it never rains but it pours

[ghostjmf]

right into my bathroom last night. Roof is leaking. I told landlord there was a little drip back on Yom Kippur. When there was a little drip. Person they sent to look at it rooted around on the roof & said "the flashing around the chimney needs fixing". When I called landlord this morning to report on last night's flood (inside the house, that is; the actual rain was last week), I got their lawyer child, who told me "the roofer said it was not a big deal". I didn't say "oh, is that why they haven't been back?". But wanted to. I tried to impress them that it was now a big deal. When landlord called, at least they believed me. But they want me to punch holes in the ceiling plaster with a screwdriver "so as to let the rest of the pooled water drain". They say they have been told to do this in similar situations in the past. I tried to impress upon them that the plaster was now in such bad, cracked , damp condition that I feared this would just cause it to fall on me, leaving me with no ceiling at all. To speak of.

I haven't been home yet to carry out their wishes. On my way now.


Oh yeah; it poured right into the kitty box (as well as around it too). Which for one brief instant had me very worried about my cat. But, thankfully, all that water did not come from him.

[jaybee]

It is a good idea to put a few small holes into the ceiling material. This will lessen the chance of the ceiling falling by reducing the amount of water caught in the ceiling. There is going to have to be some ceiling patching anyway. If you cannot find any soft spots where you can easily push a pen or other pointed object through the ceiling, then don't bother as there is not enough water trapped there to make any difference. Obvious places to poke a hole will be in a couple of the places where water has dripped out.

Flashing fixes are usually fairly simple. Unfortunately, if they are not fixed quickly the problems multiply to ceiling damage like you now have.

[ghostjmf]

Landlord now says they've talked to the roofer & consensus is that they need a new roof. Which is very different from what landlord's child told me earlier. However, this can't be done until January or later, as roofer is currently booked up. Makes no sense to me to have them working on the roof in Jan. They are supposed to go put patches on where the leak currently is in the next few days. I certainly hope so. I haven't punched those holes yet; there is a big plaster crack. The whole thing is soft. Every source says "do this", but I'm still scared.


The people who put this roof on about 7 years ago, a rubber roof that my landlord insisted was the best thing (there were no leaks at the time; in the past they'd had "water not flowing into the right vents" problems, but no leak like this) were bad news from the word "go". They insisted that they come into my apartment so they could plug in their equipment (I'm on the 3rd floor, with porch access to the roof). I told them I pay the electric bill, not the landlord, & they coughed up their own generator (which they had on their truck all along).


Then they took apart my front porch to lay rubber roofing down, replacing asphalt, & never put the railings back up until the landlord's lawyer child got after them to do it. I had no porch railings for months.

[ghostjmf]

Update is that I poked 2 very small holes into the big crack & neither did water pour out nor the plaster fall on my head. But it's way soft. I think that's all the poking I'm going to do.