Since a lot of people have asked (which is lovely because it implies a lot of people are paying attention) I’ll give you the good news about the wall that got flooded a few weeks ago. Rae came round and said it was likely that it would dry out. I was skeptical, but then there was very little that would convince me to pull out the wall if I thought there was any chance it would dry out, so I left it, making sure it was not going to happen again, and it seems, for all I can tell, that it has actually dried out quite quickly. I’m flabbergasted, actually.
However, there’s also the story of the blotchy floor, which was looking slightly damp-from-below every time it rained. I thought it might just be drying out slowly from its original pouring, and then I thought it must be the mulchy mush of old sawdust that had sort of gathered behind the house holding moisture and letting it soak into the slab. I felt a bit bad about that because I should have shovelled the mush away months ago, really, but I’ve just been a bit overwrought and not terribly on top of everything. Anyway, I asked Alec to do that, but the blotchy floor still continued.
I feel so unbelievably stupid and irresponsible now that I realise it was actually the fairly continuous backsplash from the roof runoff onto the wall back there, which ran, every time it rained, through the bale, down through the drainage stuff at the bottom of the wall and into the floor. I thought maybe backsplash would be happening but I didn’t think it would be as bad as it turned out to be. I finally sorted it out, sticking some tarps up between the splash and the wall, but leaving a foot or two of breathing space, and I hope it will dry out. This lot is much worse than the flooded wall turned out. That didn’t even smell of rot, whereas this does. I hope that because it’s surface wetness and Barb said that doesn’t usually penetrate too deep, and because it’s not a load-bearing wall, that it will be ok. I will let it dry for the rest of the summer, making sure it doesn’t get wet again, and hope for the best. That’s pretty much all I can cope with.
Psychological exhaustion doesn’t make for the best building management, really.
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