Rain Rain Go Away

This last Saturday, Houston was deluged with rain. Our suburb received 8.48 inches in less than 24 hours, with us receiving 2.5 inches in 30 minutes! It was a crazy rainstorm. I found the kids screaming at the windows as the pool flooded over onto the patio and yard. Then, the kids and I stood on the front porch watching the cars attempt to drive down the street that now looked like a river. We were enjoying the craziness of the rain until I got a phone call from Brian, who was attempting to drive home in the neighborhood flooding. He eventually made it home after some harry moments where water crested his hood and a traffic jam here in the neighborhood while people waited for the water to recede.

In the midst of all this rain, I noticed water on the floor in the hallway to the master bedroom. At first, I thought the kids spilled something, but then I noticed a pocket of paint filled with water potruding from the wall near the ceiling. Uh Oh! Not good. I got some towels and poked open the paint pocket, letting the water out. Then I started walking around the house looking for more leaks. Finally, I made it out to the garage where there was water dripping from the ceiling onto the hood of my car. Double uh oh.

After Brian made it home, we took a trek through the attic to find where the water was coming in while it was still rain was still pouring. The spot over the garage was easy to find with the puddling of water sitting on the drywall. Where a vent protrudes through the roof, a seal is missing, allowing water in.

The other leak was much more difficult. In the back of the attic we found pipes - one coming out of the floor of the attic and one coming down from the roof - that were supposed to be connected to each other. The problem is, they were about 6 inches apart and not connected. The water was flowing in from the pipe coming through the roof and running into the insulation below. It just happened to be running in a void between 3 walls.

Good news, we contacted the home builder (even though we bought the house resale) and they agreed to fix the weird pipe situation. They came out today, connected the pipes and replaced some of the dry wall. Tomorrow they will repaint and replace the insulation. And I've gotten a bid on the other repair.

Both the builder and the contractor I had out on Tuesday told me they've gotten tons of calls this week. Seems like many people have latent Hurricane Ike damage that this heavy rain exposed, which is where they think our leaks came from. Hopefully it will all be fixed early next week, before we get any more rain!