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I think there is backwater in my basement's ceiling
The title kind of sums it up where I'm at so far, but let me start with some context: EDIT: Photos got somehow removed? Adding them back at the bottom. TLDR: We just bought a home and noticed a nasty smell in the finished basement. I found a soft-spot in the ceiling that looked like old water damage, cut it open to investigate and found what looks to be old, dried, sewage that leaked from the bathroom on the floor above. My plan as it stands is just to tear out the ceiling, wipe stuff down, and re-drywall. If folks want, I can post updated photos as everything opens up even more and likely even more damage is found. Longer Story and Context: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Me and my wife recently purchased our first home in the PNW. Inspections all came back as clean as they could for a house built in the 1940s… certainly no big red flags. One major plus was that the house has a nice finished basement which I plan to use as an office. Everything about the home is wonderful but there was a weird musty smell in the basement I couldn't figure out. At first I thought it was just “basement” smell… but it felt different from the regular musty basement. I’ve been running air purifiers and a big commercial dehumidifier but nothing has been able to kick it. Fast forward to a few days ago and I really started hunting for the source of this smell. I pinpointed it to the basement's bathroom and sure enough, I started feeling around on the ceiling to quickly find a big old mushy soft spot that the seller obviously just painted over. It wasn’t actively wet, but clearly completely rotten drywall. As luck would have it, the soft spot is directly below where the upstairs toilet sits. Not a great sign, but hey, maybe it’s just a clean water pipe that leaked right? I called a plumber to come take a look at the upstairs bathroom to make sure there wasn’t an active leak and nothing was found. In true homie fashion, the plumber told me he could open the basement ceiling up for me for an extra charge, but that I’d probably be better off masking up and opening it myself seeing as there probably isn’t an active leak anyway and the soft spot would need to be patched one way or another. Well, yesterday I opened up an 8”x8” hole and I found the source of the smell. I’ll say that it doesn’t really smell like shit… but it’s bad. Think really wet dog mixed with rotting leaves. Nothing is dripping, but based on the brown stains coming off the toilet's waste pipe I'm worried that black water leaked from the upstairs toilet down and into the basement ceiling. And of course all the drywall ceiling that the water leaked onto is completely rotten which is definitely adding to the smell. Digging through city permits, it sounds like the previous owner paid to have 30 feet of sewer line dug up and relined in 2023… so putting two and two together, I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t have done that unless they had a massive sewage line backup causing issues in the home. I had one “professional” water damage specialist come by who said they could fix it but they need to tear out the entire downstairs and upstairs bathroom to the studs. But not to worry because I could submit everything to insurance. They said I'd be looking at an 80k-100k claim. This, frankly, seems insane. Especially considering they are recommending I lie to insurance by telling them this is brand new damage. So this is where I’m at. I have the basement bathroom sealed off with plastic draping which helps contain the smell at least. The exhaust fan is running non-stop and I have a massive dehumidifier running as well. My plan as it currently stands is to rip out as much of the affected ceiling as I can, wipe down everything I can get to with some kind of disinfectant cleaner, and then just replace everything I had to remove with new bits. Maybe I’ll call the plumber back too to double check there isn’t a busted seal somewhere. This is my first home, so maybe I'm in way over my head... but we will see! Either way, happy to update folks on my progress and this saga unfolds. https://preview.redd.it/rbbtl453562f1.jpg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=872dd7f453c1ebc460ed9b1089dd766a5a059d02 https://preview.redd.it/pq2u7ci3562f1.jpg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8952eb40b673962c22167f8b9c76cc9bddbc6a8e https://preview.redd.it/omwoytz3562f1.jpg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd0c249397426277da5bc01394b69f8c617e22ad https://preview.redd.it/39k0a4d4562f1.jpg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec8e33d4a8eaa06a05d5d4632dbd411ea374d5a0 submitted by /u/WigFuckinFairyPeople [link] [comments]
| | The title kind of sums it up where I'm at so far, but let me start with some context: EDIT: Photos got somehow removed? Adding them back at the bottom. TLDR: We just bought a home and noticed a nasty smell in the finished basement. I found a soft-spot in the ceiling that looked like old water damage, cut it open to investigate and found what looks to be old, dried, sewage that leaked from the bathroom on the floor above. My plan as it stands is just to tear out the ceiling, wipe stuff down, and re-drywall. If folks want, I can post updated photos as everything opens up even more and likely even more damage is found. Longer Story and Context: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Me and my wife recently purchased our first home in the PNW. Inspections all came back as clean as they could for a house built in the 1940s… certainly no big red flags. One major plus was that the house has a nice finished basement which I plan to use as an office. Everything about the home is wonderful but there was a weird musty smell in the basement I couldn't figure out. At first I thought it was just “basement” smell… but it felt different from the regular musty basement. I’ve been running air purifiers and a big commercial dehumidifier but nothing has been able to kick it. Fast forward to a few days ago and I really started hunting for the source of this smell. I pinpointed it to the basement's bathroom and sure enough, I started feeling around on the ceiling to quickly find a big old mushy soft spot that the seller obviously just painted over. It wasn’t actively wet, but clearly completely rotten drywall. As luck would have it, the soft spot is directly below where the upstairs toilet sits. Not a great sign, but hey, maybe it’s just a clean water pipe that leaked right? I called a plumber to come take a look at the upstairs bathroom to make sure there wasn’t an active leak and nothing was found. In true homie fashion, the plumber told me he could open the basement ceiling up for me for an extra charge, but that I’d probably be better off masking up and opening it myself seeing as there probably isn’t an active leak anyway and the soft spot would need to be patched one way or another. Well, yesterday I opened up an 8”x8” hole and I found the source of the smell. I’ll say that it doesn’t really smell like shit… but it’s bad. Think really wet dog mixed with rotting leaves. Nothing is dripping, but based on the brown stains coming off the toilet's waste pipe I'm worried that black water leaked from the upstairs toilet down and into the basement ceiling. And of course all the drywall ceiling that the water leaked onto is completely rotten which is definitely adding to the smell. Digging through city permits, it sounds like the previous owner paid to have 30 feet of sewer line dug up and relined in 2023… so putting two and two together, I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t have done that unless they had a massive sewage line backup causing issues in the home. I had one “professional” water damage specialist come by who said they could fix it but they need to tear out the entire downstairs and upstairs bathroom to the studs. But not to worry because I could submit everything to insurance. They said I'd be looking at an 80k-100k claim. This, frankly, seems insane. Especially considering they are recommending I lie to insurance by telling them this is brand new damage. So this is where I’m at. I have the basement bathroom sealed off with plastic draping which helps contain the smell at least. The exhaust fan is running non-stop and I have a massive dehumidifier running as well. My plan as it currently stands is to rip out as much of the affected ceiling as I can, wipe down everything I can get to with some kind of disinfectant cleaner, and then just replace everything I had to remove with new bits. Maybe I’ll call the plumber back too to double check there isn’t a busted seal somewhere. This is my first home, so maybe I'm in way over my head... but we will see! Either way, happy to update folks on my progress and this saga unfolds. [link] [comments] |
