spugbrap’s blog

Lacey and I went to Kohl’s in Manassas, VA tonight to buy me some t-shirts. Most of my t-shirts have either shrunk too much, from too much dryer heat over time, or they’re black (and it’s too hot out these days to be wearing black t-shirts). They had a lot of funny t-shirts to choose from, so we spent quite a while looking at them.

After we picked out some shirts, we headed over to look at towels. We’ve recently been spoiled by some very soft bamboo/cotton-blend towels, and wanted to get some more soft towels.

As we walked across the store, we noticed a pungent, sulfuric odor. At first, I thought it might have just been some cheap perfume (since we were approaching the perfume section). Lacey thought a nearby kid had a poopy diaper. Then, we noticed that water was shooting out from the ceiling about 30 feet away from us!

It’s hard to convey just how amazing this was to witness, but it was basically like an upside-down fire hydrant, only with more pressure. That’s how big around it was, though, and the force was tremendous. Someone said it was hot water, and it looked like there was steam in the air near it, but it may have just been mist from the force of the spray.

Lacey shoved me towards the checkout and said “let’s buy our shirts, and get out of here now!” She assumed that they would be shutting down the store soon, and we might not be able to check out if we waited any longer. We’d just spent 30 minutes picking out 4 shirts, and we wanted to buy them! Towels could wait.

Sure enough, as we were about to check out, an announcement came over the PA system. They said that the fire department was on their way, and the store would be shutting down. The cashier checked us out quickly, and said something like, “Well, at least I won’t have to fold all those shirts!”

On the way out, I snapped a couple pictures with my phone. They didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped, but I went ahead and circled the water spray in red, and outlined the water that I could see on the floor (on the way out) in blue. Click the thumbnails below to view the full-size photos.

As we pulled out of the parking lot, a fire engine was approaching. Hopefully the firefighters were able to turn the water off quickly, but in any case, that Kohl’s is probably going to be closed for a while. I know from experience, just how much of a hassle it is to clean up after a flood. But

Speaking of my experience with flooding… Apparently, flooding happens wherever I go. I must have some kind of super power that I don’t yet know how to control. My apartment in Blacksburg flooded 3 times. My house in Herndon flooded 3 times. My house in Bristow flooded 3 times (and I’ve blogged about 2 of them. just noticed that I never posted about the most recent one. I’ll have to do that soon. Here’s what I did post, though: one, two, three, four).

It seems that even the stores I shop at are not even safe, anymore! Hopefully this pattern will not continue, or Kohl’s might be due for 2 more floods later this year. Might want to think twice before inviting me over to your house. :(

* Edited 07/02/2007 12:00pm EST - found another picture, I knew I took 3. This one is just of the water in the aisle. Yuck!

Everything went smoothly with the cleanup/repair, and all I’ve got to do now is wait for my insurance check to come!Here’s a timeline of pictures:
12/09/2006 - pipe burst

12/13/2006 - pipe fixed, new insulation and drywall up

12/14/2006 - wall painted, carpet pad section replaced and corner patched

Thanks to the following companies for taking care of it so quickly and for earning our repeat business, at least 3 times each so far:

Contractor:
Carl Mountjoy
Mountjoy’s Remodeling
Cell: 540-379-0324 [edited 04/23/2007 to update contact info]
Email: mtjoyremodeling@aol.com

Plumber:
F.H. Furr
Phone: 703-690-1133
Website: http://www.fhfurr.com/

Carpet:
Carpet Royale and Rug
Phone: 703-330-1120
Website: http://www.carpetroyalrug.com/

This time, it was not the sump pump, but a pipe burst (pictures). Luckily, we were able to find out about it quickly (thanks to the kids yelling “There’s a waterfall in the basement!” or something like that), turn the water off, and even get our favorite contractor, Carl Mountjoy, to come over within about an hour! He and another guy took care of cutting out all the wet drywall/insulation/carpet pad/etc. and set up blowers and a dehumidifier.

So, it sucks that this happened already, only a few months after getting the walls all fixed and new carpets and everything, but at least it’s nowhere near as bad as the flooding back in June (part 1, part 2).

On the plus side, we got to give Carl some more repeat business, courtesy of our homeowners insurance (again). He was actually the one that fixed up the basement after the last flood, so he knew the ins and outs of my walls and ceiling already. :)

Oh, and at least our insurance is going to cover the cost of fixing the pipe, this time (they didn’t cover the actual sump pump last time, just the damages caused by its failure.. so we assumed the same would be true this time).

Seriously, though, water is evil! This is our 4th basement flooding incident (2 at the old house, 2 at the new one). Enough, already!

This is a quick, but long-overdue followup to my 06/26/2006 post, “When it rains, it pours.”

There are all kinds of things I could say about this, but the task of putting it all into words has been kind of daunting. So, I’m just going to post the emails that I sent to my coworkers and school learning team members when I was dealing with water mitigation/cleanup/etc, and link to the 300+ pictures that I took along the way…

Email to Work #1 (06/26/2006 1:46am):

Basement flooded tonight due to nonstop heavy rain.. yard is saturated, sump pump couldn’t keep up.. other drainage not efficient either, so water is coming in from at least 3 locations. After spending all evening/night recovering from the initial flooding, now the sump pump has given out completely, so I’m dreading what the night will bring. I will probably not get any work done tomorrow either, as I try to salvage/clean things and deal with kids and stuff.

Email to Work #2 (06/27/2006 11:38am):

Yesterday, I fought with the rain as long as I could, carrying 10gal shopvac buckets full of nasty water from my storm drain up the outside walk-out stairs, while the rain just kept pouring down, and throwing it out in the yard, but in the end, I did not make a very good sump pump replacement. So the water started pouring in from the sump pump pit and the outside storm drain, and quickly filled the whole basement with 1-2″ of water.At some point I gave up on getting the water out, and switched modes to salvaging whatever belongings I could. I spent all day yesterday dealing with that, and eventually, in the late afternoon, a plumber made it out and replaced the sump pump. So now there’s no more flooding happening, and hopefully it will survive the high quantities of rain we’re supposed to get tonight, but I still have a lot to deal with down there, especially washing and drying all the clothes/towels/blankets/etc. that were down there, and trying to suck up as much water out of the carpet as possible.

We’ve got water mitigation people coming on Friday night–that was the soonest anyone could come out–but in the meantime we need to do as much as we can, ourselves, because it’s going to get pretty gross between now and Friday.

Anyways, I’m going to have to take today off as well, in case that wasn’t already assumed. Hope to be there tomorrow. As long as the new sump pump can keep up with tonight’s rain, that should be possible.

Email to Learning Team #1 (06/26/2006 8:01am):

hey guys.. Basement flooded last night due to nonstop heavy rain.. yard is saturated, sump pump couldn’t keep up.. other drainage not efficient either, so water is coming in from at least 3 locations. After spending all evening/night recovering from the initial flooding, now the sump pump has given out completely, so I’m glad to see that the rain has stopped for now. Gotta try to salvage/clean things and deal with kids and stuff today, and try to find a replacement sump pump (probably in short supply now), a shop vac (borrowed a neighbor’s but need our own), and a plumber to heavy-duty-snake out our storm drain…

Email to Learning Team #2 (06/26/2006 3:08pm):

yeah, I thought yesterday was bad. now we’ve got over 1″ through the entire basement, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.i bought lots of stuff at the hardware stuff this morning, but nothing i bought is any match for the continuing rain. plumber should be here soon to replace the sump pump, but there’s concern that he may not be able to do that since it’s immersed in several feet of water and all.. i hope he has some kind of pump, but the lady on the phone didn’t seem to think so. if it can’t be replaced today, i will be crafting a homemade water pump->pipe->sprayer solution.

Email to Learning Team #3 (06/27/2006 12:17pm):

sorry for my silence.. been working on basement water issues all day
and late into the night. i will really try to get my part done today.

Email to Learning Team #4 (06/27/2006 12:21pm):

Oh, but the good news is that the plumber WAS able to replace the sump pump, so at this point it’s a cleanup/salvage effort only, and I’m no longer trying to act as a manual sump pump. :) Let’s just hope that this pump holds up during the heavy rains tonight, since we’re supposed to be in for another doozy.

Here are the pictures:
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_25/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_26/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_27/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_28/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_06_30/
http://www.oatmealcookies.org/pictures/2006/2006_07_01-basement/

… and when it pours, for days and days, it kills my sump pump and
floods my basement. More on that after the water level in my basement
falls below 1″. :-/