It Doesn't Smell

Today Dustin from Palo Alto Plumbing said those three little words dear to every homeowner’s heart: “It doesn’t smell.”

High praise, indeed.

Two weeks ago the wax ring on one of the upstairs toilets failed in a spectacular way, sending a tank full of water into the ceiling of the downstairs guest room.

My husband thought we should just let the ceiling dry on its own, but I felt that the least we could do (and I do mean the very least) was to rent a couple of those industrial dehumidifiers to try to suck the toilet water from the ceiling.

This all happened the day before Valentine’s day, so I told Larry that instead of a diamond tennis bracelet, I would prefer my gift to be industrial rental equipment.

At a much inflated cost, because water damage companies are almost always dealing with insurance companies and not my checkbook, we rented dehumidifiers.

After a week, the water damage guy used his magic moisture wand (ugh, that’s an unpleasant image) and didn’t detect any remaining wet spots in the ceiling, so he took his equipment away.

But the real test came today, when Dustin returned to put in a new wax ring and re-install the toilet.

He walked into the guest room, took a deep sniff, and said “It doesn’t smell.  I can almost always smell it if there’s a problem with the drywall.”

Cheers to that, Dustin!!