The Refrigerator Leak · · PAGE 23.

September 2, 2014: A little trickle of water turned into gallons of water soaked into the carpet and padding in the living room since the refrigerator is up against that wall.  There was no sign of water seepage except in the living room and just beyond the kitchen door as seen here.  The water appeared to follow the 2x4 at the bottom of the wall between the kitchen and living room.

This is the wall behind the refrigerator and the range in the kitchen area.   The corner where the TV cable is located did not get very wet.  The area near the camera in this photo and near the kitchen door seen above got the most of the water.

The wet area did not reach the sofa near the front windows.  We moved the TV table out to be sure of the wet area limits.

The large wool rug was removed from the living room and placed on the floor of the Florida room with the back side up.  I used the Bissell carpet shampoo machine on the wet areas seen here to get out as much of the water as possible.  It worked best on the this side, rather that the top side.  The edge near the fan was close to the front door.  The edge of the rug near the orange power cord was up near the wall and the kitchen.

The darkest area was near the love seat and the kitchen  That edge of the wool rug was parallel to the wall with the kitchen.

Here is the carpet shampoo machine.  The water comes up through the clear plastic from the front (left in the photo) and over the top to the reservoir under the clear plastic dome.

Here is that reservoir full and ready to be emptied into the kitchen sink.   That thing holds just less than one gallon of water.  I filled it at least SIX times today.  The last one was collected between 10:00 PM and 11:10 PM tonight.   I will run the machine again tomorrow morning to see if I can get more water from the living room carpet.

September 4, 2014:  I took new photos of the water stains on the carpet where mildew is starting to grow underneath.   We had a visit this morning from a carpet cleaning guy we used in the past.   He can help us with the wool area rug, but does not do the kind of work we need for the carpet.  He mentioned a guy he knows who it a contractor for Lowe's and gave me his phone number.  When I spoke with Jason to confirm his relationship with Lowe's, he said I need to contact them to get things going on carpet removal, mold/mildew cleanup, and installation of new carpet.  I am heading over to Lowe's as soon at this web update is published.

Here are two wider views of the stains that appeared since yesterday.

Tiles from Lowes on sale.  The store manager and the guy in the flooring department cautioned me that the stuff on sale is "mass produced" and may vary in thickness and x-y dimensions.  They are referring to quality control issues that allow the cost to be lower on the next two types of tile I have in the first FOUR photos below.  This first tile is approximately 16x16 inches square and sell for 77 cents per square foot (144 sq. in).  This tile has 256 square inches at a cost per tile of $1.37 each.  This number 1616 Tiolo Beige.

As you can see, they have plenty of stock on the floor and more in the back.

The smaller tile is 13x13 inches and is 1313 Devana Beige selling for 81 cents per tile, which is 69 cents per square foot.

They have plenty of this one in stock.  Both of these tiles have a rough surface for traction.  The tiles in the kitchen at 1351 are slick and wet feet will slip and fall.  That is one reason we have a couple of rug mats in the kitchen area between the sink and the oven.

Just down this aisle, I found this white tile, not as cheap as the stuff on sale, but a better quality tile, equal thickness from tile to tile, etc.  This edge view of the tile shows its textured surface.

I placed the tile on the floor to take this photo showing the slight color variation pattern.

This tile is 12x12 inches and costs $1.88 per tile with 14 pieces per box.

The same tile pattern is also available in 18x18 inch size with 8 tiles in a box for $37.44, which is $4.68 per large tile.

Lowe's will quote either size of the Ivetta tile for an installed price.   The lower cost two tiles on sale are cash and carry to be installed by others, not Lowe's.

Here is a drawing of the carpeted area of the house that has to be replace by new carpet and padding, or with tiles.