What a frakkin' day...
 

As some of you know, I've been in Manhattan for the past month and a half, building some studios. When I scheduled my flight home for Friday the 13'th, I thought it was an amusing commentary on how the CBS project has been going to date.

Has anybody not seen "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles"? Show of hands.

So Friday morning I wake up at about 6am as usual. Killed some time making fun of Hyper, then at 11am I caught the W train to Queens. It's practically empty, so I'm all spread out and comfy. Got off at Astoria, and took the M60 bus to La Guardia. Get to the airport, check in for my 1:55pm departure to ATL, connecting to RSW. Go to Chili's and have a few margaritas.

After lunch, I'm moseying back to the gate, and see that my flight is canceled. Go online, and they've already confirmed me on a 3:55pm departure, which will miss my original connection, but they've also got me on a later flight to Fort Myers. Props to Delta for good customer service.

3:30pm, board the airplane. 3:55pm, we push back, and departure parks us in the queue. Busy day at LGA, apparently. An hour later they spin up the other engine, we're finally wheels up at just after 5pm. There goes my connection.

Get to Atlanta around 7:30pm, and find that there's not a single flight available to anywhere in southern Florida. Oh well. Grab my bag, head to Hertz, and rent a car. I've done this before. Stock up on Mountain Dew, and hit the road.

At about 5:00am, I get to my house in North Port. I could have sworn that one of the keys on my keychain was for this house, but no luck at the front door. I go around to the side of the garage to try that door, and I hear a sound coming from behind it. Sounds like water spraying. Oh, and no key to this door either.

I go down to the street and shut the water off to the house, then open an outside spigot to bleed down the system. Back to the garage, and the noise is gone. I go to the front of the garage, and sure enough, there's water running out the door and down the driveway.

Shit.

At this point, the only way I can get inside the house is with the garage door opener, which is in my car, which is parked at the airport in Fort Myers, another hour south.

So, back on the road. Stopped by a gas station for some more Mountain Dew, and on to Fort Myers. Return the rental car. Hike out to the far end of long term, and find that at least my car hasn't been stolen. Started right up on the first turn, too. Not bad after sitting in the cold for so long. Have I mentioned how much I love Optima red-top batteries?

8:30am, I finally arrive back at the house and open the garage door. I'd halfway expected a torrential flood, but apparently it'd all leaked out while I was gone.

On top of the water heater there is a water-hammer arrestor. It's a cylinder about 8" diameter by 10" tall, on the cold side plumbing. The purpose of this device is to act as a shock absorber for the water pipes, absorbing the pressure wave when a faucet is suddenly closed. Under normal operation, they're mostly filled with air, so there's a sort of cushioning effect. Well, this one had sprung a leak on the top, and a jet of water was spraying out of it upwards with considerable force.

The ceiling has collapsed, the carpet is totally soaked (yes, the garage is carpeted. Nice stuff, too. Berber.) and the spray has fallen into a couple of open toolboxes, ruining several crimpers in the > $200 each range (Molex, Amp, Edac, and others) and a whole bunch of other stuff. I had lots of cardboard boxes sitting on the floor, and they're totally soaked. My whole record collection, a bunch of books, etc. There's mold everywhere, and I mean everywhere, and even the stuff not exposed to direct spray is thoroughly damp as it's been quite warm recently, and the humidity was probably 100% in there for weeks.

Ok, time to get started.

Thus far, I've cleared out the half of the garage that was worst-soaked (including a deep freezer, a fridge, a generator, and a huge workbench) plus all the boxes that were on the floor, the storm shutters (and lemme tell you- in Florida, we take our storm shutters seriously. These fuckers are heavy), and a bunch of shelves. The big stuff is sitting in the driveway, and the rest of it is inside. There are LPs scattered all over the living room floor drying- it looks really freaky. Got about 2/3 of the carpet pulled up, that shit was glued down pretty thoroughly, though the water seems to have softened the glue. Still, water-logged carpet is astoundingly heavy. It's all spread out over the lawn right now to dry, so it'll be easier to haul to the dump. My next door neighbor (who I'd never met until now) moseyed over about 7pm to see what was up- the whole neighborhood must think I've gone hillbilly. All of the drywall and insulation that fell is piled up in the driveway- there's still a lot more I'm going to have to cut down, but we're making progress.

I'm done for the night. I was able to isolate the heater from the mains, so I turned the water back on and took a freezing shower. I've gotta get a new heater tomorrow and plumb it in- can't take much more of this.


You know what's interesting- I'd expected that after not driving a car for a month and a half, it'd feel strange. But it doesn't. Neither the Toyota RAV4 I rented nor my Miata felt at all out of place. I'll tell you what does feel weird- using my desktop computer! I've been working on my little Vaio (11" screen and tiny keyboard, plus a compact bluetooth mouse) for so long that I come back to my home PC with its normal keyboard and mouse and dual 19" monitors, and it's shocking. Using the mouse feels like I'm pushing a VW Beetle around the desk, the keyboard seems a mile wide, and the monitors are like billboards on my desk.

At any rate, I've been up for > 40 hours at this point, so I'm going to bed. LY,LYS.

Sorry to hear that Joe.

I usually turn off the main water whenever I go out of town. I learned my lesson about 1/2 a year ago. I came home and went on the computer. A couple minutes later, I hear a loud spraying, went to the garage, and saw a huge fountain of water spraying where the rubber hose on my washer bursted. If I weren't home, I can't imagine how much damage would have happened. Water damage scares the shiznit out of me.

Damn, sounds like a mess. If you need any help let me know, I've got nothing to do tomorrow and I certainly owe you a favor, or 10. My number (in a super secret code that only Joe and I know) is 239-989-9339, I'm happy to help if there's anything I can do.

those aren't pillows!!

And I thought my day was going bad. Sorry to hear about your problems. Next time you'll turn the water off, no?

Fuckin' sucks. I don't know what I'd do if I found that mess, good luck Joe.

karma

offtopic, ive always thought that if you rented a car at one location, you had to return it to that same location? please enlighten my prehistoric ass because this would come in handy one day. thanks

^not at all true, maybe certain rental places


Sorry to hear Joe, jeeez what a friggin mess to deal with...feel for ya man

that blows. sometimes living in an apt has its perks.

Sorry to hear it Joe. In case you weren't aware, any damage to personal property or the structure itself will be covered by homeowners insurnace as water damage from a ruptured water heating appliance.

Yeah, lesson learned. The house is relatively new (<10 yrs) so I didn't figure there was a high likelihood of problems.

No, in fact I do this with some regularity, particularly when I'm doing two back-to-back projects that are within a couple hundred miles of one another. I'll fly into one city and rent a car, do the first job, then drive to the second and return the car to the airport in that town when I'm done. They charge you a bit more for it, but all of the major chains (Hertz, Enterprise, Avis, etc) have no problem with it.

We'll see how it all rolls out. On the plus side, most of the stuff that was in the garage was my deceased step-grandfather's old crap (old consumer electronics, several adding machines, broken tools and car parts, etc) so it gives me a great excuse to clear out the garage. As far as repair to the house, we (myself & my step-father) are doing it all, so no major expense there. I just got back from Lowe's picking up pipe, fittings, a new expansion tank, etc., and Wayne is bringing his truck over later so we can get a new heater. Once it's all settled, I'll see how much money I'm out in damaged property. I can't imagine that a bunch of old Queen and Pink Floyd albums are worth much. :rolleyes"

Don't forget about all those valuable fur coats and antique furniture you had that got ruined...

Wow, that totally sucks. I've lived mostly in apartments so I never really worried about it, but we'll definitely be shutting off the house's supply line as part of our pre-vacation routine. If I came home to that I'd probably shit. :eek:

Well THAT'S not a very nice homecoming! Water damage sucks the big one. The pressure relief valve on my hot water heater failed a few years back, filling my garage and the lower level of my house with hot steamy water. Wound up ripping out 66sq yards of carpet, and the bottom 2' of sheetrock from all the walls. No fun indeed. Thank God for insurance.

C

My grandparents used to have a winter house down in West Palm Beach. Their neighbors lived in the UK 9-10 months out of the year. The water heater broke just after they left and the entire house sat in 3ft of water for something like 6 months. They had to gut the entire place and do everything over. :(

Shitty stuff, Joe. At least it wasn't the interior of the house.

pics or it didn't happen

Sorry to hear this.

You may wanna look into renting an ozone generator mold killer.

Our plant manager moved from MI and hadn't sold his house as the market was so bad. Over the winter a pipe froze in the 3rd story bathroom. Flooded all three floors. $80K in damage to the house alone as it was empty.

Same thing happened to my sister last year. Line going to the toilet had a plastic fitting crack. Flooded the 2nd story, first floor and their just finished basement. They had to live elswhere for 6 weeks while the damage was fixed. $60K for repairs. What a mess.

2004 my first year in Iraq, my house was sitting vacant. I asked my father to turn off the water, and drain the pipes before winter. He forgot. all the plumbing froze and busted. What a freaking mess.

Now that sucks big-time.

When I lived in Ohio, I was always very fastidious about shutting off the gas and water before leaving for any extended period of time. Down here we don't have gas, and who'd have though that a relatively new expansion tank would fail like this?

I have finally taken a hot shower after three days. Well, it was lukewarm as the new heater had only been on for a few hours, but still. I seem to have one tiny leak in a 3/4" NPT union (where the shutoff valve goes on the supply side) which sadly I can't tighten as I've soldered myself into a bind. I think I'm going to eliminate the threaded coupling and replace it with a solder-style ball valve.

And the cleanup continues...

Joe,

I hope you've contacted your insurance company, you should be covered for the damage, cleanup and repair. Also, if you're not opening up the walls, you could be in for some nasty mold in the future.

C

My sister usually gets a house sitter when she goes out of town. Crazy I know. Person stops by once a day, walks the property, checks the entire house and leaves. Drops her an email once a day that everything is A OK.

FWIW insurers typically won't insure a house that's vacant.

Feel for ya Joe.....dealt with this kind of stuff too. Just not on this kind of grand scale.
Glad to hear you have warm water now. Nothing like a shower to make you feel civilized.

My insurance has section that says the house either has to be occupied or checked every three days :(

I have never been so physically exhausted in all my life. I know it's still winter for some of you folks, but it's in the upper 80's here. And in the garage, with 150° heat pouring out of the attic, it's just insane. I've slurped down about a gallon of Gatorade so far, and it helps, but only so much. I can't imagine doing this shit for a living.


Fair enough.

The new heater, in all its glory:

http://img19.picoodle.com/img/img19/...rm_fafe851.jpg

The blue orb on top is the expansion tank. This is what failed on the old one, shooting a stream of water upwards and to the left. At a mere $50, this unit will now be a bi-annual maintenance item.

Here's the new hole in the ceiling, after having been cleaned up. The insulation has mostly dried out, so I stapled it back into place. The surrounding sections of drywall got a bit damp and have sagged, so they'll probably have to come out too. But that project can wait.

http://img06.picoodle.com/img/img06/...gm_4089134.jpg

A shot of the side of the garage that I've got stripped out so far. The drywall used to extend all the way to the floor, with base molding at the bottom. I prised out all of the molding (it was pretty rotten) and then took the circular saw all the way around the perimeter, removing the lower 4" of drywall. That which remains is a tad moist, but not totally ruined. I'm sure mold is growing behind it. Unfortunately there's no airspace behind the drywall- it lays directly upon the foam insulation. Fortunately there's no wood back there, just concrete, foam, and plastic furring strips. At the back of the garage, the drywall did not extend to the floor- there is about a 3" air gap with nothing but concrete behind it, so I lucked out there. Also, you can see the tremendous amount of still moist carpet glue all over the floor. That's going to be a joy to clean up...

http://img06.picoodle.com/img/img06/...em_8cc4a19.jpg

And lastly, what the place looks like from the outside. Fridge, workbench, pile 'o garbage, a bunch of lumber, etc. The carpet had been sitting out in the yard to dry, finally rolled that up and put it on the trailer. The left 1/3 of the carpet is still in the garage. My goal for tomorrow is to get that side of the garage emptied out (still a bunch of shelves and boxes left), get the carpet pulled up and drying, and basically prep for the next stage, which will be to dry the place out and sand the floor.

http://img06.picoodle.com/img/img06/...em_b4de672.jpg


I'll look into this. My immediate goal, once everything is out, is to rent a dehumidifier and get the garage thoroughly dried out. This is necessary before I can sand the floor. Once that's done, an ozone generator might be a good idea. I'm just not sure whether it'll be effective at the backside of the drywall, which as I said, has no airspace. Frankly, if mold decides to grow back there, I'm not sure that I care. This is Florida, after all. It happens.

How did none of your neighbors notice water streaming out of your garage and down your driveway?

and speaking of fraking, are you caught up with the BSG because this fridays episodes going to be pure badass.

Joe,
Do you have a water softener?

That so sucks dude. it's kinda weird though, just the other day I was looking at my water heater in the garage and thinking how badly it would suck if it sprang a leak. I ordered a water sensor plate, wired it to a security sensor and then trigger a contactor to turn off the well pump in case of flood.

After reading this thread I had to immediately go out to the garage and put the tops up on the cars.

To the north is a vacant lot, and to the south the dude kinda keeps to himself.

No, I am not even remotely close to caught up. Last I saw, a grenade had just been tossed into an airlock. And if you so much as HINT as to the outcome of same, I will ban every address owned by the entire Deutsche Bank Group.

My plan was simple. I'd arrive at RSW Friday evening, drive home and park my car in a non-flooded garage, bake a DiGiorno Supreme garlic bread crust pizza, pour a Rum & Coke, and pick up where I left off. I'd continue this process at a rate of one episode every day or two.

Instead, I've been laboring my ass off in a swelteringly hot, mold-ridden garage, demolishing drywall, fixing insulation, brazing plumbing, and schlepping around a lot of really heavy, wet carpet, taking frigid showers every evening and pausing only long enough to sleep and ban idiots. In short, my life really sucks right now, and it's likely to continue sucking at least through the end of this week and possibly into next, by which time all y'all will have seen whatever badass thing is about to happen, and I'll still be coughing up concrete dust.



No, I do not. I had a water softener at my house in Cincinnati, and I came to loathe it greatly. I simply could not tolerate the feeling that it gave when showering. No matter how long I rinsed, I always felt like I was still covered in a sort of slick film. And I don't use some fancy moisturizing soap either, just plain ole' Ivory. Fortunately, I plumbed in a bypass when I installed it, so I simply bypassed it and that was that. I'll never know if the lady who bought the place figured it out.



Heh. I've had my fair share of electrical disasters, but this is my first foray into residential plumbing malfunctions. I have definitely gained a new respect for the important of inspection and preventative maintenance. In hindsight, there was enough corrosion on the unit that I should have replaced it long ago. Not that it would have been easy- after I cut the old heater out of the system I tried to unscrew the fittings from it and they simply crumbled under my wrench. Absolutely astounding, given the age of the house.

I asked about the softener because it tends to protect copper pipes a bit here in FL but also has a bad effect on steel. It turns out that the water here is pretty corrosive to steel and copper if untreated. Did you check the sacrificial magnesium anode in the old water heater to see if it was still present? They usually don't make it seven years down here and you are supposed to replace it so that the chemicals in the water don't attack the steel and copper parts in your system. They screw into the top of the water heater and cost $20-40 bucks. Cheap protection, but most homeowners don't know they exist, or to change them. It usually costs them a water heater, and most still never know why. I just changed my water heater and learned my anode had apparently given up years ago.

OK that's the first I've heard of that.
Are they needed in NorCA?

They're needed everywhere. Check yours if you never have.

something that helps: i give my neighbors a card with my name, my wife's name and our cell phone and work numbers. i also list the name of our dog.

i don't talk to my neighbors much, but just introducing yourself and giving them some info under the guise of being neighborly can be really helpful in instances like this.

good luck with the clean-up.

I went and looked at mine last night, and it appears to be the original part, 12+ years old. I will be replacing it soon. Good info in this thread. :bigtu:

Decent instructional video here.

When replacing choose the magnesium anode and not the aluminum one.

+1
All water heaters have them, and the best ones have two of them. If you don't know how sacrificial anodes work in water heaters, it's definitely worth reading up on. They are cheap protection from expensive problems.

Edit: Some good info here and on the related pages- http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pag...er-anodes.html

Well shit, you learn something new everyday. Going to check this out when I get home. Mine is less than two years old. I'd heard of a dip tube, not the anode.

Progress! The garage is completely empty, and I have removed the last of the carpet. It was still a sopping wet mess, but it's on the trailer and will be going to the dump tomorrow (along with several hundred pounds of the now ruined personal property of the late Charles Moore.) Gonna stop by the local tool rental shop tomorrow morning and pick up a dehumidifier, and let that run for a few days which will hopefully make the glue come up more easily with a floor sander. At this point, I'm just ecstatic that this pissant little town even has a tool rental shop.

Interestingly, I uncovered another water-related problem which was just about ready to surface. The condensate drain line from the A/C evaporator runs through the garage on its way outside. Whoever installed this was a fracking moron. The line enters the garage at the back wall (opposite the bay door, from the laundry room) about 18" off the ground. It then goes straight down to the floor, makes a 90° turn, and runs along the left side wall for about 10 feet before then making another 90° turn upwards, to the outside penetration, about a foot off the ground. Anybody who has plumbed a turbo drain knows that this is bullshit. The design of the drain is such that there is standing water under pressure of gravity sitting in the horizontal section at all times. And it's leaking.

WTF? This house was the fracking model for gods' sakes! (That's why the garage was carpeted- it was the office/showroom. It's also why it has every interior upgrade known to man, which I can't complain about.) Was the GC on this project a complete and utter retard, or was it just his last week on the job?

One more thing to replace. At least this one should be relatively inexpensive. I'm into this project for about $500 thus far (new heater, new expansion tank, copper pipe and fittings, a new MAPP torch, and what seems like a couple hundred gallons of bleach) and I have a feeling the bill is going to jump sharply after the dehumidifier, floor sander (and probably a hundred pads), possibly an ozone generator if the mold doesn't die, and of course I've still got a huge hole in the ceiling that needs taking care of.

Yes, I checked. And there isn't one. I don't mean that it's dissolved, I mean there was never one to begin with.

No, I'm not on crack. Here's a picture of the top of the unit:

http://img01.picoodle.com/img/img01/...pm_678274d.jpg

The opening at the top of frame center was covered with a plastic plug, but I removed it and there's nothing but foam. I inserted a 3" awl down into the foam, and it went all the way in without hitting anything. Apart from that there's just the two water pipes, the electrical junction box, and that one knockout just above and to the left of the right-most (inlet) water pipe, which I knocked out after taking the picture, and there's nothing but foam under it too. I even checked under the stickers- nothing.

Oddly, this is not a cheap heater, either. It's a Reliance "Sta-Kleen" model, with a lifetime guarantee, and although it's only a 40 gallon tank, it's rated at 5500 watts (most units in this size, including the one I replaced it with, are configured for 4500 watts.) So I don't know what the hell is up with this heater. I went to the manufacturer's website and downloaded the documentation, and apparently it is a "maintenance-free" model. Whether that means that it does not require maintenance or that you simply cannot perform it I do not know.

The expansion tank, on the other hand, is a different story. I cut it open to perform a failure analysis, and found several faults. First, the metal it's constructed from is one step above aluminum foil in terms of thickness. Second, the interior appears to have been given some sort of protective coating, however it's mostly gone. Third, there was no rubber bladder, only an inverted dip tube, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I replaced it with a 2 gallon "Wellsaver" brand tank, which seems to be built from somewhat stouter stuff. It's heavier and it has a rubber bladder inside which is clearly visible from the opening on the bottom.




So before hitting send, I decided to go to the kitchen to pour myself another rum & coke. I found that the during the course of the drain cycle, the output of the dishwasher had filled the sink with foulness. So I turned on the facet to clean it out, and the sink was draining slowly. This happens, so I turned on the garbage disposer to accelerate the process, whereupon it burned out.

I hate this house.

Holy shit man, only thing i can think of is when it rains it poors...

Keep ur head up Joe

Sorry for your pain but I burst out laughing at that last bit.

Jay

ASCII Picard facepalm
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Then the disposal too, OMG. At least those don't cause much damage when they fail.

Reminds me of when I bought my condo in Houston. A month after moving in, we had three straight days with highs above 105° and the A/C compressor gave up the ghost. With overnight lows not much below 90° the place was pretty much uninhabitable, so I packed up my toiletries and sleeping bag and camped in my school's library at night so I could get some shuteye. The repair company finally fit me into their schedule three days later and all was well, for about a week, at which point the evaporator inside started leaking refrigerant. That one we more or less anticipated. Thankfully I managed to get the home warranty to cover a bunch of the cost. But still, when stuff starts breaking right after you move in, it really makes you want to verify that your homeowner's insurance will cover you in the event of a total loss due to a mysterious electrical fire.

Man that sucks absurdly. It takes a real baller to park their cars on berber though.

does your sink have an air gap? these help to keep the dishwasher from backing up into the sink.

disposals at lowes were 79-up easy to replace. i just replaced mine saturday.

There are dehumidifiers, and then there are DEHUMIDIFIERS.

http://img03.picoodle.com/img/img03/...Rm_ee15cf6.jpg

This baby's been running for about 22 hours, and it's put out more than 5 gallons so far. Amazing how much water can just hide away unseen. I wonder how much of that came out of me in the form of sweat...

I've got the bay door completely sealed with duct tape, the hole in the ceiling covered in plastic sheet and taped, and the attic door taped. The place is airtight. Four box fans sitting on the floor circulating the air in a counterclockwise direction. It's like being in a sandstorm without the sand right now- hot, dry, and windy.

Gonna let it cook for another day and then rent a floor grinder. Still debating between Strip-Serts and a conventional diamond cutter...

Look at the failure of the garbage disposal as a blessing. Eventually you'll be looking at a costly repair of your waste system. After all it was designed to deal with poo and wee wee, not ground up chicken bones.

Are you going to coat the floor after grinding it?

I contemplated laying down a 2 part epoxy coating such as this one, however in reading through the directions, you're supposed to rinse the floor (with water) after the etching process. Given the grief I'm going through right now, I'm not real keen on getting this floor, and the surrounding walls, wet again.


On a related note, I finally watched episode 14 last night. Holy frack! So, when exactly did Zarek turn into Emperor Palpatine? I mean, he's always been a snake, but this is some seriously professional-grade evil here. Nice to see that Tigh finally found his balls, and that the old man never lost his. Thought Roslin playing the role of Ahab might have been a tiny bit of a stretch, but couldn't see any other way to do it. Best last words ever: "It stopped."

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Im with you on the water damage, I too on of all days friday the 13th... had a pipe burst, Upstairs in my house. ran water for a good 4 hours. Rainbow - cleaning restoration company was dispached that night to start the drying process, by my insurance comany. They have been there daily thru today, they might be leaving now. They had constantly running 8 high volume fans, 3 industral dehumidifyers.and they cut out half my drywall and ceilings. all the while Pumping air everywhere, it was amazing the moisture held everywhere. Only their meter would detect. I would atleast call your insurance comany, thats what they are for. I already got a start of a check to start repairs. Im sitting at 13K in damage. New bamboo wood floors completley ruined. Time to start over. no fun with the car for a while... UHHH end of rant.

If you are grinding the floor you don't need to etch. Mechanical grinding is better than chemical etching anyway. Although you'll still have to clean the floor, which means water. But you'll never have a better time to do it. Besides, you are going to want to keep things wet while you grind, otherwise it's gonna be dusty. I would love to do mine, maybe once I'm done building my home theater I'll get my ass back into the garage!

You have to remember Zarek plotted to kill the president and take over, he just backed out at the last minute. This in my mind was not a huge leap. Tomorrow is going to be bitter sweet for BSG. The conclusion I look forward to, it's the ending that I dread.

Good luck.

Joe, if you need any help, I'm probably about 5 minutes away from you. I have time after work around 6:30 tomorrow, if you need some extra hands and what not moving and cleaning up stuff. Off this weekend, let me know and I'll head on over. Sorry to hear about the bad luck.

At last, after two solid days pushing around a lawnmower-sized power grinder, generating tons of indescribably fine concrete powder that sticks in your hair and clothes like you wouldn't believe:

THE FLOOR IS CLEAN!

When I am named Supreme Chancellor of the Federated States of America (provisional) pursuant to the 2016 Emergency War Powers Act, my first order of business shall be to name the pouring of carpet glue onto concrete as a capital offense. Even at that, if I ever find the man who laid the carpet in this garage, I shall murder him with an axe. First, I shall kill his son(s), then his wife, then his dog. The daughters shall be spared, so they may bear witness to others of what they have seen. The cat shall also be spared, so that it may grow fat feasting upon the remains.

There's still about a 4" wide strip of foulness all the way around the perimeter that the grinder couldn't reach, but I think the 7" angle grinder ought to make short work of that with a diamond wheel.

Now, what to do next. I'm half-tempted to call it a day, move everything back in, and get on with life. I'm also half-tempted to either polish it, or coat it. No time like the present. I just don't want to have to go through the process of chemical etching and then rinsing with a hose, as it'll get the walls wet again. No more drywall, but I have a feeling that all the rigid foam insulation will wick up any and all water that comes into contact with it. I suppose I could cut the insulation a few inches up and expose the bare concrete behind it...

You could just paint the garage floor with one of the kits they sell @ Home Depot or Lowes if you don't feel like laying down carpet again. Faster and it holds pretty well to chemicals.

And that's exactly what we've done. Behold the awesome and radiant glory of a epoxy-coated garage floor:

http://img18.picoodle.com/img/img18/...em_899dd81.jpg

This is the stuff I used: Rust-Oleum Gray Garage Floor Paint - 2-1/2 Car Garage Coverage - 213934 at The Home Depot

The finish is pretty good. Not awesome, but good. I laid it down with a roller in appx. 4x6' sections. You can see a subtle difference from one section to the next, which seems to relate to the time elapsed between mixing of the compounds and application onto the floor. The instructions tell you to wait 15 minutes after mixing to begin application, but since I was doing this solo (and working against a 1.5 hour pot life) I may have skimped a bit on the waiting time. As a result, the first section I did out of each mix ended up slightly dull, and the last few have the highest gloss. Here's an example:

http://img19.picoodle.com/img/img19/...em_beb0ee8.jpg


Now, to fix that damn hole in the ceiling...

Good job. I hope it holds up well. I need to do that to mine.

I know what else might make you happy. The next high-speed autocross event is on Saturday, April 4th, if you are interested.

Man, you've really cleaned up a shitty situation. I've always wanted to put that epoxy on my garage floor...I just hope I do it before some crap like this prompts me to.

Joe doesn't play.

Nor does his house...beat that bitch into shape.

The owner of a house I previously lived in applied some kind of gray epoxy to the garage floor. It looked really nice, but after a year or so, there were spots where the tires had lifted the coating off the floor. Hope yours lasts longer.