There appears to be something wrong with the ceiling/walls.
My tenants called me a couple of days ago to say that there was a problem in the bathroom. I sent a plumber round to take a look who said, it's the apartment above leaking water.
Upstairs: No, no, no. Definitely no leak. We've checked the bathroom. It's the guy diagonally upstairs.
Diagonal: Umm no. The apartment has been unoccupied for 4 weeks, and the water is switched off and all the tanks have been drained.
Getting nowhere I decide to check things out myself. I take a look at the back wall, where I know the pipes run, and decide to cut a hole out to look inside - at which point the wall disintegrates around the chisel, leaving an ugly cavity, rather than the clean hole I was hoping for. All the paint peels off in a single elastic layer, and then all the remaining plaster drywall starts falling apart. I find the pipes, but they're all dry.
I then decide teh epicenter is the indented ceiling. I attack that with a hammer and chisel. It goes through like a hot knife through butter, and unleashes a torrent of water. Water pouring everywhere - in my eyes, in my hair. I run to get some bowls, and collect nearly a gallon. The whole recess must have been full of water. I knock a few more holes in the ceiling and pull out about about 20 pounds of waterlogged rockwool.
Really mad, I start harassing the upstairs people. Eventually, they send a friend round with a key and let me in. It takes me 30 seconds to find the leaking (pouring) pipe, that they claimed to have checked, and close off the isolator valve on that pipe.
Now begins the process of drying out and working out what is salvageable and what needs to be rebuilt.
At least insurance will cover it.
My tenants called me a couple of days ago to say that there was a problem in the bathroom. I sent a plumber round to take a look who said, it's the apartment above leaking water.
Upstairs: No, no, no. Definitely no leak. We've checked the bathroom. It's the guy diagonally upstairs.
Diagonal: Umm no. The apartment has been unoccupied for 4 weeks, and the water is switched off and all the tanks have been drained.
Getting nowhere I decide to check things out myself. I take a look at the back wall, where I know the pipes run, and decide to cut a hole out to look inside - at which point the wall disintegrates around the chisel, leaving an ugly cavity, rather than the clean hole I was hoping for. All the paint peels off in a single elastic layer, and then all the remaining plaster drywall starts falling apart. I find the pipes, but they're all dry.
I then decide teh epicenter is the indented ceiling. I attack that with a hammer and chisel. It goes through like a hot knife through butter, and unleashes a torrent of water. Water pouring everywhere - in my eyes, in my hair. I run to get some bowls, and collect nearly a gallon. The whole recess must have been full of water. I knock a few more holes in the ceiling and pull out about about 20 pounds of waterlogged rockwool.
Really mad, I start harassing the upstairs people. Eventually, they send a friend round with a key and let me in. It takes me 30 seconds to find the leaking (pouring) pipe, that they claimed to have checked, and close off the isolator valve on that pipe.
Now begins the process of drying out and working out what is salvageable and what needs to be rebuilt.
At least insurance will cover it.