Pictures of the Flood

[dreamaastrid]

Here you go - a few snapshots my husband took:

http://www.msnusers.com/DreamaAstrid/idiotneighbors.msnw

Comments

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

OMG that's not just one part, that's all over...

Oh MAN is that going to be one hell of a repair bill...

[kiltboy]

It's out one wall through the siding (the ice on the ground fell off the side), and on the other side of the house (40' away) there's ceiling that's dropped down in front of the side windows. That a 40' swath of ceiling-caving-in goodness. I suspect thay're going to have to tear the whole damned thing down. The entire first floor and basement ceilings are crap, and three of the exterior walls have icicles through them, on them, and/or running down them. That's pretty much everything from the upstairs carpet down: destroyed.

Can you say "Mold Problems"? I knew that you could...

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

Mold isn't even the least of it if the foundation is toast. If done right, it will dry, so the mold won't get a chance to get a foothold. But if the ceiling is caving that badly, we're not just talking drywall here, we're talking major crossbeam structural support damage.

You really are gonna have to keep us appraised of this one.

[kiltboy]

All the walls are stick built, the main cross-structure is eith steel I-beam or laminated 12x4. All floor joists are composit wood I-beam-y type things, wood chips held together by glue. If they're currently wet, they're frozen solid, so no buckling yet. The ceiling and all wallboard is done. You can see ceiling on the floor in the basement.

Structurally, the house will be fine. Cosmetically, it's destroyed inside.

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

You know how when water gets inbetween cracks in the sidewalk and freezes, it makes the cracks bigger? Frozen water can break rock, let alone composite woods that are already "pieces". It depends upon just how much water may have gotten into the wood before it froze, but if freezing water can break rocks open, it'll make mincemeat out of wood composites. It's why they use them on internal structures that aren't likely to get wet to begin with.

The steel I-beam should hold out just fine. The composite joists I wouldn't be so sure of, nor would I rely on them later (call me paranoid, I'm an engineer. Safety factors are a big deal).

At the very least, renovations are going to be more than mandatory, plus a mold specialist come springtime (if the building isn't warm, then it won't be an issue. Yet).

[ocin.livejournal.com]

What a shame and a waste! Can anything be done about this?

[kiltboy]

I'll give him a week to begin the process. After that, if I see nothing being done, I'll start a process for having it either condemned, or reposessed.

I'm not livig next to a trash heap.