Dry We Must!

Adding to the drama of the sewer back-up into the basement, we have to deal with the carpet and sheet rock that got wet. First the smell, of course, but more importantly: the risk of mold and rot.

The fine folks from a carpet / wall drying service arrived within minutes of our calling them. They have a cool device that they hold against a wall and it tells them how wet they are. Sheetrock acts like a sponge; some of the walls were wet up to 12-inches. Further, boxes of magazines and old books in both rooms (one was my office) were soaked at the bottom, begging to be unpacked (I did a lot of recycling).

With a $500 deposit, they were busy at work, pulling up the old carpet and hauling it away. Turns out the indoor / outdoor carpeting was glued to the cement floor (why would anyone do this?), so no hopes of drying it out and reinstalling it.

No matter. It was hideous anyway.

Once the carpet was up, they wheeled in 10 air movers (big fans, in the shape of a nautilus shell) and two massive de-humidifiers to pull moisture out of the air. They hooked a 220-110 volt converter to the dryer plug so the load wouldn’t blow all the circuits in the house (the de-humidifiers alone pull 10 amps each).

It sounds like planes are taking off and landing in the basement at the moment, but the air is definitely more dry and the concrete floor is no longer moist. They come back for their gear on Tuesday.

I am not looking forward to the power bill this month.

:: shudder ::