Consequences of the Hick-Up

Yesterday, I revealed an unfortunate Hick-Up at Bargain House. Today we discuss the aftermath.

Hick and Old Buddy tore out the wet laminate flooring on Thursday. It was in the first bedroom they had finished. The flooring was ruined. And also the particle board that was underneath the flooring. Hick said that's the bad part about particle board: it soaks up water. It was there when they tore out the original carpet in that bedroom, in good shape, so Hick saw no reason to change it.

Now Hick has to let the original wood floor (that was not in good enough shape for refurbishing), and the floor joists under it, dry out before repairing the damage. Hick says it will take two days of labor, although putting down new laminate will only take them two hours. He will get the waterproof blue board to put down in place of the particle board.

Hick says they only found out about the water because Old Buddy had to take a bathroom break. He was sitting on the throne when he saw a little water outside of the shower. They had tested the shower the day before, and he thought it might just be where water had splashed out. Further investigation led them to the bedroom, where the floor was flooded. 

That's when Hick figured out what happened. He went down in the basement, and deduced that he had not fitted the pipe properly when he was working by himself on a day that Old Buddy called in sick. The water was coming from the pipes in the wall where it was hooked up to the shower. Hick thinks there had been a slow leak for about two weeks!

Hick and Old Buddy loaded the laminate flooring and particle board into the back of SilverRedO and drove it to the landfill. There's a dump fee, by the pound. Hick took the ticket to the lady to pay, and she said, "Did you have a really big load?" Hick says a normal fee for a pickup truck full of wood stuff would be around $20. His ticket was for $56! Because of the water soaked up in the wood. I asked why he didn't let it dry out first, and he said he wasn't going to pile it in the yard and get complaints, and he didn't want to drive it out here to dry out and burn, because that would take too long.

Hick has enough of the laminate flooring to replace that which was ruined. He had bought it in a big batch from the VFW store a while back. So it won't cost much to replace the floor in the bedroom. Just the waterproof blue board. The water bill is going to be a doozy, though!