Water Damage

15 years ago

We have water damage in our basement. The source of the water has been fixed, we are trying to clean up from it. There is a crawl space under the stairs that has a cement floor, and then a finished basement is the rest. We took everything out from under the stairs and cleaned it up, sprayed bleach water, and ran a heated fan for a few days. Under the stairs was also the source of the water, so it is directly where the water came from. It dried up, and we put everything back. Then we started smelling mold again and checked. The concrete is wet again. So we pulled up the carpet on the other side of wall, and it is dry. The wood underneath it is dry. So we drilled a small hole and under it is insulation. Wet insulation. My DH is the one he is doing the work, I have no idea what to do about it. I hope I explained this well! Does anyone have any tips on where to start? Can we just run a dehumidifier (wishful thinking)? Thanks for any advice - Christy

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Comments (4)

lucy
15 years ago
Hi, what's a bit confusing is that you first say the source has been fixed, but then go on to explain how the water keeps returning in the same place... until the source has actually been dealt with, there's no point it trying to dry it. The insulation could be widespread (wet) and you may need to ask a pro about things rather than just try to seal in what now might seem like a little problem, but may in fact be quite large (inside).
christy2828
Original Author
15 years ago
I think the water that was soaked in the insulation is what made the concrete wet again. The source of the water is hard to explain but quite simple to resolve, so let me give it a shot. The AC drains water out of a PVC pipe. It was designed to drain into a PVC pipe that came out of the floor. The drain is horizontal and then turns downward. However the AC unit got in the direct line for the PVC pipe, so they bent it slightly and just pushed it into the PVC pipe coming out of the floor. It got bumped, and the PVC pipe was knocked out of the floor drain. It was very slow to make a mess, because we weren't running the AC very often. Sorry for the confusion, I just don't have the vocabulary for this!! Thanks, Christy
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rjoh878646
15 years ago
The only way you are going to get it dry is tear oprn the wall and remove and discard the wet insulation.
christy2828
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the advice :) We have ripped up the floor board and pulled out all of the wet insulation. We finally hit dry concrete, so hopefully we've resolved the issue. Thanks, Christy