Washington State Flooding

I'm thinking about you all out there. We've had to deal with two seperate floods this year here in Missouri. Personally I live like 6 miles from the Mississippi and about seven from the Missouri. I also work about two miles, in a valley, from the Missouri. The threat of spring flooding is always very real around here. Good luck.

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It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
William Ralph Inge

TANSTAAFL

Flooding, avalanching, you name it, we got it! woohoo

Had lots of water in my house last night, I was out near midnight digging and diverting, ugh!

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

The roads are closed to the left of us..the roads are closed to the right of us. The water is rising faster than taxes. Winter in Washington.

I hope there is no damage John.

heymagic Wrote:
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> The roads are closed to the left of us..the roads
> are closed to the right of us. The water is rising
> faster than taxes. Winter in Washington.
>
> I hope there is no damage John.

Sheetrock wet 2-3" up in several places.
I have no idea, no time and no dough what to do.

Except dig out the raised flowerbed up against the house that was built a year or so ago.
Fuck.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

john vanlandingham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> heymagic Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The roads are closed to the left of us..the
> roads
> > are closed to the right of us. The water is
> rising
> > faster than taxes. Winter in Washington.
> >
> > I hope there is no damage John.
>
> Sheetrock wet 2-3" up in several places.
> I have no idea, no time and no dough what to do.
>
> Except dig out the raised flowerbed up against the
> house that was built a year or so ago.
> Fuck.
>
>
>
>
> John Vanlandingham
> Sleezattle, WA, USA
>
> Vive le Prole-le-ralliat
>
> www.jvab.f4.ca

The sheetrock will dry if you keep it ventilated, takes a few days. Mold is the big concern afterward. We flooded in Aberdeen in 1980 or so. Had about 12" in the house. Had to replace the carpet but the sheetrock was fine and never did have any problem with it. Chin up

The best thing to do is cut about foot off the bottom of the sheetrock to let air get all around it, but this will mess up your walls and then need repair at a latter date.

I guess what I would do is think about cutting a strip from the floor up to about 4" above the floor. Later I would cover the wall base with cheap MDF molding to hide the cut out bit. This will let air up into the wall cavities. Adding a few fans to circuate the air around would also help a lot. Once dry I might spay some water and bleach up into the cavities to kill mildew and mold before closing up the strip.

The long term down side, the MDF or plywood base molding will not provide a fire speration but as it is at the base of the wall this is less likely to be an major issue and only cut one side of the wall. Also in your building I think the structure is in the steel not the stud walls so again less a problem in a big fire.

As Glen said you can take your chances with fans, it will dry over time but better to get air into the wall cavity.

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In the long run reality always wins.

Pictures: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/popupV2.asp?SubID=4470&page=1&GTitle=Flooding%20in%20Western%20Washington%20(1%2F8%2F09)&pubdate=1/8/2009

Video:

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Name: Dawud Jackson (DJ)
Age: 30
Location: Seattle, WA
Occupation: Computer dude.

Its true, cut it out and let it dry, maybe rent a turbo-fan.

Fungus IS the F-word. It really messes up houses,

Hope you are all doing well up there.

-Al

Sorry to see the damage out there. Hope everybody is staying safe and out of standing water. Hope the damage to John's place is minimal, looks like a lot of people are going to be renting bulldozers and starting over.

Those carpet dryer fans push a lot of water/air quick, and would be good to dry out the wall cavities. The big equipment wash bay used to overflow all the time at the Home Creepo I used to work for, putting water over a few hundred square feet, and I'd just grab a mop and a few of those fans (which you could rent for about $35 a day, but I bet there are none to be had in your area right now) and could have the place looking like nothing happened in an hour. As a ghetto solution, about 6,000 XR4Ti heater boxes and fans laid on the floor and wired to a battery charger would probably do the work of one of those $189 carpet fans from Home Creepo.

Derek's suggestions were good. If the area did get wet, a little bleach mixture would be smart to kill the mold.

If the drywall got really wet, cut it out to a few inches into the dry area and just patch with fresh drywall. Getting it "close enough" for a garage/shop area shouldn't be too hard. If you can poke it with a screwdriver lightly and it seems solid, you may be able to just leave it.

Good luck!

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY