Toilet over Flowed on Second Floor...

Our ac condensation line runs to the drain in one of our upstairs bathrooms. The sink must have been clogged and the condensation came up thru the sink and overflowed onto the floor. Unfortunately, it's in a bathroom that rarely gets used unless we have guests staying with us and we keep that door closed so my 3 year old won't go in there. My 8 year old daughter mentioned that the floor was wet outside of the bathroom one day and thought maybe she or her little brother had spilled something there. We told her to just dry it up with towels. She didn't mention how big of an area it was that was wet or how many towels she needed to dry it up at the time. The upstairs is just bedrooms for the kids, a guest room and a playroom so my husband and I sometimes go days without going up there. The next day, my 20 year old son came over and went upstairs to get something out of his old room and made a comment about the floor being wet. My husband went upstairs and we found that the water had soaked the carpet for about 6 to 8 feet outside of the bathroom as well as the carpet in the bathroom too. Fortunately, that bathroom is over the garage so there was only a small water stain on the garage ceiling, but nothing inside the house. We have a bissell proheat steam cleaner so we just used that to soak up all the water that we could and then we put lots of fans blowing all over the area for a couple of days. There was staining on the carpet that we had to use the steam cleaner to clean once it was dry, but there was no lasting smell or anything like that even though this had obviously been going on for a couple of days at least. If you have a steam cleaner with good suction or even a wet/dry shop vac, you might try sucking up the water yourself before spending the money to have it done professionally. Of course, there is always a chance it will smell musty or moldy and a professional may be able to avoid that. Fortunately, we were able to do it ourselves. I will warn you, if you don't get a reputable company, a lot of time the ones trying to get you to spend more money will tell you that you need to pull up the carpet and pad and replace them even when that's not really necessary so be careful if you go that route. Good luck!

If you don't get it cleaned up right, it'll smell. I'd call TLC Carpet Care in Lewisville. In the meantime dry it up with towels and maybe a fan blowing across it. If it soaked the pad alot, then cleaning it professionally is probably a good idea.

Hopefully, your ceiling is okay. I had the same thing happen to me and I have to repaint the ceiling...

Good luck!

Wipe up as much water as you can, I had this happened one time, and had to rent a big Vac - to suck the water !
also place a fan to dry it up as well, you don't want mildew to grow that would be even a worse mess !
By renting a big Vac (from grocery stores) less expensive then to call out a Prof. Carpet Co.

HI!

Unfortunately, I have experienced this too only much worse and on the first floor! I would defintely call in someone like Blackman Mooring who can get out all the water because there will be potential for mold damage ect. if you don't. They also told me there was more water than what I had thought initially...For some reason he said thank goodness it wasn't on the second floor! (Not sure why but I think I would go with a professional to make sure that all the water is extracted and stops further damage. They did a great job! I highly recommednd them.
P.S. You'll probably have a big fan placed in that area for a few days.

Good luck!
J.

I used to be an insurance adjuster. Your insurance policy states that it is your duty to mitigate and prevent from further damages. I would suggest calling a professional like Service Master to dry the wet areas. You never know how much water is in the walls and their professional drying techniques will also dry between floors. If the services are under your deductible or you can pay out of pocket, you may not want to call you insurance company. Another thing, unless the law has changed in the last year, there should be no tax on drying services. Many companies try to charge consumers for that.

Call your insurance company. They will send out professionals to bring in drying equipment and check for moisture with special equipment. They will pay for it. That's what your premiums are for!

I would call a professional for an estimate and NOT my insurance unless there is significant damage. Depending on the damage, you might be able to do it yourself.

True, you pay premiums but if you make a claim, you can rest assured that your premiums will go up.

DO the math......the cost of damage vs your deductible and the amount of risk you want to run on higher premiums in the long run.

Good luck!
Susan