Never a dull moment...

[alexpgp]

Another gentle, long, and languorous rainstorm passed overhead yesterday evening, but this time, after a while, water started dripping through the living room ceiling.

I climbed into the attic and instead of a convenient point under which I could place an intercepting container, I found water streaming down the sides of the chimney structure (although at such a rate that you couldn't really see the flow). Apparently, the joint between the roof and the chimney has deteriorated to the point where water was leaking in, and once the water hit the top of the ceiling drywall, it flowed along a joist and then down through where I recall there was a leak a long time ago.

Fortunately, by the time I had figured all this out - and concluded I had nothing in the house to mitigate what was happening - the rain stopped. This morning, I unlimbered the ladder to take a look-see from the other side of the crack.

There really wasn't much to see, except to notice that the concrete used to fill in the top of the chimney structure is chock full of long flexible fibers that I suspect are asbestos. There were some obvious places where I could see chinks along the line between the chimney and the roof, and some visible separation between - is it a layer made up of many layers of paint? - and the concrete blocks of the chimney sidewalls.

Some calling around indicated there is an "instant waterproof repair" product that works like flashing, which sounded like just the ticket, except there was none in stock locally, and both the local hardware store and Amazon would require a few days to get the product to me.

"Maybe you can get it at Home Depot?" suggested Galina, so I brought up the phone number of the Durango store and called.

When calling Home Depot, one negotiates the first "page" of the phone help system, pressing "3" to speak to an associate. There follows an exhaustive recitation of departments you can speak to, but it turns out that whatever number you press, you will be asked how your call might be directed!

During my call to Durango, after negotiating the phone help system and being put on hold four times, I was told that the folks working in the building materials department were apparently outside unloading a truck, and would I care to leave my number, or maybe call back in 20 minutes? I said I'd call back.

Hoping for a better response, I called the Home Depot in Farmington, New Mexico, where I told the associate who eventually picked up the line that I wanted to speak to someone in building materials (remember, this is after I pressed "3" to speak to an associate and then "2" to indicate I wanted to speak to someone in the paint and building materials department). I was then put on hold.

When the call timer on my phone reached 10 minutes, I disconnected. Their hold music wasn't to my liking, anyway.

A few minutes later, I called Durango again. They in fact have the product I'm looking for, at about 15% less for what Amazon wants. Galina is en route to pick some up as I type this.

Work came in this morning, and my client for The Big Edit™ has acknowledged receipt of the next slug of work. I've invoiced everyone I can, and billings are, well... nominal, if can get some work done today.

So I'm off to start swinging at the face of the mine!

Cheers...

Comments

[qp4.livejournal.com]

Flashing is the way to go for that sort of repair. If you just go gob some gunk on it you're not fixing anything for longer than a few months to a few years (depending on climate) and it'll be that much more crap to hack out of the way to actually do it right later (ie the roofer is going to charge you a bit more).