About That Leak . . .

I mentioned the other day that we'd found a leak in the "closet" in the garage.

The area really isn't a closet. It was a half-bathroom. The plan was for my husband to use it so he wouldn't track dirt into the house. However, when we built this house in 1987, we didn't finish the half-bathroom because we ran out of money.

So, my husband used the bathroom off the kitchen, which would have been the children's bathroom had we had kids. And when we finally did finish the half-bathroom in the garage, he constantly forgot about it and just kept tracking dirt into the kitchen to go the one he'd grown used to using.

Finally, I suggested that we take the toilet back out and install shelving and use the space more effectively. It took some convincing, but after we purchased an industrial-type shelf and placed it in the bathroom, and then loaded it with paper towels, tissues, Dr. Pepper, etc., - mostly large purchases from Sam's Club that we made in an effort to save money - he decided it was a good idea.

And then the valve from where there was supposed to be a toilet leaked.

I don't know how long it had been leaking, but the bottom shelf was soaking wet and completely ruined. Fortunately, it held only extra porcelain tiles from where we'd had the bathroom refinished in 2013, so it didn't really hurt anything but the shelf.

My husband attempted to pull the baseboard away without removing the shelf and contents, but I was terrified things would fall on him, plus he was crawling around on his belly and he has no business doing that at his age.

So we hauled everything off the shelves. Now I have crap piled in the kitchen and all over the garage. We had to move the car outside to make room. Who knew you could cram so much stuff into shelving? (It didn't help that just last week we'd made a Sam's Club run to stock up.)

Anyway, once we got the shelves empty and removed, then it was easy to take up the baseboard. There was mold behind the baseboard, so we cut that part of the drywall away and threw it out. We also pulled up the tile that has been down for 36 years because the water had made some of it curl.

We sprayed everything down with bleach. After that dried, we sprayed again with some stuff called Concrobium Liquid Mold Remover, which we have used successfully before.

Now we are running a fan and trying to make sure everything is dried out before we repair the damage.

The fix will consist of plywood boards to replace the shelf, and plywood nailed around the bottom where we cut out the drywall. Then we will put back baseboard and quarter round, only we will just purchase prefinished rubber-type stuff that they make now that just sticks to the wall instead of bothering with real wood. After all, this is in the garage and we plan to die here. It can be someone else's problem in 30 years.

First, though, we have to make sure we've mitigated all of the mold, and that might take a few days and a few more sprays of bleach.

Here are pictures:

Stuff piled in the kitchen.

Stuff piled in the garage.

The shelving we took out.

The place where it leaked.

The original tile. I still like it.
Too bad you can't find it anymore.

The one spot that concerns me. We can't
decide if that's mold or just a little wood rot.
We'll be able to tell more when it is completely dry.