Hole in the ceiling

Our tale begins last Tuesday, December the 18th, when water began streaming down the front windows in the hallway’s of our condo building. The carpet right below the windows had a moist squish to them, but at the time not much attention was paid to this. We believed that the condo’s management association, Evergreen Management, would remedy the situation before it got worse. Boy, was that a wrong assumption.

On Friday, December 21st, Lindsay returned home to find water leaking from the ceiling everywhere. After rounding up a few of the neighbors in the building to find out what the extent of this “flood” was does the story start to take shape.

We live on the third floor of the complex and as of that Friday afternoon our condo was fine. That night is when water started dripping from the tops of our bedroom window down onto the sill. This persisted all night through until Saturday when a small square of snow was shoveled off from the roof only above that window. As Saturday went on water started leaking from the attic onto out ceiling creating a dark stain and soft sheet rock. A little bit of the popcorn ceiling over
even gave way.

Water broke this light

Saturday the 22nd is also when the carpet in our bedroom started to become damp. At first that’s all that occurred, just a few damp spots near the window. We couldn’t tell if it was just splashing from the water dripping from the window sill or if it was its own problem. Sunday morning we realized that, yes, the damp carpet was its own problem. As the condo association has yet to do anything about the leaking there is no way to start the drying process and the water in carpet kept spreading. Now this carpet may have been new, but it sure doesn’t look
like it is as it’s looked old since the day we moved in. Now this old looking carpet is damp and it smells like musty mold. The bedroom is now unlivable and we have moved our mattress into the living room and have been sleeping there ever since.

Now the extent of the damage to the building is coming to light as Lindsay is talking with the other neighbors in the building on the afternoon of Friday the 21st. One neighbor on the second floor had her ceiling collapse in her bedroom. When she contacted Evergreen Management about this they had first told her that someone would be out to take a look at it in the Spring. I will repeat that as the sentence bears repeating. Her ceiling collapsed in her bedroom in December 2007, and the management company will not take care of it until Spring – March, April, May – of 2008. She has since gone to stay somewhere else and we have yet to speak to her.

The neighbor below the poor woman with the collapsed ceiling also has extensive ceiling damage and again no one has yet to come out since these two have been calling the management since Tuesday the 18th. Talking with more neighbors most all have some sort of water damage in
there units as well. One of the more disturbing facts is that in the 21 years since this building has been standing this is the fifth major flood that it has been through. No one has seen the pattern yet, I guess.

Our flooded bedroom floor

Saturday night, we came back home with some friends who we had dinner with and showed them the damage in the hallway and in our unit. At this point the light fixtures in the hallways and the smoke detectors are filling with water at an alarming rate. After hearing stories of other
flood experiences and what can come of it, we decided to give the local Fire Department a call to make sure that the water in lights and in the smoke detectors wouldn’t be a problem. Five minutes later a police officer and two fire engines with three firemen each were outside. The
first thing they did when they arrived was ask who the management company was. After we told them it was Evergreen they sighed and said, “Them again.”

It’s now almost 11PM on Saturday and the firemen are cutting drainage holes for the water in the ceilings so that they wont pool in the floor boards. I use the term cutting loosely as they merely poked the soft sheet rock in the ceiling and they exploded forth with water and insulation. They worked their magic in the attic as well creating access paths for the water and removing all the ticking time bombs that were the water-filled electric lights.

After a quick walkthrough by the firemen in each unit to survey the damage they then called in the building surveyor. I can tell you plainly that he was not happy with everything that he saw. Aside from the water damage in out unit our circuit breaker was not marked or installed correctly and by the sound of it most everyone’s porches were near about to collapse. Guess why? Yup, water damage that’s gone untreated for years!

The light fell off the ceiling

Honestly, if we had known about the past problems we definitely would not have moved into this place in the first place, but hindsight is always 20/20. Still to this day no one has come out to stop the leaking as water is still coming down the access holes created by the fire department. In the middle of winter in New England we are forced to keep our bedroom window open to vent some of the putrid smell emanating from the carpet, walls and ceiling. We decided that one flood in this place is enough for us and we contacted a Realtor and we going to look at buying our own place. At least if something breaks/floods/burns at a place we own, we will be able to contact who we need as soon as we need to. Most likely with insurance covering it.