Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with leak

Drip drop drop goes the engine

gnutron — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:23:08 -0800

My car appears to be leaking oil..or some other fluid. Is it safe to drive until I can get to a mechanic? So the other day I was walking across a rainy parking lot when I noticed a attractive trail of iridescent spots trailing across the ground. i thought "heh, some sucker is leaking oil".... then I followed the trail to my car. Who knows how long this has been happening for....I think I just noticed b/c of the wet ground.

Here's the relevant info: 1995 Jeep Wrangler, manual trans, @130K miles, gets regularly scheduled oil changes @ every 3-4 months. Since I got laid off in April, I've probably averaged driving less than 20 miles a week, with some longer trips here and there.

Here's what else I know: car appears to only be leaking when the engine is running. I checked the oil level on the dipstick, which looks perfect. There is an oil gauge on the dashboard that indicates 50 out of a possible 80. This also seems normal (Is this gauging pressure?)

I can't get to a mechanic until Friday at the earliest. Is it safe to run errands until then? Could I be leaking some other fluid?

Is my apartment company liable for my shorted-out laptop?

iamisaid — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:12:03 -0800

Is my apartment management company responsible for water damage to my laptop that occurred as a result of their lack of maintenance? Excuse me if this a common-sense question that I should already know the answer to, but IANAL, etc.

I live in a ground-floor apartment, and over the past several months there have been multiple ceiling leaks coming into my living room from the bathroom of the apartment above mine. I have informed the apartment manager of this on multiple occasions, but it continues to be an issue. On one occasion they patched and repainted a spot on my ceiling where a leak had occurred. And they say they have told my upstairs neighbors not to be so "messy" when they shower.

But as far as I know, that's the extent of maintenance action they've taken, despite the fact that this has happened more than half a dozen times. When I've spoken to them about it, they've claimed that there's really nothing else they can do to prevent future leaks, which does not seem like an acceptable answer to me.

So there was a leak once again last night while I was sleeping, and the water got into my laptop. Now my laptop won't boot up, and it was working fine yesterday.

Does this mean the apartment owners are liable for damage to my laptop? If so, what are the chances of actually getting them to pay up, and what's the best way to go about that?

No it doesn't leak like that, it leaks like this.

fiercekitten — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:05:54 -0800

PlumbingFilter: My google-fu is failing me and need help finding directions on fixing our bathroom sink faucet. It only leaks when it's turned on and not from around the handles. Most of the internet directions are for fixing faucets that drip all the time or stopping a leak around the fixture handles when it's turned on. Maybe my problem is like one of these two, but the symptoms are completely different and I'm not a plumber. The upper part of the fixture (where the handles are) remains completely dry when it's turned on, but there's a steady leak on the underside of the faucet when you turn the hot or cold on. It drips down the piece connecting the drain pull to the drain plug, so it seems to be coming from the place where the water comes out (the stem?). It's a compression faucet (I was able to figure that much out), doesn't drip when it's off and doesn't leak around the handles at all when it's on. It looks like this, only not in pieces.

I'm sure it's an easy enough fix and since I have all the time in the world at the moment, I want to have a go at it. If we have to replace the fixture, that's OK, but if it's just a washer or some plumber's tape I would feel dumb replacing the whole thing.

Radiator + Valve adjustment = wet carpet?

ayerarcturus — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:13:35 -0800

There's wet carpet around my water/steam radiators and I'm not sure why. Ok, so excuse my cluelessness here, I grew up in a house with forced-air heating and this is my first apartment with radiators. A couple of days ago the weather got nice around here, so I opened up my windows and shut off the valve of my radiators. A day or two ago I re-opened the valve on one of the radiators and didn't notice any moistness, but I really wasn't paying attention. Today, I recovered my bookbag from the ground next to the radiator and discovered that it was soaked. In fact, the entire carpet is soaked within about a foot radius of the control valve. So, I guess I'm wondering:

What would cause a massive leak like that? The ceiling above isn't wet, and it's on the side of a house where I imagine there wouldn't be any plumbing, although I could be wrong. Was it something I did with closing the valve and reopening it, or do leaks like this just happen? Mostly curious to know if my landlord is going to be angry at me (he never mentioned anything at all about the valves).

How can I tell if I have a hot water or steam radiator? I'm guessing hot water, but I'm not certain.

The radiator is still giving off heat, although it never really gave off all that much to begin with, relative to the other radiator in my apartment. Does that have anything to do with it?

Patches and tarps and caulk, oh my?

notashroom — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:58:23 -0800

How can I implement a temporary fix for a leaking roof? I've had various water issues with my 37-year-old house since I bought it nearly 5 1/2 years ago. The first was water running down the wall of the basement when it rained, which was resolved by replacing all the gutters and installing gutter screens (others were indoor plumbing issues and not relevant to this). I thought this might have resolved the problem causing water damage to the bathroom ceiling at the outside wall as well, but it has not. The damage increased so slightly as to be unclear whether it was new damage or not until the last several weeks and tremendous amounts of rain we've gotten in the Atlanta area. It's now clear that there is additional water coming in and causing further damage.

I cannot afford to hire a roofer right now. I expect to be able to do so in 3 months or so, and only need a fix to last about that long. I'm also likely going to need to have the bathroom ceiling replaced. My roof is shingled and sloped, 2 storeys from the ground at that point, and I have attic access and a ladder. I've read the responses to AskMes and found this question and that to be somewhat relevant. I do not want to put a tarp on the outside of my roof, but would be willing to put one in my attic (and then what?) if that would help. I'm smewhat comfortable making modest home repairs, but I don't have any great experience or expertise.

What is the best way for me to temporarily forestall further damage without a big cash outlay or anything that takes a great deal of know-how?

Where did the water come from?

spacefire — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:06:29 -0800

Miystery Leak in apartment that we just purchased...where could it be coming from and how to proceed to ensure it doesn't occur again? We bought this apartment in as-is condition. It is on the ground floor of a building that used to be a bank since 1900s and was converted to condos in the 1980s. We did some renovation work and for about a week and a half since then everything appeared fine.
However, late night on Thursday I noticed water seeping from under the refrigerator. We do have a unit that came with the apt, bottom freezer style, and the freezer door has a broken hinge so sometimes it doesn't close properly. I naturally assumed the water was coming from the freezer/refrigerator, and moved the unit a bit, but the water was not coming from the refrigerator, rather, it seemed to be coming from the area without tiles shown in this picture (now dry):
where water was pooling

We have a cabinet over that area, now it is in the living room, I am afraid to put it back there.

We have a dishwasher and sink in the kitchen, but we haven't used those because of a small leak under the sink. Also, the floor appears slanted in the opposite direction, so water could not have come from the direction of the kitchen sink or dishwasher.

I kept mopping the water and eventually shut off the cold water from the water heater valve, and the flood seemed to stop.

But!

The next day I had plumbers come in and look at it, and we open all the valves and ran water in the bathroom (tub, sink, toilet) (which is adjacent to the kitchen, more on that later)...and the area stayed perfectly dry. Over the weekend, using these fixtures normally, no water appeared in the kitchen.

Now, as I said, the kitchen abuts the bathroom. The wall you saw in the picture is between the bathroom and kitchen and is empty inside. In the second picture you can see the area inside the wall where a big (drain?) pipe is coming through. The shot is taken from the bathroom and plumbers and I noticed evidence of prior water inside the wall, also what looked like recent moisture.

looking in the wall that separates the kitchen and bathroom, from behind toilet

The plumbers said to monitor that area, and that water was coming maybe from someone upstairs who had a flood or something. The said they didn't want to break into the wall yet. I asked the neighbors upstairs if they had any issues and they said nothing happened on their end, but there are six more floors above.

The water heater had been through a flood in the past as evidenced by rust on the bottom, but no recent moisture was noted, also, the water heater is on the other side of the bathroom from the kitchen.

The building management said that they cannot yet investigate unless the leak occurs again and they are called when there is actual water...which, if the leak occurs that late at night again, obviously is not an option. I sent them a report with photos of the areas, just to be on the record. Obviously it would be a lot of detective plumber work to figure out what happened and since it is not our fault someone else would have to pay for it.

I don't want the leak to occur again, because, if it does when we are not home and stays unchecked, it can do a lot of damage.

So, how should I proceed from here? If I keep on going with life and normal, we might end up with a lot of damage in the future. I can't keep a constant eye on that area and I also hate having the area bare and the cabinet in the living room. The volume of water observed is such that a simple towel placed there would not contain it.

I live in a condo and pay association fees...what can we do to ensure all the work that was put in the apartment doesn't go away. I don't think we have flood insurance but we have some form of liability insurance called HO6, I assume other owners in the building have it too and it would pay for the damages to our apt, but we have already been through one stressful period of time buying this place and getting it fixed up, and we don't have the time or energy to deal with all this.

That was mold ... right?

SpringAquifer — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:02:15 -0800

My apartment leaked, mold grew on the walls, and the maintenance guy just bleached off the outer layer ... right? Last week, my apartment leaked, and the walls got stained, as such.

This weekend, little black spots started popping up all over the place, as such.

Then the maintenance guys came in this morning to spray a cocktail of Clorox and Tilex, in which they dissolved some kind of "pill." This made all of the stains and spots instantaneously disappear, as such.

The maintenance guy said that there was never any mold -- just "hard water" stains -- and that residents tended to overreact to things that looked like mold. I am skeptical.

Am I correct in thinking that there was mold, and that they just bleached the hell out of the outer layer so I'd think everything was back to normal? Or were those spots indeed something benign?

Ack! My do-it-myself bidet is not a feature...

Nanukthedog — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:33:21 -0800

[PlumbingFilter] Ack! The toilet sprang a leak and is now acting like an impromptu bidet when flushed! What is the proper way to fix this? (more inside) So. The toilet has a small chip on the flat part, just behind the seat and infront of the tank - you know - the solid part that collects crud. Unfortunately, this chip seems to be right above where the water comes out - meaning that when you flush the toilet, a small stream (not all) shoots out of this hole and soaks the seat for about 10-15 seconds. This is a tiny hole - I mean a really tiny tiny hole.

I don't know how this happened, but I would assume that a combination of something being dropped from the cabinet above, and perhaps some rusting or wear and tear from below caused the porcelain to give out. Either way, this is inconvenient, as toilet water (at least from the clean end) spews forth every time it is flushed.

We rent, no landlord in their right mind would replace a toilet over this, and realistically I know that I'm going to need to fix this myself if I want it done (at least partially) right. Obviously, home depot doesn't cover this sort of thing in their plumbing books, so I'm at a bit of a loss...

I can think of a few ways to fix this, but I don't know what really is the best way, or if it is the sign of something else... I need suggestions, help advice and some more advanced know-how..

My thoughts sofar:
1. clear silicone caulk from the inside, then smoothed to fill the hole on both sides. The problem with this is I would assume the drying time might make living in a 1-bathroom appartment a little rough. Plus this seems like a temporary solution that will just cause problems later.

2. Some sort of plumber's putty or epoxy. Plumbers putty seems like it would disintegrate, but I don't know of an epoxy that wouldn't besides the caulk.

3. Some sort of porcelain glaze. This seems ideal, except - I'll just state that the toilet is yellow - making finding a color match a bit difficult, as well as previously expressed time and prevention concerns expressed above.

I have a window of opportunitity for 8 hours on saturday for drying time... so ideally any solution dries in that time frame or we'll be spending a lot of time in other people's bathrooms.

BugFilter: Unbeknownst to us, water got under our kitchen flooring. The bad section has been pulled up and cleaned but I'm seeing some small bugs in that general area. Help!

pghjezebel — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:24:58 -0800

BugFilter: Unbeknownst to us, water got under our kitchen flooring. The bad section has been pulled up and cleaned but I'm seeing some small bugs in that general area. Help! Water got under our kitchen flooring and the floor buckled up. (Very old kitchen that has a layer of peel and stick tile, then old laminate flooring and then the sub flooring.)

I pulled up that area this morning because I smelled faint mildew and was worried about mold. I cleaned the area with a diluted bleach solution and have a fan blowing on the area to help it dry out.

What I'm really worried about is the small bugs that keep popping up around that area. I've only seen/killed about 10-12 of them since this morning. They are small and flea like. One or two flew when I disturbed them but for the most part they just see to jump to try and get away from me.

What are these? Are they fleas? Springtails? Something else that was just attracted to the moisture under the floor? (I haven't seen them anywhere else in the house, just specific to that area.) What should I do before they get any worse?

Shaka, When the Walls Fell

anti social order — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:26:05 -0800

Leaking something in an upstairs bathroom leads to ceiling falling in. Now what? Last night the ceiling under an upstairs bathroom in the townhouse where I am staying collapsed with a torrent of water. It's cleaned up and not currently leaking. I think the water is coming from the toilet or close to it. I shut the water off on the tank, I don't see any other water flowing or dripping. The drywall around this new hole is wet and sagging and the wood above looks wet/rotted/gross/moldy. Now what?

I am clueless with home repair, but it looks fairly serious. There's the leak to be fixed, drywall to be repaired, and god knows what else if the wooden floor beams are damaged. I'm especially worried about mold in the walls and hidden damage elsewhere.

My question is what kind of person do I want to take a look at this? Bonus points for recommendations in Montgomery county maryland.
Also what should I expect or ask of them? do we talk costs upfront or after they've done stuff. The house is insured - do we call an inspector like when it was storm damaged? Is it better to eat a grand or two repair bill or make an insurance claim?

I'm at a bit of a loss about what else to add. Ask anything that you need. Thank you.

Sudden drop in water pressure on second floor

maudlin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:27:36 -0800

What can I do to investigate a sudden drop in water pressure (or flow) in the second floor only of my house before I call a plumber this Monday? I've already seen this question, but I bought this new two storey townhouse three years ago and all has been fine up until yesterday.

Basement and first floor pressure are fine in all sinks and the powder room toilet. But the second floor water sources have been weak since yesterday. The flow from the bathtub tap is markedly decreased, the sink is a little softer, too, and the toilet flush is definitely weak.

Given the sudden onset and localization, could this be a leak? (Oh, I really don't want to call a plumber out on a holiday weekend if I can help it, although I know that if this could be a leak, I should move fast). Or could a slowly building blockage show no signs until it just reached a critical point yesterday?

Who pays for broken gas pipes?

Man_in_staysis — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:33:14 -0800

I live in Sydney and have a gas leak. We've had someone out and they said it is in the junction box or something. This faulty junction box is on my property and will cost close to $5000 to fix. Is AGL (the gas company) responsible for paying for this or am I? I know that certain things on my property are the resposibility of the gas company e.g. the gas meter. I'm just not sure aout the actual lines and pipes themselves.

Do the lines and pipes for services become the responsibility of the property owner when they are on your land?

How can A and B be connected if there's nothing to connect them?

pokeedog — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:58:21 -0800

When our pool equipment runs, it triggers the sound of a leaky pipe in a wall adjacent to our hot water heater. By triggering the valve on the hot water heater when the water to the house is off, I can stop the noise. How can I fix this? This is a very odd situation. So here's the detail:
1. House is slab foundation.
2. Pool equipment is outside kind of far from the hot water heater. No house plumbing connects to the pool equipment. The only common link between the pool equipment and rest of the house workings I can find is electricity, via a fuse box.
3. When the pool equipment goes on, it triggers the sound of a leaky pipe in the wall where the hot water heater is adjacent to. Minimal water appears on the floor after several hours on the hot water heater side of the wall, but no other water indicates any kind of leak.
4. If you turn off the water to the house at the street, the sound in the wall stops.
5. If you fiddle with the pressure release valve on the hot water heater while the water to the house is off, you stop the noise in the wall. Pool equipment must be off.
6. If you fiddle with the pressure release valve on the hot water heater while the water to the house is on, the noise doesn't stop.

We've had a plumber out, it's driving us a little crazy. These two things just don't seem connected. Am I grasping at straws? What other things should I check? It seems to coincidental to me, since the water system of the house isn't connected to the pool equipment.

Will the HOA Come For ME?

duckus — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:04:56 -0800

Can the HOA make me ultimately responsible for their drama ? I own a condo, but rent it out. Last year, the owner below me experienced leakage in her ceiling due to a design flaw. The leak originated in the outside deck of my condo.

At first, she contacted me, and we found dry rot in the door frame, which was replaced. At this point, it was also determined that the damage was centered outside, which is considered a common area and not my responsibility.

Now, she is still experiencing the leak and new damage and is going to the board demanding they resolve the issue. The board is maintaining (politely) that the original issue was resolved several years ago. I have not been directly contacted about anything, but am being cc'ed on various emails. It does seem that everyone wants to avoid litigation.

I am worried that at some point, this will come back to me. Can they come after me at all after they exhaust all of their options with each other? And if they can .. what are my options? I mean .. other than shelling out thousands of dollars I don't have.

To stick down that seam tape or not...

who else — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:15:26 -0800

Following up to this question, my tent seam seal failed to stick down some of the taped seams that were coming untaped. Is it supposed to be able to stick them down or is that irrelevant as long as the seam seal goop absorbs into the stitching etc. I just thought that since when I bought the tent some of the taped seams were stuck down properly and some were peeling up, that maybe that was responsible for the leakage. I followed the directions, cleaned the area with alcohol first, applied liberally, let it dry for several hours, and lo and behold it didn't stick that tape down.

To duct tape or not to duct tape...

who else — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:30:52 -0800

I have this tent. The rainfly according to the box is polyester and the plastic window for the solar panel is PVC and the seams where the two materials join are 'taped'. (They are also stitched, whatever.) This seal between the two materials is leaking. Given the type of materials how do I patch this leak? (I have sprayed all interior seams with Silicone tent spray as instructed).

How to fix a leaky washing machine?

charlesroper — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:24:13 -0800

HandymanFilter: How can I stop my washing machine from leaking? (Pictures and Video included) It all started when we ran a load of wash using the "hot water" setting. Before then, we'd only used warm or cold water. Before then, we never had a single drop of water leak out. Now, we have at least a gallon of water on the floor after each wash (regardless of water temperature).

Could the hot water have caused a burst hose or a warped gasket? I've checked all of the hoses and hose clamps and they seem fine.

I've noticed that the water really only leaks out when the washer is filling with water - I checked the inlet hoses and there are no leaks there (at least on the outside of the washer).

Disassembling this thing to get a closer look is a nightmare. I tried it the other day but gave up.

Here are some pictures and a video of what I can see.

At this point, my only guess is that the wash bin is leaking. However, that doesn't explain why the washer only leaks when filling up. You'd think if it were that, it'd leak constantly.

I'm out of ideas and appreciate any help you can give me. At this point, we're just throwing towels on the floor.

Stachybotrys chartarum? Yes, no, maybe so?

jalebi — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:15:55 -0800

Is this black mold? If not, what could it be, and should I be worried? To backtrack a bit... about 3 months ago, I discovered a leak in my bathroom - it seemed to be coming from behind the medicine cabinet, above the sink. There also appeared to be water spots coming from the ceiling to the right of the sink - which is where the shower/bathtub combo is. I called my apartment maintenance, and after some examination in my apartment and the one above, they corrected the problem (I was not home at the time, and received no indication about the origin of the leak, just that it was fixed).

The medicine cabinet is still functional, but is definitely warped and damaged by the water leakage. Since I'm not responsible for the damages, I haven't been too concerned.

But last week or so, I noticed that a black powder seemed to be falling from behind the medicine cabinet onto the tiles and toothbrush holder a few inches below (see pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4 -- sorry for the terrible quality). You can see some trails of the water stains from a few months back. I've lived in this apartment for a year, and have never noticed it before. It's pitch black, powdery, and when wiped/cleaned away, will fall again upon subsequent opening/closing of the medicine cabinet. Could this be residue from dried black mold (from the moisture behind the medicine cabinet)? What else could it be? It's definitely new, and most likely related to the leak a few months ago. I've called maintenance, and while they're good about problems, are a few days behind - so probably won't be around till Wednesday I'm guessing.

My Boston area building is old (100+ years), so I don't expect everything to be in tip top condition, but should I be worried?

How to fix a leaky basement

Badmichelle — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:18:12 -0800

Should I fix my leaky basement from the inside or the outside? My basement: it leaks. What follows is plenty of detail, since I now know more about basements than I ever wanted to.

I've now had three contractors come to view it, and they're giving me contradictory advice: two say fix it from the outside, that works best, one says inside is the way to go. All three say I need weeping tiles. Two say they will put them on the outside of the wall, and apply a membrane, one says they should go inside.

The details: We live in a pretty old house (80+ years, as far as I know) with what looks like a stone rubble foundation. The parging is coming off the walls on the outside, and I can see that the foundation is damp. Inside, there's actually not much water, but the walls are damp and there is some water on the floor. Not much, but this hasn't happened before, and I suspect it will only get worse: we've have spectacular amounts of rain in Toronto season, and I believe there's more to come. One window frame has rotted wood, and needs to be replaced.

The complications: The basement is finished. Fixing it from the inside means we'll have to remove the drywall and part of the floor. If we go from the ouside, we have to dig up a concrete walkway and then replace it (it's a shared walkway and our neighbors will not look upon us favourably if we don't replace it).

I'm still struggling to understand what will work best/longest/be best for the house. If we fix it from the inside--isn't the water still penetrating the foundation? Isn't that bad? If we fix it from the outside, are we risking damaging the foundation in some way? (I've read that you should leave a stone-rubble foundation alone).

Do you have any experience with this? Any advice? Fixing this is going to be really expensive either way we go -- we can only afford to do it ONCE.

X11 leaking?

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:24:40 -0800

Does my X11 server have a memory leak? My office workstation is a Dell Precision 390, which has a dual-core Core 2 Duo in it, with 4 GB of RAM. The workstation is running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4:

$ uname -a

Linux ... 2.6.9-67.0.7.ELsmp #1 SMP Wed Feb 27 04:47:23 EST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Here's the version of X11 this workstation is running:

$ xterm -v

X.Org 6.8.2(192)

$ rpm -qa xorg-x11

xorg-x11-6.8.2-1.EL.33.0.2

Running system monitor, one monitor (GNU System Monitor 2.8) claims I have 100% of the memory in use, of which 37% is cached. Another monitor (System Monitor 2.7) suggests 2.2 GiB of 3.6 GiB is in use.

If I run top, the process X (or, /usr/X11R6/bin/X) takes up the most memory and CPU, and reports a different value from the other two monitors:

  PID USER      PR  NI %CPU    TIME+  %MEM  VIRT  RES  SHR S COMMAND

 5508 root      15   0    6  29:24.93 45.4 2503m 1.6g 9600 S X

Is it normal for the X11 server to use this much memory? What can I do to improve this?

I'm running GNOME 2.8 as the desktop manager.

My workstation has frequent "pauses" where, for example, I try to do work and the computer freezes for a moment or two, then keeps working. The IT guy already replaced RHEL 5 with RHEL 4 and that helped a lot, but my computer is still slow. Using KDE instead of GNOME hasn't helped much.

I can't really do much to change workstation settings as it is locked down. If there's a memory leak or other technical problem, I'd like to go to my IT guy with as much info as possible to save his time (and mine). I'm running some intensive work and need as much CPU and memory as I can get.

Thanks for any advice.

Why is there a mildew smell in car during rain?

supertouchme — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:03:00 -0800

Can someone tell me where a mildew smell in my car might be coming from on rainy days if there are no apparent leaks? For the last year i have noticed that whenever i step into my car and it's raining there is a strong mildew smell. it happens relatively soon after it starts raining.

the smell lasts for a couple days and it even seems more humid inside the cabin until the smell goes away.

i've checked everywhere inside the car and nothing is ever damp. i've brought it to the dealership and they couldn't find any problems.

has anyone else experienced this?

Is my roof leaking?

ellenaim — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:46:50 -0800

There are ceiling-to-floor water streak marks in one of my bedrooms. Is this just condensation or could it be a roof or wall leak? Everything I've read about roof leaks refers only to ceiling stains and non-streak wall stains; and water streaks seem to be associated with condensation. Condensation is a possibility in this room since there was a humidifier running in it over the past few months, and there are some signs of condensation -- also streaks -- on the wall directly above where the humidifier was located. But these worrisome streaks are on an exterior wall; they are much more noticeable, and are longer (ceiling to floor) than the ones near the humidifier. They are about 6 inches wide at the top, tapering down toward the floor. Could the streaks be a sign of the underlying studs being soaked and seeping through? Or could it just be condensation caused by the humidifier?

Perhaps it is relevant that it has been raining for two days, but on the other hand these streaks might have been present longer and I only just noticed.

My roof is 4 years old.

What IM client makes this sound?

Nelson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:24:22 -0800

What IM client makes this sound? I'm trying to identify a glitch that's in the leak of Portishead's album Third. On track 5, about 2:14 into the track you hear a strange sound. It sounds a lot like an IM client's new message alert, but I'm not positive. I don't think it belongs in the music, it's way out of context. You can hear the whole track here.

(I'm asking for my blog, which I'm politely not self-linking here.)

Who do I call about bathroom mushrooms?

GrumpyMonkey — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:51:54 -0800

2 part question: 1) We found a mushroom in the bathroom this morning. I crawled into the crawlspace and pulled down the insulation and the subflooring (?) is all wet. I know I need to call someone but is it a plumber, a handyman or a hazmat team? Everything I have read (including this) just say "call a professional". 2) Is this something which I should file a homeowners insurance claim on (AllState)? My wife thinks that doing that will just make our rates go up and eventually cause us to get blacklisted by the insurance company. I think that I have insurance for just such an occasion. And yes, I am totally freaked out and disgusted by this and worried that it explains why my son and I both wake up with headaches and congestion every morning.

Leaky roof

Evangeline — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:09:02 -0800

Our roof is leaking and the super doesn't seem to care. I've seen similar questions posted here before, but they don't quite address all my concerns.

A little background: We live in a duplex in Brooklyn, NY. We’re on the very top floor. The living room is directly under the roof of the building. There’s been a stain on the ceiling ever since we moved in about 10 years ago, but now the stain is spreading. Finally, the last time there was a big downpour, rain started to drip through. We told our super, and his response was, “Let’s see what it does next time it rains.” So the next time it rained the roof leaked again. Still he won’t take action. I don’t think he’s going to do anything until the ceiling caves in.

What are my recourses here? Should I write a letter to the landlord? I don’t want to be on bad terms with the super, since we have no intention of moving. If the ceiling does indeed cave and my furniture is ruined, who is responsible for the damage to my belongings? I’ve tried to move as much stuff as possible away from the leak, but there’s just not enough room (and yes, I’ll be looking into renter’s insurance today).

Also, the spare room, which is below the second floor of our apartment, has a very nasty leak. Pieces of the ceiling have been falling on the floor. A good portion of the ceiling is covered with mold. Apparently it’s caused by water from the shower right above it. The showerhead is placed in such a way that it’s virtually impossible to keep water off the floor. It’s a tile floor – is this normal? I’ve never had this happen in any other apartment. The super took a look at it and implied that it was our fault. Again, he won’t fix it. We won’t even use the upstairs shower now for fear the tub will cave in. I don’t doubt that eventually it will. If it does, will we be responsible for the damages?

Sorry for the length of this post. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.