The Flood

As some of you may have seen on my social media account disaster hit last week!

I am fairly good in a crisis; I am known, despite my crazy side, to have a fairly level head. This being said I did enter a panic last week.

It started off as a normal Sunday. I got up, made myself a coffee and got myself ready for church. Now, on entering the kitchen I did notice some water on the floor but I just assumed I had spilt something when washing up and making my Coffee; I can be rather clumsy. So all ready and off I went.

3 hours later and I come back and the first thing I decided to do was let Samson my cheeky little dog out. I took one step into the kitchen and was met with about an inch of water and a rather soggy dog!

The entire kitchen floor was one massive puddle and instantly I heard, and then saw, rhythmic drops hitting the puddle.

Looking up I saw a seam appear and a small drip coming through my ceiling! I can tell you I wasn't happy!

To start it was dripping quite slowly; only falling around 20 drops per minute. (And before anyone asks how I would know it so precisely, I am a music teacher and spend most days listening to a metronome and measuring beats!)

Ignoring the puddle I pulled the black bag out of the bin and put that straight under the drip. There were 2 other places that it seemed to be leaking through so I quickly placed some bowls down to collect as much as possible.

The next job was to seal the kitchen off, mop up the water that had fallen and get some idea as to what was actually happening.

It may be difficult to see here but there were some very clear patches across the ceiling.

Luckily though I am renting with a housing association that has properties designed for disabled adults and families. So I instantly got on the phone to them.

Sadly, or maybe typically, they were pretty useless. The main problem was that it was a Sunday so there was only an emergency team available and with that they could be out to me within the next 5 hours!

By this point, although still fairly level headed, was fuming! 5 hours just seemed like a life time away and just in that small space of time the water flow had increased. The drip was now hitting 90 drops per minute.

The problem I now faced was that the bin was filling up quickly and there was still water dripping through in other places. How was I going to move a bin full of water on a wet floor and manoeuvre to mop without slipping? Having stable ground beneath my feet is crucial.

Again, luckily, I had remains of carpet from where it was fitted in July. I placed a small path down and started moping up what was there. This also allowed me to drag the bin out of the back door and tip it over to empty it.

It doesn't end there though. As the saying goes:

The drip and flow of water increased, so much so a small hole appeared and with it a steady flow of water. It was like someone had a tap lightly running from my ceiling!

So much so that it was filling up my bin fully every hour.

3 hours later and the emergency team turn up. Relief hit me.

That was until they did absolutely nothing!

I heard the van pull up outside and went out to greet them. The problem was that they were aware that the water was coming from the abandoned and empty flat above me so their logic was to go upstairs and turn the water off. They had no intention, and stated as much, to enter my property and to see my ceiling, or the damage and how it could affect me.

My biggest worry though was that a hole had appeared. The pressure must have been enough to cause this so what about the rest of the ceiling? was it even safe to be in the kitchen?

There was also the added concern that although they might have stopped the water from coming there would also me an amount sitting above the ceiling and still running through. So there I as left on a Sunday evening cleaning up the mess and emptying the bin until the flow steady and slowed.

In the night I heard a sound and I knew only one thing had happened:

I didn't dare look. I got dressed, got in the car and went and picked up the boys. By the time I got back though I was lucky enough to see the regular repairman outside waiting for us. He was lovely and was disgusted with the emergency team and was shocked that they didn't even come and see the structure of the ceiling especially when you consider that I have children.

He also discovered that the tenant's, upon leaving that weekend, didn't turn the water off when they pulled the washing machine out and in doing it with haste also damaged one of the pipes. 

With one look up the ladder he could see the damage and subsequently and with very little effort he pulled my soaked through plasterboard down to leave the exposed wood and concrete.

With this done and the water off upstairs that was the end of my drama. I will admit that it left me rather stressed and worried but a few positives came to mind.

• I didn't panic and kept my cool and did what I needed to do.
• Despite obvious health issues I managed to do the cleaning and emptying of water; something that in hindsight should have been something I would struggle with.
• I am thankful that I am in a housing association as this would have been costly!
• I am also thankful that I didn't have the Boys that Sunday evening and early hours of Monday morning. The ceiling fell just above our dining table; a place for eating and for our Home School. None of us got hurt.

So this is the round up of "The Flood" and hopefully after it has fully dried out they will come and repair my ceiling!