Well, after buying and setting up a dehumidifier (which we needed anyway) and a large metal turbo floor fan that could rival a small monsoon in our basement, it turns out that we had mold already growing in the rec room carpeting. Poor David had even borrowed our neighbor Nancy's ShopVac and had spent long arduous hours sucking up water from the floors, to no avail.
Fortunately, nothing we really cared about was damaged or lost. We lost several cardboard boxes that had been sitting unopened in a pyramid-like mountain in the unfinished area by the laundry machines since we moved back in 2005, so it's probably safe to say we don't really need them anyway. Eventually (soon, so we don't exacerbate the mold problem) we will go through them to see if there's anything worth salvaging.
So because we had mold, all of the carpeting had to be ripped out and disposed of and the floors disinfected. We had to keep the kitties out on the sun porch because we don't have a door leading to the basement stairs. Poor bunnies. They were really traumatized. They were yowling and scratching, and, I think, peeing, which they never do in our house (thank god). It really reeks of cat pee out there now. I'll have to go out there with a spray bottle of bleach.
The restoration guys (David said there were 5 of them that descended on the basement at once; I was playing a matinee concert, so I had a welcome escape from it all) came and ripped everything out, disinfected all of the floors, and brought and left their own dehumidifiers and turbo floor fans. So now we have absolutely no carpeting downstairs, which is weird. The floors underneath what was very nice berber-style wall-to-wall carpeting are cement with dark green paint over it. Not horrible, but definitely not something we can live with if we want to maintain that very large surface area as livable space.
So now we're investigating flooring replacement options that will be much more mold/water resistant than the carpeting was (the padding underneath it was functioning as a mildew hotel, ick) while still looking nice/like a family room atmosphere. Any suggestions?
Oh, and fortunately for us, since we had an additional flood policy added to it (we're less than half a mile from the Milwaukee River), our homeowner's insurance has our wet butts covered. Phew!!! Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there, indeed! :)
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2 comments:
There are several alternate floorings that are made for spaces like that which might get flooded. None of them are carpet however. I can't remember the name, it looks like granite or little tiny pebbles.
Oh my goodness! I had no idea! What a pain! At least your "wet butts were covered" though! (lol), most of the people in our town that got flooded out didnt have flood riders on thier policies!
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