Raindrops keep falling on my bed

ethan on 2004-01-09T05:08:59

Yes, literally.

I had a rather surreal situation half an hour ago. Normally I am supposed to be asleep at 5.00 in the morning but a periodic noise woke me up. Naturally, with the five senses not yet at its best it's hard to figure out what it is.

After a minute it was settled that those were waterdrops going down onto my bed, just a few inches away from me. I lid up and looked up expecting a huge waterspot on the ceiling but fortunately found none. The water was (and still is actually) leaking in where the electric wires for a ceiling light penetrate the wall.

That rather intrigued me since my dwelling is not one where such things would readily occur. Also, it wasn't raining outside. Due to the hour, I just tried to tighten this leak up and go to bed again. Naturally, a minute after I lay down I heard the plop again. Now, slightly annoyed and armed with yet more duckt tape, I put a rubber bag around the offending spot. The water is now going in there.

The reason for that appears to be a water pipe burst in the adjoining appartment. I popped my head out of my appartment door and saw the neighbouring flat lid up and heard some splashing sounds. Also, the water has been switched off. Luckily my surviving skills are intact. Quick-wittedly as I am in the face of no coffee in the morning, I've squeezed the last bits of water that was still in the pipes and was able to fix me my usual amount of three cups of coffee. Now I hope they fix it soon since I'd really love to brush my teeth and maybe have a shower as well.

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I would...

phillup on 2004-01-09T16:58:46

move the bed before the ceiling comes down on it.

Just in case.

Put it back when it is all dried up...

The Night Of The Colossal Ceiling Leaks

WebDragon on 2004-01-09T17:43:27

Last February (11 months ago) we had an amazing amount of snowfall. The gutter froze up, and the heat from the house melted the snow on the flat roof until it found a way inside -- right into my bedroom.

I quickly woke up, moved out the computer, folded up the futon, and got all the rest of my stuff outta the way, and put a garbage can under it.

A call to the landlord determines that there's nothing he can do.. just wait it out.

Several hours later there's a _tremendous_ crash up there -- we thought my other roomie had knocked over one or both of his little square refrigerators he keeps in his room. But no, it was my ceiling. _Three whole entire sheet-rock panels fell_ and smashed their contents all around the room.

It is now 11 months later, and while the roof was patched with tar twice over the spring and summer, it still leaks. The ceiling has never been repaired yet. (Granted the landlord fell and broke his neck in two places over the summer but he still coulda hired someone -- hell *I* even offered to fix it.)

A court dispute with the landlord over the amount of our paid rent resulted in the judge finding in _our_ favor on Dec 30th. Since then, _still_ nothing has been done about it.

At least I've saved a crapload of money, although I've since moved into the front bedroom when another roomie finally vacated the place. Why are we still here? Well it's basically a choice between taking a chance of getting another hard-ass for a landlord (like my previous ones which were a 'management company' that you couldn't even reason with), or sticking with an incredibly laid back landlord.

Frankly I'll take these problems over the annoyance of trying to find another landlord.

(Not to mention MOVING. Gah!)

Re:The Night Of The Colossal Ceiling Leaks

ethan on 2004-01-09T18:13:14

You had it considerably worse than me. In my case, it was not a leak in the roof. I am on the 4th floor. Above me is not the roof but another floor with all those things that are usually situated in the basement such as washkitchens etc. (but there is no room due to a massive heating system that essentially occupies the whole basement).

And because we have underfloor heating, all the regular water pipes are in the ceiling so if one breaks water comes in from above.

Anyway, a plumber seems to have fixed the problem in the neighboring flat. When I removed the plastic bag from the leaking spot, I was first rather concerned because there was still water coming in. But now all's dry again and so I am happy.

I am just wondering who detected the pipe burst (this flat is empty most of the time). I mean at 5am someone was working over there fixing it. And the sounds I heard were really those of a little waterfall. So maybe the appartment beneath this one was also heavily affected and its inhabitants called in the caretaker.