitors. She always heard the doorbell, even over the fans and dehumidifiers. Also, Dan would wait out on the porch on the bench when Dry Force was due to come out. Then he would tell us when Dry Force was here. They came out nearly every day. An insurance adjuster came out and took pictures, only to have his camera battery die when he came out to take pictures of the busted water heater in our back yard. A guy from Dry Force Restoration came out to do an estimate. That was the day I tried to contact someone from our insurance company to discuss restoration, only to have everyone in a meeting. They finally called back and left a message saying not to let Dry Force Restoration start any restoration work until they've approved the estimate. It's a good thing we still had drying going on.
Great Big Dehumidifier that was downstairs
(They told me that they have an even bigger one.)
Fans and plastic tubing in downstairs bathroom
Fans and Dehumidifiers that were used to dry our house out.
Another shot of our garage ceiling.
On Friday, a supervisor for Dry Force named 'Ben' came over and found another place that got wet. The inside of my brother's closet had taken on a little water. Upon taking a bunch of stuff out of his closet, we found 2 wet boxes. One had pictures from my grandmother and great-grandmother which my mother had placed in plastic. We found a cedar box with photos in it the box got a little damp, but mom had put a towel in the bottom of the box, so the photos did not get wet. The water only got about a foot inside the closet. The Dry Force guy took up the carpet pad and baseboards. Then he hooked up a dehumidifier right next to my brother's closet. He put the cedar box up in the closet so the heat would rise and dry the box in the closet. He found dampness that the other guys hadn't found. Dry Force is lucky to have him working for them. Today, another Dry Force technician came and collected the fans and dehumidifiers. When they were all turned off, the sudden silence was a shock. The song, 'Sounds of Silence' comes to mind, this was a silence that actually had a sound, or lack of one. We had become accustomed to the drone and whirring of the fans and dehumidifiers all week. It was especially noticeable when the huge dehumidifier was turned off.
It was interesting, after it was all said and done and the driers and dehumidifiers were back at Dry Force's office, Steve and I watched a movie called 'Deep Blue Sea' and one the problems they had was water coming in, big time, only this was more like water on the scale of the Titanic. I thought man, they're going to have to call Dry Force and that it would take an awfully big dehumidifier to dry up that mess! Our house is now dried out. We just have to wait for the insurance company to approve the restoration. That's going to be a whole new mess. Stay tuned.
Drip Drip Drop Little April Shower from 'Bambi': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzb08oTGdc
