Hey, why is the carpet wet, Mom?

 


Early last week our outdoor water spigot wore out and my DH set about repairing it. In Oregon, your pipes will freeze in the winter and thus appropriate spigots that self drain all the way back about a foot into the wall. Trying to fix/replace this, as you can imagine, is a little tricky. Never the less, he did it.


About five days later, the carpet in our livingroom was soaked! There was a large area that reached from the corner and out about five or six feet in a large triangle. We could only assume it was the new spigot on the other side of the wall. Did the pipe crack when it was reassembled? What was going on? After we surveyed the situation, it was obvious that we had to rip the wall open- from the outside. What a nightmare.


My husband carefully removed a 6x8 section of the siding. Lo and behold, a rapidly dripping pipe! It took some trips to the hardware store and different methods, but he got it fixed. Now we had to take on the inside of the house. The carpet shampooer was unable to extract the water because it was soaked through the foam underlayment, too. We had to borrow a large shopvac and it was good, but we decided to rip out the foam stuff and put a new section of it in there to avoid a lot of drying time.


What a hassle. But things happen, you know. Glad it's over. Wait a minute- is that smoke I smell?