how to dry out after water leak?

[mike]

(Posting for some friends) They live in a first floor flat and have had a water leak underneath the kitchen units. The leak has been fixed but unfortunately seems to have been going on for some time.

As a result there are water stains on the ceiling of the flat below.

For now they are just trying to dry the place out because of the awful smell. Trouble is they cannot get at the affected area. They have some kind of "stuck on" floor tiles onto the floorboards. Beneath that is the ceiling void and they have managed to get a hole to that to try and blow warm air to dry things out. No luck so far.

I thought maybe a heat gun directed in there (I know it needs great care - so maybe not worth the fire risk). Is there a better (& safer) way to get warm air in there to dry things out?

They are a young couple and having a pretty hard time of it in other ways so I'd like to help - but don't really have any better ideas.

Appreciate any us help I can pass on to them - for which I will of course give full credit!

Thanks

[Lurch]

On Sun, 13 May 2007 23:51:17 GMT, mike mused:

How wet is it? Unless it's soaked right through and is in danger f falling down (in whcih case it should be replaced) then letting it dry naturally would be the best bet.

[Tournifreak]

A heat gun in a confined space sounds very scary to me! I've used a hairdryer before, which works OK if the damp area is quite localised. Don't leave it unsupervised though! Jon.

[Cicero]

================================== You don't actually need heat to assist the drying out process. An ordinary domestic fan will work quite well provided that you can get air to circulate in and out of the floor void. You'll need to lift a section of floorboard at two points to allow proper circulation. You could use a concertina type duct from an inline fan (or even the fan itself complete with duct) to get the air in.

Cic.

[Stuart Noble]

Sounds like a buildings insurance job, especially if the owners of the flat below expect a new ceiling. Taking the plasterboard down there would probably be the best way to dry everything out anyway.

Leaks in flats are a bloody nuisance. I know of one instance where 4 flats were trashed by a top floor leak in an unoccupied flat. Nobody had authority to break the door down but the fire brigade did eventually.

[Dave Liquorice]

If there is an awful smell I'd lift the stuck on floor tiles, presumably the leak was waste water rather than from the hot or cold water suppllies? The smell is coming from the rotting matter in the waste water, the only real cure for that is to remove as much as possible and disinfect.

Drying out won't clear the stains on the ceiling below, they will need to be sealed in with a propritary stain sealer or oil based paint before being painted over with emulsion.

Once the source fo wet/damp has been removed nature will dry everything out over a few weeks, making sure there is ventilation in the void is a good idea. I doubt that you need forced ventilation just somewhere for air to get in and some where else for it to get out.

[knows_mold]

you are insane telling him that. if he smells something, mold has already grown and the material needs to be removed and the apartment fully remediated.

[Jock]

Telling him what ?

You are a bit late after 14 years, it has likely killed him by now.

[Tim+]

14 years ago?

Tim

[Andrew]

14 years later the "u" in mould mysteriously vanished