12/07/2023
Our Basement Sewage Project Journal
State Farm Claim # 11-59S1-24N
November 28, 2023
Went to the basement to grab some coffee and discovered that the carpet was saturated with water. Immediately called DeKalb County; they arrived within the hour. Techs determined that the issue was not in the county’s part of the line; rather, it was on the house side.
Called Walter at Northlake Plumbing. Walter sent his guy Dave and also Bryan from RestoPros of Northeast Georgia. [770.609.2301 [email protected] ] They were here within 30 minutes. Dave tracked down the issue ... wait for it. Some plumber probably before we bought the house had run his snake down through the system, and the snake broke off. He LEFT IT THERE!!!!! So two decades later it's rusted and blocked everything. Dave removed the snake and cleaned out the lines.
Meanwhile Bryan measured how soaked/impacted the rooms are. Pretty bad. Carpets are soaked. Some "soft wood" bookcases have absorbed the sewage, so they'll need to be destroyed. Same with a teak one. Not sure yet how many books will be lost. We've started our claim with State Farm; their claim peeps will holler back tomorrow or Thursday (11/29 or 11/30).
The RestoPros containment guys have already sealed off the entire area and set up the dehumidifiers. Once we know something about asbestos they will begin demo. At some point another team will arrive to do “pack out”! Basically move out all the books/furniture so the demo/reconstruction can happen.
November 29
Heard from Jeremy Baumann at State Farm (309) 766-1788. He will come Monday to assess damage and begin claim. And so will the company that we're prolly gonna go with for the work. We started out with RestoPros, recommended by our plumber, Walter. They actually arrived with plumbers, did a quick look, set up the dehumidifiers. But as we began to understand the process we realized that Walter's contacts are all from different companies: one does demo, one checks for asbestos, one packs out, one does the actual build-out. That sounded like a recipe for angst. So we've invited Archer Restoration, a one-stop-shop company that provided this very array of services to our friend Carter earlier this year. He said they were great. We may also get a second estimate, just to have a second estimate.
Meanwhile I've begun shopping for tile, hoping that we'll get a complete demo/rebuild on the bathroom. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic for our retro pink tile. But I’ll get over it. ☺️ We’ll prolly replace the toilet too … it’ll be nice to have one that fits adult butts. And then there’s the rest of the area. Since the water incursion affects about 10 to 20% of each of the three bedrooms we’ll replace all the carpeting. Probably going to go with a higher quality berber ‘cause that has served us well for the past 20 years. And then since all the furniture will be out of the rooms, and since entire walls will be replaced, we’ll paint too.
December 4
State Farm guy just left. No news from him. He “measured” … asked me if I thought “anything else needed to be replaced besides the carpet” … this is gonna be a LOOONNNGGG haul project! 🥺
Deductible is $3500 … and State Farm does not cover the $850 plumber bill! … policy begins with mitigation!
Patrick, the mitigation tech is here from Archer. He will tell us how much of which walls will need to come down. He has already said that any wall that’s affected will get what they call “a 2-foot flood cut”. What that ends up meaning is that the Old Timey beadboard paneling will be entirely replaced on whatever wall they cut. He is not sure yet about the extent of repair: i.e., replacing the entire bathroom, tile, and all. He will have the floor asbestos tested as part of the overall testing. So that may influence the outcome in the end. Watch this space. News at 11!
December 5
RestoPros came and removed their dehumidifiers. No other workmen here today.
December 6
Called Nicole at Archer to ask about asbestos test results; came back negative. Good news.
Wyatt arrived at 1100. Here’s the beginning plan:
1) Pack all books from teak bookcase in Rm 101 and from two bookcases in Media Room
2) Remove three items too damaged to be cleaned: 5-ft wide teak bookcase in Rm 101, 4-shelf bookcase in hallway, tribal rug
3) Move all Media Room furniture back against one wall in prep for using Media Room to store stuff from other rooms
4) Do all 2-foot flood cuts on damaged walls
5) Remove damaged carpet pieces (not entire carpet; that comes later)
They completed #1-4; could not do #5 ‘cause they discovered vinyl flooring under the damaged carpet. Now need asbestos testing of the vinyl, so Patrick will come tomorrow to take samples.
Wyatt said he’d return at 0900 tomorrow to demo the bathroom.
December 7, 2023
Kevin arrived at Noon to gather samples of the vinyl flooring for asbestos testing. After some conversation we decided to suspend work until the test results return, probably Monday. If results are negative, Wyatt will pick up where he left off. If positive, they’ll need to bring in an asbestos abatement team to make the area safe.
My work for the day: going to CR Design Center in Decatur to begin scouting products. Added to this FB page the floor plan I drew in Excel!
