San Antonio bound

[hotwine]

The living room is sunken about 6", so we were able to move furniture up into the dining room and sunroom. Oriental rug in the LR was a big concern, but only one corner got wet and we had it removed and cleaned; came out OK.

The water flowed down the central hall, out of the master bathroom, where we later found the brass flange connecting the toilet to the 4" drain pipe was broken.... probably since the house was built in 1973, per the plumber. So the hall flooring was wiped out, but that's the extent of the damage that we've found so far.

Septic system backed up due to tree roots in the three 4" waste lines; instead of that toilet overflowing, it forced water out the base through the broken flange. Venturi effect had apparently saved us before. We scrambled, mopping like crazy for 3-4 hours, and seem to have done pretty well in getting the water up. But the reclamation company had to disinfect everything the water had touched.

Counting plumbing and septic system repairs, plus flooring replacement, cleaning, etc., damages are about $10K, with about half of that covered by insurance. Could be worse.