alexseanchai | (no subject)

Our AC is attempting to flood the basement. I don't know how much water got into the pad under the carpet. I'm afraid to find out. And the only way I can think of to dry it out (before it gets mold) involves removing the carpet.

Let me illustrate the problem with this.

crap on the carpet, the marauders' era

crap on the carpet and the sorcerer's stone

crap on the carpet and the chamber of secrets

crap on the carpet and the prisoner of azkaban

crap on the carpet and the goblet of fire

crap on the carpet and the order of the phoenix

crap on the carpet and the half-blood prince

crap on the carpet and the deathly hallows

Image descriptions: There is a fuckton of crap on the carpet, okay?

(other things this photo series illustrates: why I never have money, why I hate living in my folks' storage space)

I need to start cleaning. Like, now. Habitat unfucking, go. But there's nobody home but me and my one sister and won't be till tomorrow evening, and she's got pre-school-starts shit to do so there's nobody to help with the family crap, and I have nowhere to put most of my crap other than my bedroom and like fuck am I carting the media shelves up two flights of stairs to said bedroom which I don't think currently has room for them anyway because all my oldest sister's crap is up there. And I have my last week's worth of school shit to do, and writing shit, and work lunches to cook, and various other shit, and I do not want to spend my weekend turning this basement area into a pristine environment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i wonder if a hair dryer would work.

i hope you can get your own place. it's different when it's just your own crap. it can still get messy, but at least then it's all yours, you know?

Can't get my own place yet. Unfortunately. And a hair dryer might work but would take quite some time, and the crap still has to get off the carpet first.

if you have a fan of any kind ot aim at the area, do that - it will help. a box fan or anything you can get really close would be best. If you have a de-humidifier, run that as well. That will help it dry out before it can mold - this is what has been done when we had water leaks in the carpeted areas of my building at school, anyway. You shouldn't need to remove the whole carpet, just move stuff off the wet area.

I do not know if we have a fan of any description other than 'ceiling'. There is a dehumidifier down here, though. Thanks!

I don't know if you want advice or commiseration, but as somebody who has faced a similar situation more times than anyone should, I feel you; having something like that happen to your space, on top of everything else, just really sucks.

if you want advice too, then read the below:

Having the carpet ruined sucks; having stuff on the floor ruined because the mold got up into it sucks *even* more; cleaning up a space like that with no warning sucks most of all. What I have done instead:

1. acquire rubbermaid tubs or plastic laundry baskets or even just black lawn/trash bags
2. get stuff off floor in fast triage, consisting of:
a) if already wet, spread on nearest dry impervious surface to dry. If not, then
b) if something you might need on short notice anytime soon, put on top of furniture. If not, then
c) if likely to spoil (i.e. food waste, wet trash) throw away (or put in nearest sink if dirty dishes); if not, then
d) toss in bag or basket. Do not try to organize or put away beyond this - it's just triage. (Even trash can go in if it's not wet, that way you don't have to decide if trash.)

This should take well under half an hour total unless you have a lot of really wet stuff, which it sounds like you almost certainly don't, yet. Once it's done, you don't have to worry about further damage to stuff, and if you *do* acquire people to help you move furniture, it's a quick "help me move furniture" rather than "I have to deal with mess before we can do anything", because mess is contained in easily-movable units.

3. ALL THE FANS, ALL OF THEM, as above. Also open any doors/windows you can. Bonus: air will reach carpet much better once stuff is up.

4. At your leisure at some later date, empty bags/baskets of stuff.

Okay, thanks!

Oh, those things suck, says person who has had to deal with attempted flooding thrice in almost as many years. I can second the recommendation for fans and bins to have on the floor, and the dehumidifier.

Hoping you can get it all controlled before mold arrives.

Yeah, I need to go find the laundry baskets (which probably entails dumping clothes on sisters' beds) and start putting family crap in them (my crap has already been transported to Dad's woodshop safely away from the AC), but that's the only thing I can do about this until everyone gets home (no fans except ceiling and there isn't one down here, can't find the bloody dehumidifier).