Update #1 of what I am sure will be a few: We decided to call a disaster water remediation company to come out and see what kind of damage we had and I am very thankful that we did. They had us call our insurance company and make a claim and there were quite a few areas of damage that were really quickly adding up.
The master bathroom floor and subfloor will have to be completely ripped out and replaced, along with the vanity (no huge loss there.....it was builder's grade and almost 20 years old). The small areas of carpet that were wet in there will most likely be ok.
In the living room downstairs, they had to remove a 4-6 foot square section of the drywall ceiling and all the insulation behind it because it was sopping wet. They also removed the baseboards in a couple of small locations and drilled multiple holes in the drywall behind where the baseboards would be to help force air into the wall to help dry things out. The carpet there (again, not a huge area and pretty old also) will likely be ok.
In the basement, since it's unfinished, there's no major damage. There is a huge dehumidifier down there along with a couple of industrial fans/driers to help dry out anything that's still damp, but nothing too bad there thankfully.
All in all, we have 7 industrial fans and 3 HUGE industrial dehumidifiers spread out on all three levels. DH and I literally cannot talk to each other in the living room without major shouting. Can't hear the tv either. This is supposed to last 2-3 days. They will check the moisture levels again tomorrow and I think Monday. The master bathroom floor replacement will start sometime after Christmas. The insurance company adjuster will be coming on Wednesday.
We're supposed to be hosting three other people (FIL, MIL and SIL) for Christmas and while I know they won't care about the holes in the ceiling/wall, the noise will not work. Hoping and praying that things dry out fast and that we can at least turn these fans off for a few hours on Christmas day so that we can still host Christmas and not have to travel.
So, that's the update. It's truly amazing how much mess and damage a relatively small amount of water can do.
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So, Ds (3) who is potty training, decided to go to the potty. Uncharacteristically, he must have used quite a bit of toilet paper and got the toilet clogged....and then, as it started overflowing, shut the door (this is upstairs in the master bathroom BTW, and didn't tell anyone. I was downstairs, but had no idea.
My first clue was that I heard strange water sounds. At first, I didn't think much of it, but then I started thinking that something must not be right. Then I saw the ceiling in the living room dripping.
I went upstairs, went in the bathroom and found the entire floor soaked, some of the carpet in the bedroom (maybe a couple of feet around the doorway) and the a little bit into the master closet carpet soaked. The toilet was still overflowing. I turned the water off, started mopping up the floor and then went back downstairs and tried to take care of that mess.
Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, I went down to the basement to throw the first load of soaked towels in the washer....and discovered a flood in the basement. Not only was there a lot of water, but where most of the water was concentrated....was on top of the piles of wrapped Christmas presents. I was done wrapping.
I am not too proud to admit that I just bawled on the phone to DH, who to his great credit got me to laugh and offered to rewrap the presents, and then took me us all out for dinner. I'm still cleaning up the mess.
Now the question: The ceiling in the living room is really wet in spots. The floor under the tiles in our bathroom is soaked. (There were two tiles that had recently come up, so the water just flooded the subfloor under there.) I am thinking the entire bathroom floor will have to come up and be redone. It's not a big bathroom at all, but still....major pain. But I don't know how you tell how much damage there is and what has to be done. And then there's the ceiling in the living room directly under the master bath. About 8 years ago, we had a pipe leak from the tub/shower in that bathroom and had some fairly minor water damage in the same spot that was hit today. So I'm thinking based on where the water damage is, that it make also be under the tub/shower combo. Someone please tell me we're not going to have to rip that all out too.
Any advice? I've got fans running and have done all that I can....