Flood! What now?

[ClassAGeek]

I got a call last night from the CG where we left our MH between weekends. The CG staff had just found water 'pouring for your MH in every direction'. They turned off the water and gave me a call. Water have been flooding our MH for about 24 hours.

When I got there this morning, I found a bathroom faucet had been left on. The result: water collected inside the bathroom and flowed out through the coach and then drained though the driver side compartments. All carpets were saturated. All left side storage compartments had standing water. No electrical and electronic equipment were visibly damaged.

Throughout the day I used a shop vac to remove about 5 gallons of water from the carpets. No other standing water remains. I have 2 fans and 2 heaters running with all windows open, to help speed drying.

What Now?

What would you do now? Other than never being this stupid again(!), what's a good next step?

Would you make an insurance claim? Is there hidden damage that isn't obvious?

Is there any way to get the carpets up? I can't see an easy way to do it. What if I don't lift the carpets? Will they get mouldy?

I would appreciate any advice you have.

[ClassAGeek]

carp65 wrote:
Check your insurance policy...

Good point. I have carefully reviewed and even confirmed with the insurance co. Water damage from leaks or a maintenance related issue is not covered. Damage due to stupidity is covered. I certainly met the criteria here 🙂

I have been working with an adjuster since Thursday. He is an RV owner and understands the issues. I has been upfront about what I think is reasonable: carpets, underpadding and accessible cushion flooring should be replaced. Slight water stains don't bother us. Neither does minimal bowing of one interior wall. The bathroom counter is warped and needs replacement and so does a cabinet door. Exterior insulation over storage compartments are wet but I allowed that it happens after rain anyways. By conceding that absolute perfection is not required with a 5 yr old MH, the adjuster has been receptive to doing the big things the way I want - like replacing all carpets and cushion floor with laminate.

[carp65]

Check your insurance policy. We had a leak in the bathroom of our MH and
normal insurance policies for RV's do not include water damage. We filed
a claim but it was turned down.

[Don_Don]

Never go off for any length of time and leave the water on. It's one turn of a handle at the pipe.

[farmer_boots]

I had the same thing happen to me. I rented a carpet cleaner and using only the vacuum wand we removed water for 8+ hours, way more than 5 gal. When we stopped picking up water I set the AC to 74 degrees (too hot and mold will start forming, too cold and the water does not evaporate as well). I put a large barrel fan in the hall and purchased the biggest dehumidifier I could find 65q/h. The firs hour or so of operation we filled the dehumidifier's almost 2 gallon holding tank. That went on for almost 24 hours. As I remember after 24 hours it took about 6 hours to fill the tank. We ran it like this for 2 weeks. Measuring the humidity over the two week it went from the upper 80's down to 26%. 26% is about as good as you will ever get in Florida on a summer day. I remove the fan and left the dehumidifier in there until winter. As part of our normal routine we run the dehumidifier all summer long.

To get the water out of the padding you must reduce the humidity low enough it wicks up through the carpet.

Forgot this part: I opened every access panel possible, my slides are flat to I put stuff under slide out carpet where it overlaps the coach carpet to ensure air was getting to it.

I was very lucky no apparent damage but you have to jump on it before the mold starts. If the mold does start call a carpet specialist. They have stuff that may kill the mold.

good luck

[jerseyjim]

I had a water leak in the bathroom....ice must have formed in the water supply hose to the toilet. Wife found it the hard way...SUCH LANGUAGE! (Deming, NM in February....14 degrees that nite.) Two days later, outside of Phoenix, AZ is when the hose burst.

Anyway, water got turned off and Home Depot was open at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Bought a small garden hose, cut it to length...and it's still there, some 6 years later

Yes...carpet was soaked. Tried a (rented)shop vac...did some, not all, so I let nature take it's course...and 3 days later, all was dry and no visable mold or anything else. Of course this happened in Phoenix in

Electrical stuff/ You might get lucky...and when things dry out they might work just fine.

Whatever...be patient and good uck.

[Mr_Mark1]

workhardplayharder wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:

workhardplayharder wrote:
Don't run heater run the AC.

Actually, the opposite.... run the heater! I made that mistake when having our home carpets cleaned in the heat of a summer (years ago). I, too, thought that running the air-conditioning would help them dry faster... .it took absolutely forever.

I turned off the air and let the upstairs heat up.... they were dry in no time at all. The heat will dry the carpets.

To the OP, I would contact my insurance company too. I have a feeling the carpet will need to come up to see if there was any floor damage.

Let us know what happens.

MM.

Do what you want. I would run AC. The AC will reduce the humidity and cool the room/RV. Here in south Florida there is plenty of heat and humidity-the perfect breeding ground for mold. Mold will not grow in a cool low humidity environment. Turning on the heat will increase the humidity and heat the room/RV creating the perfect environment for mold (at least here in south Florida.

As I said in MY situation, I ran the AC to no avail. I had wet cold carpets. Once I let the room heat up to over 90 degrees, the carpet was dry and shrunk back tight.

I guess it depends on your situation and climate. If I had a flood, which we didn't, I would pull the carpets up to dry the floor. I would let it stay hot until the wood was dry.

MM.

[jvander]

ClassAGeek wrote:
The answer from the restoration company was: Run both. They use heaters and dehumidifiers.

One person said that heaters actually raise the humidity. That's absolutely correct! Heat increases the convection rate that turns water into vapor, which is the basic definition of humidity.

Dehumidifiers and A/Cs remove vapor from the air and turn it back into water, which you collect - or let run down the side of your RV.

If run just an A/C, you will collect as much water vapor as naturally convects from the water in the wet carpet. Increase the temperature and you generally create more water vapor for the A/C to remove and therefore get faster drying.

If you create heat but don't carry alway the moisture, the vapor eventually converts back to water when it touches a colder surface (condenses) - and hence the possibility of mould in the long term.

It was really pretty obvious 🙂

WooHoo, I win!:B

[ClassAGeek]

The answer from the restoration company was: Run both. They use heaters and dehumidifiers.

One person said that heaters actually raise the humidity. That's absolutely correct! Heat increases the convection rate that turns water into vapor, which is the basic definition of humidity.

Dehumidifiers and A/Cs remove vapor from the air and turn it back into water, which you collect - or let run down the side of your RV.

If run just an A/C, you will collect as much water vapor as naturally convects from the water in the wet carpet. Increase the temperature and you generally create more water vapor for the A/C to remove and therefore get faster drying.

If you create heat but don't carry alway the moisture, the vapor eventually converts back to water when it touches a colder surface (condenses) - and hence the possibility of mould in the long term.

It was really pretty obvious 🙂

[workhardplayha1]

Mr.Mark wrote:

workhardplayharder wrote:
Don't run heater run the AC.

Actually, the opposite.... run the heater! I made that mistake when having our home carpets cleaned in the heat of a summer (years ago). I, too, thought that running the air-conditioning would help them dry faster... .it took absolutely forever.

I turned off the air and let the upstairs heat up.... they were dry in no time at all. The heat will dry the carpets.

To the OP, I would contact my insurance company too. I have a feeling the carpet will need to come up to see if there was any floor damage.

Let us know what happens.

MM.

Do what you want. I would run AC. The AC will reduce the humidity and cool the room/RV. Here in south Florida there is plenty of heat and humidity-the perfect breeding ground for mold. Mold will not grow in a cool low humidity environment. Turning on the heat will increase the humidity and heat the room/RV creating the perfect environment for mold (at least here in south Florida.

[jvander]

ClassAGeek wrote:

Executive wrote:
Do us a favor...when the resto guys get there, ask them if you should use heat or A/C...there seems to be two opinions as to which is correct. Ask the pros...let us know the outcome.....Dennis

Good one. I will ask.

I would run both heat and AC. Warm dry air is what you need to pull the moisture out of the carpets and wood etc. Heaters provide the warmth, AC provides the dry. In any case the pros will probably have a dehumidifier the size of a refrigerator that will both heat and dry.

[bigred1cav]

Call your insurance company

[2oldman]

Davehrn wrote:
A couple of bags of crystal cat litter... the silica will absorb a lot of moisture...

Hmm.. seems to me if cat litter was a desiccant, it would simply get wet or clot up in the cat box. Mine never does.

[ClassAGeek]

Carvin Marvin wrote:
Amazing that it supposedly ran for 24 hours and no one shut off the water. I had a similar experience. The fellow camped next saw water gushing out of the water fill. I asked why didn't you shut off the water. His response was " I didn't think of that" Good luck on the clean and dry out.

Not really unusual. It's a nearby campground that will be opening this weekend. As a regular visitor, we simply set up early and left our MH there while we are at work during the week.

The leak was noticed by one of the staff who just happened to be driving by doing other things. It is unclear when during the 24 hr period leaks actually became visible from the outside and not just under the bathroom where the largest exit hole existed.

[ClassAGeek]

Executive wrote:
Do us a favor...when the resto guys get there, ask them if you should use heat or A/C...there seems to be two opinions as to which is correct. Ask the pros...let us know the outcome.....Dennis

Good one. I will ask.