Yeah, the title is clickbaity. I did that on purpose.
Anyway, so I had a one year introductory offer with Spectrum for my Internet, and it expired this month. I like to save money, so I was going to research other service providers in my area, and found one that is offering 1gb fiber with some nifty discounts - in the end, I’ll be getting more than twice the speed for much less than Spectrum.
Fast forward to today, the installation date, and the service guy peeks his head through my back door (so not to track dirt into the house) and says, “you’ve got to see this.” I knew something was wrong. Before he showed me the problem, he said he was a volunteer firefighter and a vet, and not even he would work under my house.
At that point I knew exactly what the problem could be: mold. Apparently somewhere up the line from my water heater is a significant leak. This was obvious because the amount of water pouring off the end of the pipe. Also notable was the water drops across the insulation and joists. Looking a little deeper, and there is a shit ton of mold.
So I turned my water off, and now I’m waiting for a mold remediation company to come out and a) dry out my crawl space and 2) get rid of the mold, so that I can get a plumber in to find and fix the leak, and I can then get my new internet installed.
The really weird part is that my water bill has been unaffected by the leak.
So how’s y’all’s week going so far? 🥺
Water heaters are the worst. Nefarious bastards. I’m sorry you’re going through this. For everyone else reading - GO BUY A LEAK DETECTOR. It can be a smart one, it can be one that just beeps loudly like a smoke alarm. GO DO IT FOR YOUR WATER HEATER TOMORROW.
Water heaters are the devil and will either a) leak quietly as OP is seeing or b) just have something burst and you won’t notice until your basement/lower floor is completely flooded. (My experience). Both would have been solved with a simple leak detector. Just go do it. They’re at home Depot, Amazon, wherever.
It’s probably better to know, but that thoroughly sucks. I wish you the best in getting it sorted out.
It is. It explains a few things, like why my power bill went up and why I felt like I never had enough hot water. But I’m taking quotes and making a list of things I need to get done. It’s strangely calming.
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You are right about your first point, I really didn’t have time to read the rest of your comment though
My uncle ran a very successful painting company, and his son got into the game in remediation
They bone the insurance companies on the billing, but if you plead with them and tell them that you’re just a private person, often they will have a heart
I got my first quote today. Not as bad as I expected, but there are some things I’m going to do myself (remove and bag insulation and get my own dehumidifier) that will drastically reduce the costs. They are definitely padding their numbers because they’re quoting almost 90 hours of work for what they quoted as 370 sqft.
Oh hellz yeah. Take the gravy away from them and make 'em earn their money. I’m on your side, good luck with this nightmare!
Thanks. I had a second quote today at half the price. But honestly, it’s 370 sqft, so I’m going to clean it and vapor barrier it myself. I appreciate the luck!
