The roar of the fans isn't too annoying while you have the TV on but when you try and go to bed, it seems like they are right in the room with us....the noise comes up through the registers and you can feel a slight breeze on you. Your asking why we have fans going in the basement or lower level? We have had so much rain last weekend and with our sump pump working so hard to help keep the water out it burned out....we had alarms on the floor to alert us of water and they started going off. By the time we got up from just starting to eat lunch the whole basement was flooded...about 2 inches worth. We might have ended up with more but my husband got his shop vacuum out and started sucking it up and dumping it in the toilet. Our first call was too the insurance man...and to find out we did not have any flood insurance....who would think that would be considered a flood, not us. Our next step was to get a plumber to our home and get a new sump pump put in. Luckily the lady that works there was able to find one of their plumbers not far from our home on the highway driving in another direction. He got here after 1/2 an hour later and put in a new sump pump. We already had called a few of the places that clean up after water and storm damage, and fires, etc. We were on a list...a few of them said it might be a couple of days because we were not the only ones with this problem.... We had to rush our little dog to the vet and when we got home there was a call on our answering machine from someone that could come over right away. That was wonderful news. He came and brought many fans with him...of course not before telling us the price he charges. What could we do, we needed it cleaned up? Said yes to the amount and the fans have been running constantly since Monday night. The workers did bring along a huge dehumidifier to suck up the wetness and a machine to help get the water out of our carpet. This is night 3 of listening to the sound of all of the fans downstairs and they had mentioned they would be back Friday to check the house. They have a stick like apparatus that tells where water is...luckily none is up onto our drywall....so hopefully he is right and we will not have to be knocking down any walls. ....we did find out today about our puppy, after my husband took a video of our puppy making the weird sound again and took it to the vet. Something to do with allergys, an inverted sneeze. We started her on allergy medicine and hopefully she won't be bothered with the inverted sneeze too often. We were just happy it wasn't kennel cough.
I'm keeping everything tightly crossed that the water hasn't invaded your drywall and that the fans and new sump pump do their work. From now on a normal amount of rain would be fine but no more downpours in your area please!! Are you going to change your insurance to cover flood damage from now on? I hate the thought of how much it must have cost you to get everything sorted out. I hope that, by the week-end, the fans will no longer be needed and that you can get back to more restful nights of sleep. Inverted sneezing is something that a (human) friend of mine suffers from and it's a strange noise isn't it? They are on a special inhaler to help with theirs so I'm glad your pup has medicine to alleviate her symptoms. It's often difficult to pin down exactly what dogs are allergic too but let's hope that, in time, you can discover what it is.
What a shame you had to go through all this trouble and mess, and a sick doggy, too! My sympathies and sincere hopes that all is well with your home after it dries out.
So glad to hear your puppy is not seriously ill. And keeping my fingers, toes and eyes crossed that there is no water damage to your drywall.
They said they could save the soggy carpet but I am not too sure...we came home yesterday after some errands and we were not met with a very nice smell.... the roar of the fans is still hard to listen too at night while in bed. I am praying that the smell gets better or leaves completely...I just might be talking my husband into having the company we hired to take out the carpet...it still looks great but if we can't find the source of the smell, I want it gone. ....Izzy (Isabella) hasn't had any problems since she started the allergy pills, the vet recommended giving them to her for a week and then taper off and see if she starts in again.
That was a rough weekend you had Sherry. I'm glad Izzy's feeling better. Did your insurance company not want to pay out or you were not covered for flood initially?
We didn't think we needed flood insurance, when a sump pump burns out and water comes into your house, we thought that was covered by regular insurance. We don't get what most people call flooding in our area because we are high enough.We have had a lot of rain in the last month and we never heard our pump running at any time. It had just burned out right before the water rushed in from the sump pump and the drain by the furnace. We even had water alarms which got us down there right away but with it coming in so fast, it was every where. My living room is full of some of the furniture that got wet and no room to dry it downstairs and a lot of baskets that were sitting on the floor. I will have a lot of things to check over once we get back downstairs, I had an iron cooling on the cement part of the floor and my sewing machine foot pedal was under water...Just little things like that. My husband borrowed the neighbors garbage bin and filled it with the wood that got wet from his workshop once ours was filled.. I guess we will have to check over the price of flood insurance, especially if we need to replace our carpet this time. That can be quite an expense if it happens again.
Sherry, my two have the reverse sneezing issue too. I will tell you, having spend many hundreds of dollars on various allergy meds, steroids, food additives and other assorted fixes, that nothing worked. I belong to a chihuahua forum, and after also consulting with some of the very knowledgeable folks there as well, I have come to the conclusion that many of my fellow chi owners have come to....it's just a dog thing, a small dog thing to be precise, and though it's annoying and sometimes noisy, it's not anything to be worried about, it's not curable, and so now I just ignore it. Tiny dogs have tiny tracheas, and that contributes to the problem. My current vet (who's not the one that I spent all that money with) tells me that reverse sneezing in small dogs is much like what we humans do when we cough or harrumph to clear our throats. That's all. No big deal, and to not worry about unless it's obviously changing in character just the way a routine cough might change in an adult when they're getting a cold or other infection. Just fyi, in case it's helpful.
What a rotten time you've had! I hope you don't have to replace your carpet. If the smell isn't too strong a carpet cleaning company may be able to remove the smell. As long as the wires and contacts doesn't rust, it should be okay. You may be able to save your sewing machine foot pedal if you bring it upstairs and blow any water out of it with a air compressor, vacuum, or even a hairdryer. As long as the wires and contacts doesn't rust, it should be okay. I'm so glad to hear that your puppy is doing better.
I am really surprised they are claiming that as flood damage. I would fight that if at all possible. It isn't flooding it was a sump pump failure... totally different to me. I do think you will need to get rid of the carpet. It will be growing mold from now on and will stink and can cause health issues. Don't try to keep it. If it was clean water (like mine when my pressure tank blew out of the wall)... maybe, but we didn't keep it, either. the insurance company had it pulled out and tossed so the floor was cleaned and dried. sorry for the experience. it isn't pleasant to go through.
We will be talking with the insurance company after Christmas...they replace food in your refrigerator if your refrigerator stops so why wouldn't they cover a sump pump that burned out and caused damage??? I am very sensitive to smells so we should know right away if it will work or not. The carpet cleaner is coming on Tuesday so we will talk more to him. The cleaning is in the contract we signed so we will use it to see what happens and go from there. The carpet is still wet when they checked on Friday so we still have all of the fans running and another big dehumidifier was added and hopefully it will be dry when they come back to check on Monday. If not, then no one will be able to use the basement when we have company for Christmas. Ronni...a Chihuahua forum sounds neat. It is very hard to find out things about a breed you haven't had before...Izzy is fast as lightening when she runs through the house...I feel sorry for all of my chipmunks, birds and squirrels this summer, she will be after them. I am hoping the command LEAVE will work for them..
Oh, dear me! I do hope things will work out for you, Sherry. So glad your Izzy is better. Good luck with the carpet, insurance company and everything after your water damage.
They came this morning and the carpet is dry. Now we have been cleaning the floor in the non carpeted areas so we can get some of our things back in there. The carpet cleaner comes tomorrow afternoon and then it will be close to normal. It was so great when the fans stopped...no noise ....I want to take extra time in putting things back in their right spots and not hurry because of company coming....
That's great news! Your smart for not rushing and getting everything where it belongs and I'm sure your family will understand. Do you think the carpet cleaners will be able to remove any odor that may have started?
