The Roof, the Roof, the Roof is... leaking
So the flat porch over my kitchen had been leaking on and off since we bought the house, which is part of I got a pretty good deal on it in the first place. When I finally got it repaired in August of 2012 the roofing contractor told me that it was going to be a difficult fix. Siding was taken down, rotted plywood was torn out, the doorway to the porch was rebuilt, the roof was redone and new siding was put on with a brand new screen door. However, leery of the contractor's warning I did not get the dry wall in the kitchen replaced; opting instead to wait for the repairs to hold up for a few major storms.
After the remnants of Hurricane Sandy came through just two months later I felt much more confident. Many people in my neighborhood had trees and/or roof damage, but the kitchen patch came through with flying colors. My house did have some minor water damage, but that's because the window in my attic blew open during the storm!
After a full winter I still hadn't had any problems. I don't look up in the kitchen at the ceiling very often, so despite this reassuring span of time passing with numerous rain storms and no leaking I wasn't in a huge hurry to repair it, despite my mother's subtle hints that it should be fixed at some point.
Repairs were on the list for 2014, but no longer. Last week's polar vortex brought the coldest temperatures to Cleveland that we'd seen since 2009. On Thursday temperatures rose rapidly from around the zero degree range of Monday and Tuesday into melting. I came home from work day to find water coming through the old leak spots in the ceiling. A bowl left out overnight was completely full the next morning, and was full again that night when I got home from work.
Thankfully, my contractor came out this morning. He was actually pretty irritated because he figured that if I didn't call after Sandy the fix must have worked, but he quickly diagnosed the problem as an issue with something the siding sub-contractor did (or so he claimed anyway). He said he can't effectively fix it until everything dries out but will get his crew in here right after. He was relieved that I hadn't replaced the dry wall yet, and recommended holding off until the repairs make it through another similar cold snap.
So yeah, if you wonder why my ceiling still hasn't been repaired yet, now you know.
After the remnants of Hurricane Sandy came through just two months later I felt much more confident. Many people in my neighborhood had trees and/or roof damage, but the kitchen patch came through with flying colors. My house did have some minor water damage, but that's because the window in my attic blew open during the storm!
After a full winter I still hadn't had any problems. I don't look up in the kitchen at the ceiling very often, so despite this reassuring span of time passing with numerous rain storms and no leaking I wasn't in a huge hurry to repair it, despite my mother's subtle hints that it should be fixed at some point.
Repairs were on the list for 2014, but no longer. Last week's polar vortex brought the coldest temperatures to Cleveland that we'd seen since 2009. On Thursday temperatures rose rapidly from around the zero degree range of Monday and Tuesday into melting. I came home from work day to find water coming through the old leak spots in the ceiling. A bowl left out overnight was completely full the next morning, and was full again that night when I got home from work.
Thankfully, my contractor came out this morning. He was actually pretty irritated because he figured that if I didn't call after Sandy the fix must have worked, but he quickly diagnosed the problem as an issue with something the siding sub-contractor did (or so he claimed anyway). He said he can't effectively fix it until everything dries out but will get his crew in here right after. He was relieved that I hadn't replaced the dry wall yet, and recommended holding off until the repairs make it through another similar cold snap.
So yeah, if you wonder why my ceiling still hasn't been repaired yet, now you know.