Home Projects (Blogophilia 27.15)

A couple of months ago, I went into my spare bedroom to get something out of the closet and I noticed a small brown spot on the baseboard molding. I reached down and everything along the floor was wet. On, no. It turned out I had a pinhole leak in a pipe going to my front outdoor spigot. I may have caused this problem because for the longest time, there was a hose that had seized to the threads and I tied (and failed) to use force to get it loose. 

On inspection, the water was dripping from underneath the siding and flowing down toward the street. 

I quickly called a plumber. Being the good company they are, they had a truck nearby and he was at the house in a couple of hours. 

The hurry-up part? The pipe was fixed in about an hour.

The slow-down part? I had water damage over a 4'X5' section of the wall and an unknown amount of the floor. 

                                

I received a referral to a company that could estimate the damage. I called and the representative came the next day. I got bad vibes during the process about how the company does business. Since this was a  large job, I decided I needed to: a) vet the company and b) get a second opinion. 

Twenty minutes of Google later,  I found out Bad Vibe Dude's company had ten Better Business Bureau complaints within the last year with only a couple being resolved. I proceeded to step b.

After a few referrals from Angie's List, I began the vet process again. It turned out I had to split the project into two parts: Water Mitigation and Reconstruction. The  Mitigation folks were good, expensive, and worth it. It took a full three days to get everything dry and mold-free. This is what it looked like when we went on vacation.

                                    

When I returned, I started vetting handyman companies using the same process. After several bids, I  chose one that was able to start the next week. They came with decent recommendations. 

The first part of the job was the wall reconstruction. The guy showed up on time and went to work. It took a few hours, but he had the sheetrock fully installed and painted. It looked great. 

                                    

Then he started working on the floor. Whoever did the remodeling of my house (at least two owners ago) had left a box of flooring in my garage. I made sure it was available. But there was a problem. It wasn't the same width as the damaged floor and most of it had been cut into smaller lengths, which would make the transition to the old flooring a problem. Thus began the quest to obtain the correct product for the job. After a few days, it was determined it had been discontinued. However several boxes of the cut-up width floor were found and a plan was made. 

The next week, a new guy came to do the floor (the original guy was tied up in another job). He was younger and less experienced and that proved to be a  problem when it was found the old floor was glued down with some kind of epoxy rather than standard floor glue. He was singing a song sung blue. 

                                        

It took several tries over three weeks to get the floor up. Crowbars and jackhammers ended up being used over several days. The surface was sort of ready. and the first attempt to lay the new floor happened.  The final product was sloppy and failed quality control. 

The Handyman company replaced the young guy and brought in an experienced one. It still took him the better part of a day to get everything back together. To the company's credit, they offered a discount on the job without me even asking. 

It was an adventure, to say the least. Hopefully, I won't have to deal with anything like this for a while.