Déjà vu all over again

Damn, damn, damn!

4 February 2009. Shortly after I moved in back in 2002, a leak in my neighbor's kitchen flooded not only their unit but mine as well. Tuesday evening I went to a show in Pasadena with Bob, and when I returned just after midnight, I found that in my absence the toilet in my bathroom had blown its top and water filled my bedroom and bathroom, the guest bathroom, and the closets in the hallway.

The culprit was the float mechanism inside the tank that controls the refilling of the tank after a flush. The part holding the mechanism together failed, and the water pressure drove the top part up with such force that it lifted the lid and water sprayed everywhere. In the picture, left, you can see the top of the float sticking way up above the tank. You can see that the hose to the overflow pipe was jerked loose as well.

I grabbed the yellow pages book on the top of the stack and called the outfit with the first full-page ad under "water removal" that promised a 1-hour response, 24/7. When I found out how much they were going to charge to actually fulfill that promise in the middle of the night, I said Maybe I'll just wait until daylight.

True to their word, they showed up with a big truck and giant vacuums to suck up the water. Then they set about drilling holes in all the walls so they could pump hot air in and dry out the walls from the inside out. Giant fans are everywhere.

With hoses sticking into the walls everywhere, the house looks like it is on life support. And as it quickly became clear, when you pump the walls full of hot air, it tends to turn the house into a sauna. Thank goodness this didn't happen in the summer!

Fortunately, I have some very good ear plugs, and I slept like a log last night, fans, dehumidifiers, and other assorted noisemakers notwithstanding.