And here I thought it was going to be an expensive weekend…

 

Taylor: “Mom, did you know that the carpet in the basement in Ashley’s room is squishy?”

Me:  “Um, no.”

I go investigate and indeed the carpet in Ashley’s room is squishy.  Ashley is our beloved basement dweller, sometimes referred to as the person who lives under the stairs (makes Taylor excited to have some connection to Harry Potter).  Just as I’m about to deliver the "yaknowyaneedtotelluswhenstufflikethishappens” lecture, she says, “Jerry saw it the other day.”

I call Jerry who is fishing and who is going to love getting this call.  I ask if he looked around when he discovered the squishy carpet, because the entire floor of the furnace room was now covered in water with much of the carpets surrounding the furnace room were squishy, also too.  Nope.

My initial guess was that something was up with the hot water heater.  Floor, water, water near water heater ergo, something’s up with the hot water heater.  But then I noticed that there was water splatters down the side of the furnace (just guessing here), and a lot of those splatters were pretty darn close to an electrical box.  Doesn’t seem to be the best design, but what do I know?

All the water seemed to be coming from this PVC pipe thing that was attached to the A/C unit (again guessing).  Hmmm.  At this point, Jerry had to get back to his fishing date with Lydia.  So, he wished me well and asked that I just get things cleaned up to buy time until he got home.

First round was towels.  When that didn’t make a dent, I brought out the shop vac.  That worked quite nicely, but the water was still coming from somewhere.  When I went behind the furnace the floor was covered in a nasty slime.  The deck drain looks like something out of a horror movie.  30 years of build up of whatever builds up in 30 years in a deck drain.  Eww.  Good thing I have a strong stomach.  I’m thinking I deserve something for this.  Anyone want to go see “The Help” with me?

The deck drain didn’t appear to be backing up, but the PVC pipe was attached to a rubber hose that drained into the drain.  That’s where the water was coming from, but why?  Do you care?  Probably not.  Upon getting a closer look, the problem was … a dead moth of all things.  Perfectly dead and perfectly covering the opening to the hose to drain the condensation from the A/C unit.

I tried to get him out with tweezers and chop sticks, but he just fell apart.  That stinking moth nearly flooded my basement.  Geesh!

        

 

Yay me #1 for not being the CAUSE of the problem which is so typically the case and #2 for fixing the problem!