Water Damage

If you are familiar with Arizona, then you are probably aware of our so-called "Monsoon Season" where during the late afternoons we get rather large storm cells that bring dust storms, rain and plenty of lightning and thunder. What qualifies us entering this season is 3 consecutive days of 55 degree average dewpoint. We have had a number of heavy rain days now, and after our last big storm Tammy saw some water damage to one of the walls in the gameroom. As you can see, the paint was rather easy to peel off. I had to figure out what the source of the water was, so I hiked up into the attic to scope things out. Initial thoughts were that the vents in the roof were leaking and letting in water because of the large amounts of rain that we have had. There were indications of water coming in from the vents, and what I assumed was dripping down to an area that was obviously wet, and created a small hole in the insulation.

Tammy made a few calls to different contractors to see if we can get somebody out to give an estimate of the damage. We finally called 1-800-FLOODED. They have been doing a bunch of larger jobs in the area because of the recent rains, and informed us that our damage was very minimal in comparison to the $100K plus jobs that they are also doing. They setup a few air movers to circulate the air around the damaged wall, and also poked a few holes to improve airflow within the wall itself.

After a couple of days of drying out the wall, I noticed that the wall wasn't drying out enough as there was still a wet spot on the wall. It hasnt' been raining all that much during this timeframe, so I decided to go back up into the attic to double check the cause of the moisture. After further inspection, I found that the water was dripping from the A/C blower. Instead of the drip being caught by the emergency drip pan, it was dripping onto the insulation, and eventually destroying the wall. So, we had to call the A/C maintenance folks to get things fixed up there.

The problem ended up being a clogged P-trap. Usually, these things are supposed to last 8 - 10 years, but for some reason, this one clogged early. Above is a picture of the removed clogged area. With the P-trap clogged, the condensation drip was backing up into the unit, causing the overflow and eventual leak. Now that the P-traps are fixed (got them both replaced) there is no more water dripping into the house and we have finally dried out the wall.

Now I have to patch up the wall, retexture some spots and repaint! Whee!