Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Topic: Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling (Read 3672 times) previous topic - next topic

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

June 01, 2011, 06:19:09 PM

Fitting blew off the toilet at about 710A this morning. Luckily I was home but by the time I woke out of my stupor and figured out what was going on, it had piled up 2 inches of water in the room. It then found a hole in the subfloor and poured down into the kitchen ceiling. I poked holes in the ceiling in a vain attempt to help it drain faster (morning stupor). It helped some, but its still slowly getting worse.
:toilet:

At about 730A:

At about 1030A:

The SOB fitting:

I got everything dried up as best I can and called the insurance folks. They are coming out tomorrow 8am.

I've never been through anything like this. Anyone have any pointers? I'm pretty handy, but I really don't need this right now and would love to just pay the deductible to get it taken care of. I just don't want to get screwed (and Insurance companies are in the business of screwing people).

Maybe I can get them to build me a stoss outhouse with a drain and I'll convert that pos bathroom into a closet.

Halp?

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #1 – June 01, 2011, 06:40:07 PM

you probably will have to replace the drywall that got soaked..... if you, don't black mold will grow if it isn't dried quickly... I did a repair for someone much like this during the winter....a couple weeks later, after the water damage, and the drywall was still damp inside when I took it off. along with the mold that was starting to cover the paper on the back side

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #2 – June 01, 2011, 07:30:35 PM

I intend to have it repaired ASAP. The girlfriend is a teacher and has the next few weeks off. I'm hoping to have them start next week if possible. If they can't then ill take it down myself. Mold is a big problem here and I don't want to even give it a chance. I was hoping you would chime in since I knew you're a contractor.

We will see what they say tomorrow.

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #3 – June 01, 2011, 07:31:10 PM

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #4 – June 01, 2011, 09:01:04 PM

Don't let them close the claim till your completely satisfied they'll probably raise your rate and even maybe drop you so get them for every thing you can. Oh and sorry for the mess it sucks but that's what ins is for.
P.S yell at your plumber it says rite on those connector's only tighten 1 turn past hand tight.

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #5 – June 01, 2011, 09:29:40 PM

good thing you weren't sitting there when it happened!!!

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #6 – June 01, 2011, 09:39:32 PM

If you have a good insurance company, you shouldn't have a problem.

Man that sucks though, hope you get it taken care of properly.

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #7 – June 01, 2011, 10:58:25 PM

I that a screw on fitting? My toilets are so old that they have solid metal pipes with metal screw fittings on both ends for in water inlet.

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #8 – June 01, 2011, 11:32:29 PM

Our water is so hard here that they need to be replaced every 7-10 years. They just calcify up and stop flushing. I was just at the hardware store. They are all plastic now. I bought the floodproof hose. Hopefully I won't need it.

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #9 – June 06, 2011, 11:13:14 AM

When it rains it pours. They say the walls are still wet after 4 days of drying. So they are coming to tear them out today. On top of that my AC seems to be going out because it no longer can keep up with the heat generated by the dehumidifiers. (Its 80+ in the house)

And on Saturday, I decided to get out of the house and go see some mud racing on the south side of town. We took the 84 Rabbit vert since it was nice weather. About 10 miles away from the racetrack, I noticed that temps were running high and that the car was down on power. I was monitoring the situation (the car has a history of running hot), the trans Kicked out of 5th gear. WTF?!?!? So I put it back in and it kicked out again. And again. Finally I held it in gear so I could pull off the road. Get it pulled over and smoke is coming from the drivers side tire. Turns out, the huge plug for the throwout bearing had popped out on the expressway, drained all the gear lube, and destroyed the trans.

Then I got home and got into an argument. FML. I don't think I've slept more than a couple hours a night for about 5 days now. Not only that but the junk from the kitchen has been moved into my garage so I can't even work on the Mustang.

I'm thinking about selling the Cat to cover some of the bills.

Just needed to vent before I go crazy.

Here is the hole in my ceiling:

The Driers from hell:

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #10 – June 06, 2011, 08:47:30 PM

Sorry to hear all that, I guess I got lucky when my basp00get wall started leaking this last winter. Saved on the heating bill! (Of course the electric bill was a touch higher!) I had the dehumidifer for three days, and it did a fair job, but it could have used a couple more days I think, and the space I was trying to dry wasn't nearly that big. I did notice that on the last day I had it, I moved it to a smaller space(Under the stairs access) and it seemed to not be working nearly as well as it did in the 10x10 room it was in before(Kept going into defrost mode, even though it was plenty warm). I even had a blower fan going. What a pain, I hope you get it taken care of soon!

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #11 – June 06, 2011, 08:56:03 PM

, I hate when the water makes it to the walls

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #12 – June 06, 2011, 09:10:44 PM

That sucks brother. The one in our apartment started leaking last year and we didn't realize it cause it was such a slow leak. The water all seeped through the back wall and into the bedroom closet. We realized something was wrong when we went to get something from it and the carpet was wet. Luckily we are renters and the landlords took care of it and it actually turned out to be not very bad of a problem as they were able to wet-vac almost all the water out of the carpet and we stuck a fan on it after that. It was all dry the next day. We got lucky cause the drywall was done right and it wasn't sitting on the floor so it barely soaked up any water. I'm sure it'll be a little moldy back there but nothing bad.

I've seen a lot of moldy water damaged drywall (I am a drywaller by trade) and trust me, you don't want any of that in your house. Make sure they repair everything that got wet, and then some. Even if you're able to get the walls dried out, the mold will tend to still grow now that it's had that initial startup. It won't cost you anything extra (other than time) and the drywall company the ins hired to fix it will make a little more too. The only one losing is the ins company. And that's how it should be lol;)

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #13 – June 07, 2011, 11:20:31 AM

Quote from: sarjxxx;361159

That sucks brother. The one in our apartment started leaking last year and we didn't realize it cause it was such a slow leak. The water all seeped through the back wall and into the bedroom closet. We realized something was wrong when we went to get something from it and the carpet was wet. Luckily we are renters and the landlords took care of it and it actually turned out to be not very bad of a problem as they were able to wet-vac almost all the water out of the carpet and we stuck a fan on it after that. It was all dry the next day. We got lucky cause the drywall was done right and it wasn't sitting on the floor so it barely soaked up any water. I'm sure it'll be a little moldy back there but nothing bad.

I've seen a lot of moldy water damaged drywall (I am a drywaller by trade) and trust me, you don't want any of that in your house. Make sure they repair everything that got wet, and then some. Even if you're able to get the walls dried out, the mold will tend to still grow now that it's had that initial startup. It won't cost you anything extra (other than time) and the drywall company the ins hired to fix it will make a little more too. The only one losing is the ins company. And that's how it should be lol;)

From what I've learned, the Wet/dry vac + fan combo is not enough. Even with 2 industrial dehumifiers running and 7 blower fans, my sheet rock is still saturated. I thought I had it all taken care of upstairs until they started ripping into the floor to discover that it was still soaking wet underneath. As a renter, I wouldn't care, but just for future information when you own a home later.

They have torn out everything thats still wet and they also applied this anti-fungal that smells like paint thinner (applied to subfloor/rafters). I'm pretty particular when it comes to having work done so I don't plan on letting them off easy. The adjuster talked about blending the wall texture and I informed him that I would be dissatisfied with the result. He assured me it would be fine and I told him that I have never seen a blend job that was acceptable (maybe because I can't see the good ones?) and that he would be doing it over again. He kept upsetting me by saying "we pay" and trying to make me feel guilty for asking to have things fixed correctly (correctly in my eyes). I kept reminding him that I pay you to put the house back the way it was.

Fitting on Toilet burst destroying my Kitchen Ceiling

Reply #14 – June 07, 2011, 06:47:01 PM

Email can be your friend. Save all in a seperate file