It’s going to be hot, hot, hot here in Phoenix today - 112!  No sign of rain here despite the monsoon season beginning, but there’s been plenty of rain in Wisconsin!  So much so that we had some water damage in one of our units in a 6-plex. 

One of our tenants called our property manager reporting water dripping out of the drywall where the light fixture is in the ceiling in the kitchen.  Water and electrical in the same place… sounds good so far.  The water began to well up so much under the drywall that it was really starting to bulge, and was possibly going to burst.  So while the tenant was waiting to hear back from my manager, he went ahead and poked a little hole in the drywall and the water came gushing out and the pressure was released.  I remember so vividly painting that ceiling after putting up brand new drywall just a few short years ago.  The kitchen cabinets are all new, new countertops, new tile on the floor, even a tile backsplash.  The whole place had been gutted and it was a sparkling new 3-bedroom apartment.  The thought of bulging drywall, a hole being poked, and the inevitable water stains that probably remain make me cringe.  I try not to think about it.

Anyway, during this downpour the tenant also decided to go up on the roof to try and find the source of the problem. 

That’s what I like - tenants who take charge and deal with issues on their own.  The thought of him on the roof in a rainstorm… was it lightning? was it slippery?  He is a young, fit college student, but still!  The liability.  I try not to think about that either, yikes!

During his investigation, he found that the rain gutters were plugged full of leaves.  The water was not draining down through the gutters, but was overflowing them and pouring down to a lower level of the roof instead.  Right at this very spot where the gushing was landing is a roof vent.  Water was going right into the vent, and of course the beautiful new kitchen is right below that.  So my good tenant pulled all of the leaves out of the gutter and it’s draining properly again.

After thinking this through a little bit, that roof vent is probably optional.  Added to the To-Do List: Plug roof vent.  Also, we’re adding to our manager’s maintenance schedule: Clean out gutters late spring and late fall.  I’ll have my manager email me a picture of the ceiling so I can see for myself what kind of repairs are needed.