The A/C drain in my house decided to clog up without me noticing it. My house has a "conventional" foundation with crawlspace, and the A/C was not original to the house. As a result underneath the A/C is just the hardwood floor from when the location of the A/C was a closet.

There is a good bit of visible damage. You can see mineral deposits from where the water drained out of the squirrel cage (brand new furnace, so know its from this). The trim board on the floor is moldy. The hardwood floor buckled to the point where there are two mounds. One mound is about 4" high. Inbetween the two mounds is about a 2" depression, which, when I discovered the leak, was full of water and had mold floating around in the water.

Looking back I saw signs of it for about a month or so ago... (noticed where it drains on the outside was not as wet as normal). Where it drains on the outside has this nasty slime stuff that was not there when the cooling season began. I took a shop vac to the drain hose this morning and I think the blockage is cleared, but have the A/C turned off today to let everything dry out so I have a nice baseline to compare things to.

It gets better... the floor area that has this damage is about two feet from the toilet. In the past the subfloor was damaged from the toilet and there are currently about 4-5 stilts supporting that area of the floor in the crawlspace. They added additional bracing in addition to the stilts. When the home was purchased the home inspector assured me that it was a good repair, which it did appear to be.

So the actual question.... how much damage did I cause? I am a college student and as such don't have much money and my time is cheap.... is this something I can fix myself?

I'll post pics of the floor, the crawlspace (seeing the damage down there will sure be interesting ), etc later on tonight when I get off work.

Thanks for any help!!!

__________________
John Robbins
'05 E320 CDI - 240k
'87 300TD - 318k

Insurance should cover that, I had a fridge hose ruin my kitchen floor and it was replaced minus the deductable.

Posted the pics at http://starquake.ath.cx/pics/ac-damage/index.html

Movie (some special AVI format requires quicktime to play it...) http://starquake.ath.cx/pics/ac-damage/MVI_0011.avi

Its pretty nasty looking underneath. Its been a hot (>90) day, and there was still water dripping from the flooring. It appears to have spread as far as 10' away in one direction and about 5' away in the other directions it spread.

Should I get this looked at professionally? I'm going to let it dry out for a few days and crawl under there again. Will be much easier to poke around when there isn't a lake underneath everything!

MM: I'll have to dig out the policy and see what the deductible is... I think its relatively high at $1000, which isn't going to be any fun... thanks for pointing me in that direction though

Thanks!

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
John Robbins
'05 E320 CDI - 240k
'87 300TD - 318k

Well, the good news is that you have a pier and beam foundation, and the worst of the damage appears to be with the house's original hardwood flooring. The bad news is, the subfloor is going to require repair, and you likely have drywall damage in that closet.

What I'd do is, while it's still damp, try to ascertain how far up the wall the moisture has crawled. You will need to cut the drywall out from about an inch higher to insure that you don't have any nasties growing in the wall to insure an even bigger mess down the road. All you have to do there is then replace the cut out material with new, and then tape and mud the seam. Since the closet is small, you may be able to beg off some excess material from a nearby construction project. While the rough in is exposed, I'd paint a good thick layer of Kilz paint to halt any mold growth behind the walls. As for the hardwood floor, I'd just cut it out of the closet, and replace the floor in there with some sort of metal catch pan with a french drain to avoid a repeat. If you have carpet, anything damaged beyond the closet floor will need to be replaced with 3/4" plywood to fill the resulting gap.

With the subfloor, I'd at least seek the advice of a professional as to the best means of it's repair. It just may end up bieng one part of the job that would be better suited for the pros.

Thanks for the detailed post!!

Makes sense that mold would grow behind the drywall, but never would have figured that one out. Went and looked at the drywall shortly after you posted, but it had already dried. The entire section of the back drywall needs to be replaced, as well as the drywall behind the 2x4 supporting the a/c. Since the furnace and a/c coil have to come out to do this a few projects just got jump started.... oh well.

When the sub-floor dries out do you have any idea what I need to look for to determine if the floor has rotted? I imagine if its bad enough it will be pretty obvious, but are there any significant points of no return that you know of?

I *really* like the metal drain pan idea. Very nice

__________________
John Robbins
'05 E320 CDI - 240k
'87 300TD - 318k

If it's warped, then you will need to replace it. If there is any sign of mold or mildew growth on the wood, which it looks like you have in the pictures from the crawlspace, then the same applies. About the only time you can get away with a bit of minor water damage, is if you catch it soon enough to avert the secondary damage that results from the long term moisture exposure.