Hurricane Harvey flooded my mother’s new house.  I say house rather than home, because she had not yet moved in.  In this thread, I will cover what we learned, and I will continue to update as repairs progress.  The house is a 22 year old 2300 square foot one story brick patio home built on a slab with an attached garage.

Monday 8/28 – My mother evacuated to my brother’s house nearby.  The home she is currently living in stayed 4 or 5 feet above the peak floodwaters, but she was afraid that she would not be able to get in or out of her neighborhood.  Her fear was justified, as floodwaters blocked her neighborhood in, and neighbors a few hundred feet south flooded.

My brother and his son waded to her new house where the water was still a good 2 feet below the level of her slab.  He helped an elderly neighbor raise heavy pieces of furniture up on bricks.  Four hours later, one of her future neighbors was awakened as the floodwater entered his bed.  Her neighbors were being evacuated from their homes by boat and an elderly couple across the street by helicopter.  These houses had never flooded in the past, and while people were worried, nobody expected 4 to 6 feet of water in their homes.

Tuesday 8/29 – We watch on ABC as a reporter is outside her neighborhood in a boat.  

It is clear that her house flooded.  The question is how high?  Later, their boat gets stuck on top of a submerged pick-up truck… shit.
 
Wednesday 8/30 – The flood waters are receding, but access to her neighborhood is still blocked by police.  I spend the day thinking about what tools to load up in the truck, and how to get there.  There is still not a clearly open route, and information about closed roads is sketchy and conflicting.

Thursday 8/31 – I head to her new neighborhood with a truckload of tools.  The normally one hour drive takes over 2 hours.  When I arrive, my brother has already kicked open the swollen shut doors and opened all the windows.  The whole place stinks, but the smell improves after we locate three dead fish in the yard and dispose of them.  Most of the neighbors are starting to pull possessions out into their yard, and stacking destroyed property by the curb.  Many seem stunned, and are not doing much of anything.

We shut off the power at the breaker box  (the power was out to the neighborhood) and set up a generator.  We set up fans blowing from the upwind side of the house to the downwind side.  We tear out all the interior doors, and lay them on the grass as a base for the trash heap.

I snap chalk lines 6-1/2 feet above the floor and starting on the upwind side of the house cut the drywall using a $19.95 Harbor Freight circular saw with the blade set just a hair shy of ½”.   The wet drywall comes apart and makes a slippery mess on the floors.  We cut the insulation at 5’-6” and haul it out as well.  Bathroom cabinets are MDF, and come apart by hand.

We cut the carpet into 4’ wide strips and haul it out in a wheelbarrow.  Then we cut up the pad and do likewise.  After removing the carpet and pad my brother wet vacuums over 90 gallons out of the front bedroom.

At the end of the day, with three people working (me, my wife and my brother) about ¼ of the drywall on the upwind side is out.  Interior doors are out, carpets are out except in the back closets, bathroom cabinets, washer, dryer are out, but the refrigerator is still in the kitchen on its side.  We have fans set up all day, but load them up and take everything with us when we leave since we cannot secure the house.   We leave the windows open all night.  Scrappers come by and we give them the appliances.  They are asking at each house before taking anything.  There are no looters, and no bands of post apocalyptic raiders terrorizing the neighborhood while wearing bondage gear with colanders strapped to their faces.

Lessons Learned Day One:

1.  PPE is important.  You cannot have enough gloves.  I wore a face shield, half face respirator and hearing protection when cutting the drywall.  Safety glasses are important if you don’t want the nasty water in your eyes.
2.  The first aid kit was used several times to clean cuts and scrapes.  The whole house smells like ass, so treat even the most minor scratches immediately.  Nitrile gloves under work gloves help keep your hands clean.  We still had city water and washed hands frequently.
3.  We should have cut the exterior walls first.  They are insulated, and hold the most water.
4.  The cheap Harbor freight saw was a great investment.  I have used it for years every time I cut something nasty like cement board or Hardie plank.  I would not want to use my good saw on drywall.
5.  We should have demolished the walls directly into wheelbarrows.  All the wet drywall on the floor made a huge mess.
6.  The debris pile will get way bigger than you imagine, and we didn’t have any possessions in the home.
7.  Bring shitloads of drinking water.
8.  Document the appliances before you get rid of them.  Pictures and pictures of the data plate with serial number if you have insurance.
9.  Lots of scrappers, but they were polite and asked permission before taking anything.  I never saw any looting, but then it is an upper class suburban neighborhood.
10.  I had a roll of new cotton shop towels we used to keep our glasses clean.
11.  The street is completely jammed with cars by the end of the day.  With cars and trucks on parked on both sides, there was no where for vehicles travelling in opposite directions to pass, creating gridlock.
12.  Help the neighbors.  They will help (and look out for) you.

Pictures, I am very interested in this.

I was so busy that I only took a few pictures. I will try and post some this weekend.  In the mean time, I will continue the narrative...

Friday 9/1 – More of the same.  Today we have nine people working;  two high school juniors, me, my wife, brother, brother in law, and friend, and my sister.  My mom is almost 80, and delivers breakfast and lunch.  Plenty of people driving through offering free food, water, drinks, cookies, etc.  Since we had eight people we sent volunteers down the street to help an elderly couple.  We are way ahead of everyone else anyway, since they had to deal with belongings and we started with an empty house.

At the end of the day: All carpet is out.  All drywall is out except behind kitchen counters and tub/shower surrounds.  Floors are covered in wet drywall chunks.  Fans are blowing through the structure, but again, we load everything (including the fans) up and haul it out at the end of the day.  We made a list of the breakers we needed to replace those that were flooded (everything except the main.) We leave all the windows open overnight.  Still no mold in the house, and the smell is not bad except out by the wet debris pile.  There are no signs of theft or looting, but I did hear a couple of implausible stories.  I managed to keep a straight face and nod rather than laugh out loud at the little old lady who told me that people were "going around and marking homes so that their friends would know which houses to loot."      

Lessons Learned Day Two:

1.  People want to help – let them.  Today a few of the neighbors that wandered around in a daze yesterday had help from church groups.
2.  Keep an eye on your help, especially the high school kids.  They can quickly do more harm than good with enthusiastic demolition.  Don't let them accidently cut electrical wires.  My brother and I personally cut every insulation batt to ensure that repairs would be easy.  I saw neighbors homes where the volunteers pulled the insulation down from the ceiling.  Great, now they will have to take the drywall out all the way to the ceiling (most of these houses have 10 foot ceilings) to replace the insulation.
3.  Extension cords on the floor was a pain, and they are now filthy and crusted with drying gypsum.  We should have hung them up on the walls.  Hell we demolished 6 feet of sheetrock on every wall, what are a few nail holes to support the cords when it comes time to mud the dry wall?
4.  We wired up the ceiling fans to the generator using the cut off cords from the washer, dryer and refrigerator.  This works great if you know how to do it safely.  If you have to ask how to do this safely, don’t attempt this.
5.  Some brilliant person put up signs (discarded doors spray painted) making the main street through the neighborhood one-way.  This was genius and greatly helped traffic.  Parking was still crazy as there were lots of people helping out flooded friends.
6.  We should have had more wheelbarrows.  Four or five would have been great, but we made do with three.

Will this be covered on insurance? is it too late for your mom to walk away?

Her flood insurance will be effective 9/11, 30 days after she bought the home.  She paid cash for the house, so she would be walking away from herself.

She did get a good deal on it because it needed updating, and she had already budgeted to replace the roof (which was done before Harvey, and did not leak), remodel the kitchen and master bath, paint the interior, update some of the floors, and replace the 22 year old A/C.  With me acting as GC and doing way more of the work ourselves (hence the DIY Forum) I think the damage will be $25k - $40k over her planned budget.  Unfortunately, the big ticket items: floors, appliances, counter tops and cabinets will not be as nice or expensive as she originally planned.

I was funding the renovations, so that she would not have to take out a loan waiting for her current home to sell.  I can swing the added expense, but my plan for new wheels just went down the drain.  I guess I will be driving my truck longer instead of buying a new car this year.  

Attached File

Good-bye 505 horsepower dream...


All in all, she is in fairly good spirits.  Seeing so many people lose everything changes your perspective.  She feels lucky that she had not moved in yet.

Wow, man. I'm in awe.

It sounds like you are lucky to have each other. Thanks for the write up, there's a ton of good info I'd have never even considered or thought of. I'm amazed at how "in stride" some people seem to be taking it all.

I don't know what assistance I can be from such distance, but if you think of anything, let me know. Maybe if you're having a hard time finding some building supplies down there I could ship em down, or something. I don't know. Godspeed.

My heart goes out to the people that have been affected by this.  I've been in town since Sunday and the debris piles have been getting bigger each day as people return to their homes and get to work cleaning.  It's hard work.  I'm coordinating the clean out and restoration of two 55,000SF buildings.  Resources like equipment, dumpsters, storage containers are being trucked in from all over the country.  Hotels are full of displaced people. It's a monumental task.

Saturday 9/2 – We are dragging ass today.  We have eight people working, having lost my brother in laws friend.  The ladies scrape floors clean of drywall dust, and pull nails.  There are hundreds of nails left behind when the drywall was pulled out.  Again, we start on the upwind side, and get every bit of debris, so that the rooms can dry out.  We are now fighting moisture rather than water.

We demolish the interior door frames, lower kitchen and bath cabinets, oven, microwave, cook top, dishwasher, tub, shower surrounds, A/C  return air boxes and upper laundry room cabinets.   The power comes back on (I happened to check it at the panel) so we replace the breakers and after re-wiring the ceiling fans, wire-nutting and taping the connections to the appliances, we restore power to the 15 amp circuits only.  The GFCI’s all trip, but most lights and receptacles work.  Most people did not bother with replacing flooded breakers.  I decided that new breakers were cheap insurance.  I would be interested to hear the opinion of any ARF electricians.
 
We have an HVAC guy check out the unit which is thoroughly dead.  This is not a surprise, it was 22 years old, and we had budgeted for a replacement when the house was purchased.  We also have a flooring company give us a quote to take up the glued down hardwood floor and all the tile.  If we were not exhausted we could have pulled up the hardwoods ourselves and scrapped the glue ourselves.  This is an option if you have a bunch of young strong help.

Since we no longer need a generator, we reposition the fans to the dampest locations and leave them running overnight with all the windows open.  I do chain down the most expensive fan that I borrowed from my neighbor.  There is still no sign of mold or looters.  Mad Max and Lord Humongous are nowhere to be seen.

Lessons Learned Day Three:
1.  Bring a bunch of electrical tape and wire nuts.
2.  Bring a full set of hex wrenches and screwdriver bits plus cordless drill / impact.  Disconnecting shower valves, plumbing and appliances required all sorts of odd bits.
3.  Having the extension cords off the floors was a huge improvement.
4.  We should have brought dust pans in addition to shovels.
5.  Little pry bars and cat’s paws are great for pulling the thousands of nails.  Thank God the builder didn’t use drywall screws.  DON’T INSTALL DRYWALL WITH SCREWS IF THERE IS ANY POSSIBILITY THAT THE STRUCTURE COULD FLOOD!
6.  I found a few NEC code violations behind the dry wall.  More issues to correct…
7.  Much to our surprise, the huge framed mirrors popped off the bathroom walls easily and we got both down without breaking either one.  The mastic came right off the damp drywall.
8.  A cultured marble shower will come out one piece at a time without damage if you observe how it was installed and slowly take it apart in reverse order.  Score the caulked joints with a utility knife, and gently pry.  I managed to get the handle off with a torx bit since I lacked allen wrenches.
9.  A tile over concrete backer board shower stall on an exterior wall is a lost cause.  Quit worrying about how to save it and get to hammering.  I spent way too much time dicking with this trying to save it (it was pretty much brand new, and Mom liked it.) Wear gloves and eye protection.

Good on ya.  A lot of folks will be in yer mum's situation w/o flood insurance.

I drove through Nome on the way here.  Even the post office was flooded.

Thanks for the comments.  We really don't need anything, although there are plenty of people that do.  I was surprised at how any of her neighbors didn't have flood insurance.  She bought it even though the house was not in the 100 year flood plain, because it is relatively cheap, and we live on the Gulf Coast.  Sadly her flood insurance waiting period ends tomorrow, so no money for her.

As Harvey demonstrated, with enough rain, areas that have never flooded can easily flood.

Sunday 9/3 – We just thought we were dragging ass yesterday.  Now we are really tired, plus we lost the high school kids to homework.  There are lots more volunteers coming around with free hot meals, BBQ, Lasagna, sandwiches, burgers, drinks, water, you name it.

Today we took down the Kitchen island and upper cabinets and cut the last of the drywall behind them.  We vacuumed out the down draft island vent pipe through the slab. More nail pulling, and removing little chunks of drywall missed as the walls were demolished.  At the end of the day, we sprayed the interior with bleach solution and left the fans running overnight with the windows open.

In the morning it was still more humid in the house than outside, but by the evening, the house was about the same as outside.  I did a material take-off so that we can get insulation purchased ahead of the coming shortage.  We found some mold from an old water leak under the kitchen sink, but none has grown anywhere else.  
ARFCOM is disappointed, because there are still no looters.  The volunteers were way more organized today, with large crews of 10 – 12 people helping many of the neighbors.

Lessons Learned Day Four:

1.  Buy supplies ahead of the crowd.  We bought breakers before the stores sold out.  We bought insulation before supplies ran out.  We bought bleach before the stores ran out.  
2.  We used 1 cup bleach per gallon of water and pump up sprayers.  We worked from the downwind side of the home back upwind.  The key to stopping mold is to not give it a chance to grow.  Since we acted so quickly after the water went down we have seen no mold issues caused by the flood.
3.  You will want organic vapor cartridge respirators when spraying this much bleach.  wearing the respirator, I never even smelled it.  You young guys will also want to wear a hat.  My hair is already mostly white (I am in my early 50's and got my first grey hairs in high school,) so no problems for me.

OK some pics:
1. Reporter outside her neighborhood.  Her neighborhood is on the right in the photo.
Attached File


2. And a view of the trash heap.  I didn't take a lot of photos as we were pretty busy.  EDIT: I just realized that you can still see the dampness from the water on the brick.  This photo was taken on Tuesday evening of 9/5, six full days after the water went down.
Attached File


My wife took more, but I'll have to get them off her phone.

Monday 9/4 –Just me and my brother on site.  We close the windows and set up two window unit air conditioners to de-humidify the house.  I also installed a hose to route condensate from the central air to a drain.  The hard-piped drain was demolished with the bathroom sink, and I wanted to be prepared once the A/C is restored on Thursday.  We have all the fans circulating the air counter clockwise in the house.  I run a couple of new circuits to match Mom’s future remodeling plans.  

I also insulate the wall between the garage and the house.  It is open on both sides, so I am not worried about the studs drying out.  The insulation will make running the A/C to dehumidify the house that much more effective.  I do not insulate any of the exterior walls.  Three out of 5 exterior doors still do not shut, but I repaired the lock on the gate, and the garage door works, so the house is kind of secure.

Lessons Learned Day Five:
1.  Signs spray painted on warped doors started to appear with messages like “Residents only”,  “Keep Out”, and “No Trespassing.”  They mostly are in front of houses with lots of belongings piled in the front yard.  My advice is to not place anything you plan to save out front, as the scrappers are getting pretty bold about picking up anything left on the curb.  
2.  The GFCIs stayed on today.  I don’t trust a flooded GFCI any more than I would trust a flooded breaker, so I plan to replace them after the dry wall is replaced.

THANK YOU so much for taking the time with this thread.  I have older (They could still hurt me if they punched me, so I can't call them elderly) relatives on the east coast (Ft Lauderdale) and west coast (Englewood, FL).  Methinks I'll be headed down with a huge pelican case loaded up.  

Off to Lowes to get those organic respirators, snap line chalk, a nail puller, more bits for my power screwdriver

Harbor freight for work gloves, latex gloves, a saw...

I have not made a full tool list yet, but off the top of my head would add:
Channelocks,
flat bars, crow bar and sledgehammer
lots of extension cords - we had over a dozen and lots of splitters
lots of fans - box fans, squirrel cage fans, etc.
Lots of utility knives, and screwdrivers to change blades.
Circuit tester (this is how I knew the power was back on.)
Electrical tape and duct tape.
Zip ties
A few nails or drywall screws
Perhaps some plywood to secure the structure
A generater and lots of gas.
Chain and padlocks to secure items on site (we typically locked up the wheelbarrows and ladders overnight)
A good shop vac and extra filters.
hammers for everyone
Reciprocating saw
cordless drill / impact
drill bits

Use a drill-driver in reverse to remove drywall screws.

It goes much faster.

Love the thread. thanks for the updates and best wishes going forwards. Your mother is very lucky you seem to really have a good handle on this and are acting very wisely.

drywall screws you can probably just wack with a hammer and break off

Wow, just wow.  So glad you're there to help your mom.  FWIW, personally I wouldn't leave ANY Sheetrock in a flooded house. Even if it was dry, the humidity/funk can be absorbed into it causing funky smells later.  Jointing old to new can also be harder and more costly labor wise than buying 12' sheets and cutting to 10' and doing the entire wall.
Remove it all, hose down wood with clean water. When dry, use a garden sprayer with clorox and water mix to lightly spray everything.

One of my first thoughts when I saw the flooding was they are going to need loaders and dump trucks and a place to put it all very soon.

Good luck brother, my thoughts and prayers are with the great people of Texas and now Florida.

I just got back from being out there today.  The interior smells fine, and seems dry.  I got a moisture meter delivered to my house today, and am reading 17% in a cut off chunk of a below the water line stud that I took home.  I am shooting for 15% or less before I enclose the walls.  Google searching indicates recommendations of drying between 15 and 20% before enclosing walls.  For reference, exposed studs in the non-climate controlled part of my garage read between 10.8 and 11.2%

City of San Antonio crews were in the neighborhood today with heavy trucks and a claw hauling out the debris.  I will post some pictures later this week.  A BIG THANKS to the city of San Antonio for sending their heavy trash crews to Houston.

Today I reframed one of the return air ducts to turn it into a set of built in shelves (the new return air is in the attic.)  I also wired up a light above the future built in shelves, and plugged and insulated the holes left from the old return air plenums.  My brother came by and we got the front door to shut, removed his window A/C unit, swept up, and removed the borrowed fans leaving just the five I brought plus the ceiling fans running.  We have the A/C set at 71F.  

So far the only exterior door that won't shut goes to the enclosed atrium, so the house is fairly secure.  Unfortunately that is also the single most expensive exterior door (the door and side lites are a single unit) and it looks like we will have to replace it.  

On the down side, someone stole mom's wheeled trash can.  I guess the thief needed to store an AK.

Lesson Learned:
The claw that the work crews were using to remove debris can only reach so far.  Place the debris pile as close to the curb as you can, and avoid placing it under low tree limbs.  The crew could only get about half of our debris pile.

Supposedly FEMA had a work crew with a Bobcat that will push debris closer to the curb for free if you sign a waiver absolving them of responsibility of they damage something like your sprinkler system I suppose.  If that doesn't work, I will rent a Bobcat and do it myself.

Why do you say that?

IMHO, cordless impact will zap them out just as quickly as you can pop nails with a cats-paw or small nail bar... BTDT with lots of demo work on the new place last year...

I know from recent experience that a cordless drill or impact removing drywall screws is nowhere close to the speed of popping drywall nails with a small pry-bar or cat's paw.  I have pulled hundreds and hundreds of nails in the past week, and I know that in the time it takes to get the bit aligned with a screw I can take a nail out and be on to the next.

Removing a handful of drywall screws (like when I remodeled a small bathroom a few weeks ago) is no big deal.  Pulling an entire house worth is something else entirely.  Thank God the builder used nails.

are you in kingwood?  that where i am.

Must be an old house.  No one uses nails anymore for drywall.

I'm not, but the house is.

Built in 1995.

I would have left all the AC units in there for a week on max blast. You won't get another try to dry it out once they drywall goes up.