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  • Fun with apartment living

    The building we live in is old, probably constructed in the 50s. As such, there are some issues; our kitchen and bathroom subfloor has divots (some of the kitchen tiles are coming up and the bathroom tile has so many cracks we know that if water gets on the floor it's likely leaking into the ceiling downstairs), not enough wall outlets where we need them, on occasion the radiator has leaked water into the apartment below, etc. And now I get to add more confirmed leaks to the list.

    When mom was in the hospital for her hip, I had to deal with a leak in the bathroom (mainly the ceiling but also inside a wall). We still haven't gotten that stripped/repainted. The explanation from the upstairs neighbors (who ignored my knocks on the door and the maintenance guy had to come and check it out for them to realize anything) was that she was giving the baby a bath in the sink and he was splashing water on the floor. I don't know what kind of sink they have, but ours is barely big enough to rinse a small sweater in. Our concern is how long had there been a leak before we noticed? It has not happened again, so maybe the fact that maintenance approached them first about it was good.

    Fast-forward to about two hours ago. I'm on the computer when I hear crackling from the kitchen. I go in...and see and hear water in the wall again. Around the outlet There is a radio plugged in there and I yank the plug just in case.

    So I call the emergency line, explain that we have water in the wall near an outlet and get a call back from a tech two minutes later. If water does contact the wires it will trip the breaker--while there's no immediate danger it is something to watch given what has happened before. He offers to come by and check it out just in case. In the meantime the wall has quieted down/dried out and I go upstairs...surprise, no answer.

    Maintenance guy shows up and immediately goes up there. They were doing something that overflowed the sink* and she did mop it up immediately...but it again begs the question how long had that been happening before it got to a point where we noticed?

    That was definitely a "holy " moment; besides pulling the plug I didn't touch anything until I heard back from maintenance.

    * I'd love to know what. Our sink is stainless steel, fairly huge and has a backsplash so even if water does get on the counter it's not going anywhere. The pipes are easy to block up if you put the wrong thing down there...we have a disposal now so don't need to worry about food waste but they likely don't have the same luxury. Although this may explain the perpetual peeling paint on the ceiling...wouldn't be surprised if there is a leak there and they have the same problem with the floor tiles that we do.
    "I am quite confident that I do exist."
    "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

  • #2
    Quoth Dreamstalker View Post
    So I call the emergency line, explain that we have water in the wall near an outlet and get a call back from a tech two minutes later. If water does contact the wires it will trip the breaker--while there's no immediate danger it is something to watch given what has happened before. He offers to come by and check it out just in case. In the meantime the wall has quieted down/dried out and I go upstairs...surprise, no answer.
    My husband is currently in training to become an electrician, and he questions the response you got. He says it is unwise to count on the circuit breaker as protection in this situation, since a dangerous condition can exist that would not trip it (unless you have GFCI). I'm trying to get him to simply post his own commentary on this subject, since I confess I do not understand this subject adequately to relay his remarks.
    "Crazy may always be open for business, but on the full moon, it has buy one get one free specials." - WishfulSpirit

    "Sometimes customers remind me of zombies, but I'm pretty sure that zombies are smarter." - MelindaJoy77

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    • #3
      That outlet does have a breaker switch (small flat buttons in between the two outlets; we have to plug three-prong plugs in very carefully to avoid tripping it). The only thing we can do now is tape it off until someone can come over--which mom wants done soon as that's the only outlet on that side of the room. The cat already seems annoyed at the lack of a radio (he likes when we leave classical music on during the day)

      For the water to leak where it did, it would have had to run down behind the backsplash upstairs (if they have one). While the previous tenants there were inconsiderate ignorant assholes we never had any problems like this; not saying they're the sole cause, but two leaks (if the bathroom happens again it could be a waterfall rather than a rapid drip) in six months after nine years of nothing...?
      Last edited by Dreamstalker; 06-23-2014, 04:14 AM.
      "I am quite confident that I do exist."
      "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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      • #4
        grrr.... I *HATE* the ignoring of neighbour knocking!

        Had the upstairs guy in one apartment do that, his toilet was overflowing to the point where it was leaking through the ceiling and dripping down onto our floor(his carpet was "drenched" according to the maintenance guy), but he "didn't notice" the overflow for several hours OR us knocking, and actually got pissed at us for calling it in!

        What makes it worse is a previous tennant had memory issues and had flooded 3 apartments(hers and the two below-one was a basement apartment) by forgetting the bathtub was filling for 8 hours, to the point that one(basement) was considered a total loss. Her family was upset that she had to go to an assisted living facility* because they "didn't see what the problem was"


        *landlords reported the incident to elder social services as she might be a danger to herself living alone.
        Honestly.... the image of that in my head made me go "AWESOME!"..... and then I remembered I am terribly strange.-Red dazes

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        • #5
          We realized that when they installed our garbage disposal the electrician tapped into the wiring behind that outlet. Although it's been working normally until now (haven't tried to use it since this happened), so there's a possibility that something came loose that was never noticed until the water came in. We may be able to request that maintenance find and fix whatever is up there that caused the leak.
          "I am quite confident that I do exist."
          "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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          • #6
            The apartment complex needs to fix this, pronto. If they don't, next time call the fire marshal and explain your situation and what happened. Electricity plus water equals short, and short can equal fire. It's not an unreasonable request to GET THE LEAK PLUGGED. You shouldn't have to rely on the cooperation of your upstairs neighbor to stop the apartment from flooding or having a fire break out.

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