Background:
I sell real estate. Yesterday I showed a client a house that seems like a pretty good deal – two story, built 1988. 4BR/4BA, ~1900FSF above grade, plus another 800 below grade. Very nice condition generally inside and out. Best part is the price – $150K. The house is valued for taxes at $192K. It’s part of an estate, and I guess the family just wants to be rid of it. It’s a helluva deal, really.
But….but. We recently had a nasty cold snap, and during that time – wouldn’t you know it – the heat quit, and the pipes froze. Inevitably it warmed up a bit and the pipes burst, flooding the basement (not too badly however). It was caught quickly, so there’s surprisingly minimal damage to the basement – they just had to tear out the carpet (it’s mostly tiled) and cut away a bit of drywall & base trim. That’s all good. They shut off the water at the meter to prevent further damage, but haven’t effected any repairs otherwise. The heat is back on as well (it was 75F when we walked in there – with the humidity from the basement drying out it felt like the indoor rainforest at our local zoo!)
What makes me nervous is that there is also evidence on the 1st floor ceiling of water leakage in a couple spots – I figured it’s from the frozen pipes because it’s still wet. That leads me to my question:
How are these situations dealt with? My client is (rightly IMO) concerned that if he buys the house he might wind up having to replumb the whole damned thing. How do you find all the breaks in the pipes? Just turn the main valve back on and watch for drips from the ceilings and walls? Seems a bit bass-ackwards to me.
And are new or previously unseen leaks likely to manifest themselves when the water is turned back on?
Replies
very likely to be more boken pipes, charge the system with air ,you should be able to find the rest of them
The problem is not only with the immediate damage, but the high humidity in there at high temp is already starting to cause some mold growth. The current owners should be getting that moisture OUT of the house instead of just circulating it inside.
Probable other hidden problems. For instance, the insulation in the basement walls could be wetted and wicked up water in the bottom few inches where it will take forever to dry and is feeding mold growth. The only way to know for sure is to open the wall in a couple of places to see. But without permission to do invasive testing, you might be able to get a home inspector with moisture testing equipment.
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