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flooded basement, need insurance claim, all tanks out and full remodel, advice needed


Electrokate

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Hi,

I flooded my basement a few days ago and tried wet vac and fans but the pad was soaked. Just had my sis over, she did insurance claims and now sells floors and she says it's hosed. Pun intended. She had some device to measure water in carpet. The only thing good is the water was clean, but the carpet and the wallboard gotta go, and there is a ton of mold already. House smells a lot like the defecation of a large snake, if you know what that smells like. Unhealthy, and I have asthma. I have 4 snakes, a parrot and 20+ aquariums that aside from us will be affected. OH and a very angry spouse.

I need to remove my 2 reef tanks, racks of other stuff and desk out. We have no garage or extra space for all this, but some can go to Rose City for store cred so I get it back later or something similar.

Wallboard is of a vintage no longer available which means insurance will upgrade us to sheetrock. Will sheetrock application mean fumes that are toxic? I assume so. If not then it's the paint right?

Insurance: anyone here ever dealt with insurance companies on a stupid aquarium mistake? I was filling the mixing barrel, I have ADD, I got hungry and then decided to watch TV... oops. Trying to think of things I could say that would sound smarter than "I ran a hose to a garbage can in the middle of the floor and left the room." Not really coming up with anything here. Geez do I really gotta tell the truth?

Anyone recommend a company that will move my tanks and bill the insurance company? Contractors will not do it, not that I would let them. I can help with the move and pay up front, this would be my deductible. Maybe more. I will ask Nick and am friends with the guys at World of Wet Pets but I don't know how much I can do on a short notice.

Been meaning to redo the wiring in the basement so I don't get a shock every time I touch my tank. Guess now's the time (: Not sure I will be allowed to have a tank though. I know I can set up an RO unit with auto topoff but my last RO unit leaked! While we were out of town of course. Right into the baby peppermint shrimp I had just gotten to settlement.

New floor: carpet is out. Probably will go for a fiberglass based linoleum which is waterproof. No glue, not toxic. Yay.

Is it normal for a 1952 bungalow with basement in PDX TO NOT HAVE A DRAIN?!?

Maybe the drain is plugged.

That's all for now. Really I am just *****ing. Did I mention I am having surgery on thursday at 7:30?

Kate

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Check with carpet cleaning companies. They have vans that can handle extracting massive amounts of water. I saved all the carpet in my vacation house that way. There was 16 inches in the living room(including the 1/2 inch of mud). And after some creative construction it looked and smelled good as new. No mold or dry rot noted after two years. The total cost was around $2000.00(I did all the work except the carpet cleaning). Main cost was the very nice hardwood to border two feet off the floor. It could be done much cheaper with at different type of wood.

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Ohhh good luck to you kate. That sucks and I know all about floods and asthma so I feel your pain.

 

Was looking at your carpet during the meeting. You and I both need these: http://www.amazon.com/Leak-Frog-LF001-Water-Alarm/dp/B000WMSTUO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1295421553&sr=8-1

 

Thought about ordering 1 for the water heater, 1 for the washing machine, 1 for each large tank and 1 for the mixing barrel but it was late and I was tired so did not submit the order. Constarndit! (no swearing on the forum!) (: This was about 10 days ago, they were 2 for 15 bucks.

Kate

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You are definitely on the list. Tile ain't cheap! (:

I like it a lot, not just for aquariums but for cleaning up my other hobby of painting. Yes I oilpaint around reef tanks. So far so good. Much easier to clean oil paint drips from tile than rug. I use new products that are geared toward safety and clean up with soap and water not turpentine. Still it's quite scary.

subfloor is uneven, will need leveling. Another big concern is where is the drain or is there not one at all? Insurance claim is moot if no drain as they will not pay unless we install one. They will claim substandard construction caused the damage. I do miss having a sump to drain my tanks to like in my last house, it was awesome. They are not very attractive though.

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Depending on how it's built, an the person doin the work, you could probably easily put in a drain of some kind, definitely talk with Robert or Steve(Saltfinsax) they're both great guys.

 

I'll pm you Steve's number in the morning once Jess gets home(330am or so) since she's got the phone with her LOL.

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Kate' date=' if you need help ripping it all out, let me know, I work cheap, I can't do finish work, not enough training so I dont even try an fool myself, but basics I can do easily LOL.[/quote']

 

My dad might help, if I can't do anything postop though I will hit you up.

Can you build simple 2x4 racks for 20 gallon tanks? Been thinking of doing those for a while for pairs of fish and any offspring, now it seems kinda urgent. I could stack the 25 to 35 gallon tanks in a corner and save much of my livestock.

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Mark Birkett does great work, he's a contactor and is very honest and fair from the work I have seen. I think he has some time on his hands, I would get ahold of him for 2 reasons. He's a great fish guy and can also do construction.

 

Plug for Mark!

Wow thanks for all the great referalls!
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So where is the emoticon for drinking heavily?

 

We got a dehumidifier for tonight. Tomorrow will move whatever stuff Nick can use to his shop, maybe post a few things here, and hit up Wet Spot for extra freshwater, move what I can into 20 and 30 gallon tanks upstairs, and then start pulling the sopping wet carpet pad out. Spousal unit is pretty unhappy, wants to try the dehumidifier thing a few days in hopes it works. Then wants to try shampooing the rug but without removing the reef tanks. Which is not my favorite plan. Has anyone tried carpet cleaning next to a reef tank? Assume fumes and perfumes would not be healthy.

 

I kind of feel like letting the insurance people in and letting their guy rip the carpet out, rip down the tacky walboard, do whatever they do with the mold in the walls, put proper sheetrock up and maybe we get an electrician in since I can't touch any light in the basement without getting zapped even when the carpet is dry, and who knows, after blowing a few grand we might have a pretty decent looking basement instead of a classic 70's rumpus room with poor light and dreary office carpet.

 

Funny how it was a python brand hose that led to this and the results smell exactly like what comes out a python snake. I don't like my house smelling like a pet store.

 

Thanks everyone for the tips and referrals. I will definitely have to work through this list with my spousal unit, who is understandably quite fried at me. I hope I didn't blow things with him. spousal units are expensive and complicated to replace and such upgrades at my age are difficult, plus not covered by insurance. He particularly hates freshwater and thinks all fish people are insane. In my case that might be true. This from a man whose job was to book and handle the musicians at Satyricon in it's heyday. I suppose that was entertaining insanity.

Now I am rambling, sorry. THink I will be having a hangover tomorrow. Ooops. That probably won't help a whole lot, but you never know.

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Thanks everyone. We got the dehumifier last night, and I did immediately crawl around for 2 hours with the shop vac and got 15+ gallons out, but the carpet and pad are still sopping wet. My husband is vetoing removing the carpet and remodeling, does not want to involve insurance, not til a few days of dehumidifier and after the surgery. I guess I see his point, why remodel if I am going to continue to keep fish down there. Really covet a tile floor though, this is not the first time I have spilled water of course, but not usually this bad. My last fishroom was great. Concrete floor with sump.

So for now I have to remove the furnishings and roll the carpet back, rip the pad out. Am going to work on getting the 55 out first and make room upstairs for a 50 gallon holding tank by selling the plant tank. The 120 and 55 are on the only dry patches, but I don't know if it's ok to have a reef around a carpet that is being shampooed. Anyone know? I'd like to at least get the most valuable corals to a safer location.

If I am not completely burned out on fish by the end of the month I guess I will hire to build those shelves in the non carpeted areas and get my broodstock set up and a tank with my frags that I need to sell. We shall see. Right now it's not sounding like such a hot idea for some reason. Maybe I should go back to rock collecting. (:

Thanks,

Kate

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