Sunday, October 27, 2013

At your service

It's been over a year since we first discovered some unwanted puddles of water in our house. To be more specific, we would find moisture under the doormat in our hallway. We had no idea where the water came from, but we were not happy with the situation at all. At that time, we had an Italian student staying with us for a couple of months and we didn't feel like breaking up floors to find the leak during her stay. So we waited and tried to figure out what had gone wrong underneath those tiles.

Winter came and the days got colder and shorter. The moisture was still there and we had problems with our heating. Looking into contacting our insurance company, we hoped they would come up with an answer in where the leak was and how we could fix it without renovating the whole house. They sent their "best" employee en he walked around the house for over 1 hour, listening to the sound of running water in his headphones. We were a bit startled about the whole procedure, but he ensured us that was the best method available. He pointed out towards the tile where the water would pile up and smiled when he said: the leak is definitely underneath this tile! Hmhm... wow.

The insurance company agreed with his statement and they reimbursed us for the cost of replacing that one tile and having the leak fixed. The thing was: we couldn't find a plumber right away, to do the job. So some more months went by. In September, we decided the problem had to be fixed by the time we had to turn on the heating again. So finally this plumber stopped by to take a look. My husband had already opened the flooring and guess what: no leak... Apparently, the water problem was not caused by a leak in the pipes, but by an overflowing basement in the neighbor's house.. Bummer!

We turned on the heating to prepare ourselves for colder nights. Problem! the pressure kept falling down and the heating wasn't working correctly. So we called the plumber again and he gave us some ideas on what could be wrong. Guess what: a leak in the heating pipes.. There we go again, we thought, but we didn't give up. My uncle is a handy man and he thought along with us and the plumber. Does it come as a surprise to you, that my husband was the one who eventually found the leak? It was in our bathroom and it looked pretty bad. So we now not only had open flooring in the hallway, but in our bathroom as well. Thank goodness the plumber stopped by to fix the leak and turn the heating back on. Mystery solved. For now. We hope..

No comments: