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Vent: Chasing a leak in the old Montgomery Ward food court
Got a call about moisture damage behind a drywall panel in a dead mall near Akron last Tuesday. The place closed in 2019, but the roof still drains into a shared line. Tore out the panel and found a copper line that had been punctured by an old anchor bolt, probably from when they hung a sign back in the 90s. Water had been seeping for months, rotting the framing behind a pretzel stand. My crew spent two full days rerouting it because the original path ran under a sealed concrete slab. Cost the property owner about $3,400. What got me was the mall manager saying they'd noticed a musty smell since spring but figured it was just the building. Has anyone else found water damage that could've been caught way earlier if someone checked early signs? What did you do about it?
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john64810d ago
Funny thing is I once spent half a day hunting a leak in a strip mall and it turned out to be a condensation line from an AC unit dripping into a bucket some tenant left behind a wall. The musty smell thing gets me every time. I have walked into spots where the smell was so bad you could taste it and the guy with the keys says oh that's been like that for years. A $40 moisture meter and five minutes poking around would have saved your property owner a few grand. Then again I am the guy who ignored a drip in his own basement for a whole winter, so who am I to judge.
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