Under the Weather
If stringing rolls of plastic across the roof of your house and digging trenches to divert floodwaters in the back yard have been your most recent home improvement projects, your house is definitely under the weather. Orange County homes were built to bask in the sun, not stave off a deluge.
While some folks have seen their entire house slip away in the mud, most homeowners have had to deal with the record rains of the last couple of weeks on a smaller--but still frustrating--scale.
Here are some suggestions from experts on dealing with common problems that arrived with the rain:
LAWNS, PLANTS AND LANDSCAPING
Plants need to respire to live, and when they’re under water they can’t. This isn’t a problem for a short time, but if your lawn has been under water for a couple of days or more, you might want to start thinking about renting a pump and getting rid of your unwanted lake.
If the lawn is merely soggy, there’s still a problem, however, said Jay Rodriguez, owner of Upper Crust Landscaping in Orange. As long as it’s spongy, he said, you don’t want to walk on it, ride a bike on it, drive a car on it or put anything even slightly heavy on it. Footprints and other depressions collect water and hold it longer. When the rain departs, stay off soggy lawns for a good 10 days or more, said Rodriguez, especially spots that are shaded.
Also, said Rodriguez, if the rain is followed by a heat wave, fungus can strike the lawn. However, he said, “in this cool weather it’s not a problem as long as people turn their water systems off.”
Saturation also affects mature trees and larger bushes if they haven’t been routinely and properly pruned back, Rodriguez said. Soggy soil won’t support a too-heavy tree in a wind, and the tree may topple.
Camellias and roses can suffer an affliction called “petal blight” if too many leaves and other dead organic material have dropped around the base of the plant, Rodriguez said. The blight won’t kill the plants, but it will cause the blooms to turn an unsightly brown. Clearing the dead material away solves the problem.
And a final bit of bad news: Drought-tolerant plants don’t tolerate excessive rain.
“It’s way too much water for these plants,” Rodriguez said. “Unfortunately, if the soil is not a fast-draining soil--clay, for instance--there’s not a whole lot you can do except dig the root ball up and add some compost or some peat moss or some loam to it and hope for the best.”
What happens if, instead of drowning, everything washes downhill? If it’s a small built-up spot in your yard that has simply decided to flatten out, Rodriguez said it can be fairly easily built up again when the soil dries out. To prevent further slippage, however, he suggested that the hillock be covered in rough jute netting after planting. The netting is simply left in place, anchoring the soil, and the plants grow through it. The netting eventually decomposes.
More severe erosion, in which large fissures are formed, requires evaluation by soil scientists and geologists, and possible recompacting, Rodriguez said.
ROOFS
If your roof leaks, check back with the original roofer before you go ahead with repairs. A reputable roofer will honor the guarantee made during installation and, depending on the company and the materials, that guarantee may be good for as long as 40 years. The problem is that roofers sometimes don’t stay in business long enough to honor their guarantees, or they simply installed the roof unskillfully in the first place.
Sometimes, of course, a roof just gives up the ghost and needs to be replaced.
“A roof can look aesthetically pleasing, but it may not function the way it was intended,” said Joe Ronstadt, owner of Pride Roofing in Anaheim.
If it doesn’t, finding the leak is usually fairly easy, he said. Poor workmanship is most often the problem, “usually something obvious, like a vent pipe near a (low spot on the roof) or near an air conditioner or obstacles that take a little bit of engineering.”
But don’t bother to call a roofer while the rain is still coming down. A roof must be dry to be repaired; adhesive won’t stick to a wet roof.
In the meantime, said Ronstadt, grin and bear it, and find a nail. Then, “rather than have the ceiling cave in, poke a little nail hole through the site of the leak,” Ronstadt said. “That centralizes the drip and keeps weight from building up in the ceiling. Then just put a bucket under it.”
When things eventually dry out, a stain may remain on the ceiling. In many cases, particularly on “cottage cheese”-type ceilings, Ronstadt said a bleaching agent can be used to remove the discoloration. With other ceiling materials, however, or with particularly resistant stains, the stained area must be repainted, he said.
POOLS
First, the myth of the overflowing pool. Huge waves sloshing over the decking and into the house make for fine nightmares but, said Steve Terry, the owner of Automated Pool Systems in Lakewood, that’s inaccurate.
Most of the time, he said, the slowly rising water simply drains away along with the rest of the rain that’s falling on the decking--slowly, properly and in a controlled manner.
Also, he said, the diluted chlorine in the water probably won’t harm the lawn.
But if the rising water spooks you, and you want to drain off a bit, the cheapest way is simply to siphon it off with the hose fitting that is provided in some pool packages or, failing that, a garden hose.
Once the rain subsides, pool owners will become chemists again. The water in the pool may be cloudy or have a greenish tint because of the alteration of the chemical balance in the water, along with the collection of suspended sediment, Terry said.
The solution: Use a chlorine “shock treatment,” one to two extra gallons of chlorine added to the pool water, and then filtered for four to six extra hours a day for two or three days. Keep retesting the Ph balance until it’s in the optimum 7.2 to 7.8 range and the residual chlorine is at the proper 1 or 2 parts per million, Terry said.
If the junk in your pool looks a lot like mud on the bottom, then your cleanup problem just got bigger. If the dirt in the bottom of the pool is less than two inches deep, you may be able to vacuum it out (you’ll have to do this repeatedly, with repeated filter cleanings, said Terry, and you may need the strong equipment of a pro to do it).
If the mud is any deeper, the pool may have to be pumped out. But, before you do that, think back to your high school physics class. Remember the lecture on hydraulic displacement? After a storm, the ground water surrounding the shell of your concrete or fiberglass pool is exerting tremendous pressure on that shell, which is a separate entity from the surrounding ground, Terry said. A full pool tends to equalize that pressure, but if it’s drained . . .
“In the pool business, they call it ‘popping the pool,’ ” Terry said. “It’s very rare, and it’s mostly prevalent in hilly regions and at the base of mountains and hills, but it’s the worst thing that can happen to a pool. It can force the pool as much as four feet above ground level. It’s usually a total loss.”
A geological survey may be wise before draining the pool. It might cost as much as $500, said Terry, but it’s cheaper than a new pool.
Electrical problems with the filter motor are more common, he said. If you’re afraid the motor will short out, turn it off, but don’t do it at the motor. Turn it off at the pool circuit breaker, away from the dangerous combination of electricity and standing water.
If any electrically driven equipment does short out, however, rewinding the motor will cost more than replacing it, according to Bill Kobetsky, co-owner of Orange Park Pool Supply in Orange. He cautioned that if you’ve turned off your pool’s electrical components during a heavy rain, wait until the electrical site is completely dry before turning it back on.
FOUNDATION AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGE
Modern building codes have become so exacting that a raindrop may need a passport and a visa to get into a house through the foundation. At least that’s what William Long, the owner of Hammerford Construction in Whittier, thinks.
Still, he said, in rare cases a house carelessly built below a grade line or, more commonly, an older home built before the new codes took effect can suffer water damage as a result of a leaky foundation.
Two things will cause an intrusion of rainwater through the foundation, Long said: a high water table around the house and heat inside the house, which tends to draw water inside.
Water can be kept out of an older house with a slab floor (raised floors in old houses automatically eliminate the problem) by installing rain gutters and downspouts and by laying concrete around the foundation, which will cause the water to flow under the foundation and not into the house, Long said. Also, he said, outdoor planters often provide water with a path into the house at ground level. If so, they need to be properly lined and sealed.
If windows leak, it’s probably one of two problems, according to Tim Bourret, owner of Bourret’s Glass and Screen in Fullerton: clogged weep holes or improperly maintained window hardware. Weep holes are holes cut at the bottom of a window at the sill that allow water to drain away. Paint, dirt and other materials can plug these holes, causing water to pool and flow into the house.
Newer windows that slide on tracks need to be inspected from time to time, to make sure the tracks are clear of debris and the windows latch shut tightly, Bourret said. Older wooden windows don’t often leak, he said, but if they swell with moisture and stick, an application of soap along the contacting wood surfaces can help.
The rub: Any window sealing or maintenance that would keep out water has to be done when the window area is dry. If sealing material is leaking, Bourret said, the area needs to dry for at least four or five days.
CARPET DAMAGE
OK, the water got in. The first step to blessed dryness, said Simon Frank, the general manager of Placentia-based California Certified Restoration, is to make sure no more water gets in. Sandbag. Unclog the drains or conduits. Dig a channel. Divert the water into the street. Just get it out of there.
Once you’re satisfied you’ve beaten back the flood, Frank said, move all the furniture off the wet carpet and onto a dry spot elsewhere. If you can’t do that, wrap the legs of metal and wood furniture pieces with metal foil to prevent what Frank called “dye migration” into the carpet, which can stain permanently.
You can remove the water yourself by using an industrial vacuum but, Frank said, you may have problems later with bacteria such as mold and mildew. A professional, he said, will use a large, powerful water extractor and high-velocity air movers and will then apply disinfectant to the carpet and bring in a dehumidifier.
Depending on the extent and type of flooding, the entire job could take from two to five days, Frank said, but nearly all restoration is successful, and most homeowners can remain in their homes while the work is going on.
And dream of summer.
Special Equipment and Services
Water removal. Pumps can be rented at rental service stores for about $30 a day. Industrial vacuums rent for between $15 and $20 and carpet blowers for about $20.
Sandbags. Often available at home improvement centers at about 50 cents a bag. Also available from some fire departments.
Debris hauling. Some city-contracted disposal companies will haul certain types of debris. Larger jobs may require contracting with a private company, listed in phone directories under “Rubbish Containers & Hauling.”
Who Pays?
Wind damage. Usually covered by homeowner’s policies.
Flood damage. Seldom covered.
Leaky roofs. Depends on whether the roof was damaged in a storm or simply leaked because it was old and in bad repair.
Sliding homes. Most policies don’t cover “subsidence” problems.
State aid. Under a state of emergency, Orange County homeowners are eligible for low-cost loans for rebuilding and repairs.
Has the Rain Gotten Your House Down?
* Leaking Roof
* Sliding Landscaping
* Drowning Garden
* Muddy Pool
* Soggy Carpet
