I was in Manassas, VA, when our next door neighbor called. She asked me if there was a good reason that water was running out of our third garage bay and down the driveway? I told her that I was eating a sandwich in Virginia and had no idea what she was talking about. So for the next few minutes I had her walk around our property as she reported water up to her ankles on the side yard extending to the back patio by the pool. The back yard was also soft and wet. I figured that the pool pump or filter sprung a leak.

I called another neighbor down the street who we entrusted with a key to our home while we were away. I asked them to enter the house and see if the source of the water had come from inside the house. They called back a few minutes later with bad news. Nearly the entire first floor was flooded. My office seemed to have the deepest water level but every other room had been touched by the water.

I had our neighbor turn off the water supply and retrieve telephone numbers for our insurance agent. In less than an hour, water restoration crews were demoing our house, measuring moisture absorbtion in the walls, and beginning the drying process.

Returning home would not have improved the outcome so we stayed in Washington DC and tried to enjoy Spring Break with Lindsay and Eriko. And for the most part we did.

Here are some pictures of the home just after the initial demolition process. One side of all the interior walls were stripped of baseboards and the lower 12 inches of drywall was cut away. Insulation, carpet and pads were removed and thrown out and sent to the dump.



A dozen heavy duty driers ran for about a week straight. De-humidifiers were also brought in to suck the moisture out of the air.



We learned that the first team on site cranked the heater up to above 90 degrees. This helps wick the moisture out of the wood and into the air enabling the de-humidifiers to work even better.



The insurance company will not cover the bill for the extra water that flooded our home over the normal bill. However, they will cover the incremental cost of the electricity used to run the drying equipment and all other costs of restoring our home, living at an apartment, our food, etc.



The kitchen base cabinets were removed to get at the walls behind the cabinets. All 11 base cabinets have been removed and taken to a cabinet maker who will rebuild the cabinets.



At the time of these pictures the decision had not been made to take out the tile. This decision was made later. Furniture was removed and placed in a pod on the driveway. Furniture that was damaged was taken off site to be refinished.

More posts to come as the restoration of our home continues.