A real head scratcher...

[SnapCracklePop]

About a week ago, I found a puddle of water on top of my Englander. The puddle was about 4 inches in diameter. I didn't see any indication that I had a leak in the roof. The water wasn't splashed, as I would think a leak would do... I have conducted an experiment, dripping water from a few feet above the stove, and it splits apart into a bazillion droplets.

I couldn't remember setting a cold jug of soda on the stove to condense a puddle... Geeze, that would be dumb.

I have ruled out my three female dogs as culprits, because none of them would fit comfortably on top of the stove to take a whiz. Besides, it was water, not piddle.

It does seem to have occurred after some hard rain. So, now, I'm hoping for some hard rain. I'll be sitting here like a hawk watching the ceiling.

The location of the puddle was the lower, front section of the stove, on the right hand side. That's not under the hole(s) in the ceiling/roof at all. It is, maybe, under a roof truss.

I just can't get it to make sense.

Is this weird, or what?

Nancy

 

[-PB-]

I'm going with a ghost... with incontinence.

 

[Bub381]

In due time Nancy, in due time. ;-)

 

[SnapCracklePop]

I'm going with a ghost... with incontinence.

Oh, crap, I didn't want to go there, because:

A) I can't sleep if the closet door is open in my bedroom
B) Something there is that raises the hair on the back of my neck when I go into the basement at night. Especially the two nights I spent IN the basement last winter to keep the fire going. At least my three dogs were there for protection...

Anyway, ghost pee would be yellow and odiferous, wouldn't it???

Nancy

 

[snowleopard]

. . . ghost pee would be yellow and odiferous, wouldn't it???

Nancy

invisible and odorless . . . you can't see it or smell it, but somehow you just know it's there . . .

 

[yooperdave]

check the side of the pipe connected to the stove for any indications of water stains...drips or whatever. it may have come in on the pipe and settled to the low point of your stove surface.

 

[cptoneleg]

I had a watter leak also. covered the top at birdscreen, and it stopped. Figured out that rain was blowing in and running down the flue and dripping out of a swivel 90* so for now I covered the top with plastic and was relieved that my roof wasn't leaking.

 

[yooperdave]

just thought of this also...does a water line run above the stove? if so, maybe condensation formed and dripped???

 

[Beetle-Kill]

I'm going with a ghost... with incontinence.

Oh, crap, I didn't want to go there, because:

A) I can't sleep if the closet door is open in my bedroom
B) Something there is that raises the hair on the back of my neck when I go into the basement at night. Especially the two nights I spent IN the basement last winter to keep the fire going. At least my three dogs were there for protection...

Anyway, ghost pee would be yellow and odiferous, wouldn't it???

Nancy

My money is on a leak around the flashing for the chimney. Are you using triple-wall pipe from the ceiling on up? That air gap could allow water to be blown in and collect, dripping where it may. You could tape a few paper towels to the ceiling, just to see where the water is coming from. Cold stove of course. Or......it's a ghost. (In which case, tell them to stop it. They listen.)

 

[Shari]

The idea that your stove top might have a low spot and water dripped in from another location seems to make sense. Is there any way to look in the attic to see anything?

As far as ghosts go or 'unseen things' milling about, tell me about it. Thirty + years in real estate sales & I've had a few hairs raised on my neck over the years.

 

[snowleopard]

Okay, so this is probably a sign that I'm spending way too much time on the forum (ignoring all the other obvious indicators), but I just zonked out and took a badly needed nap, and dreamt about your basement. I was standing right outside a door near a corner, and I felt this sort of suction effect, and fell over. Some people were talking to me later about it, and I said, "Wooh--I almost got sucked into the basement," and they said, "We saw you. You didn't get sucked in, you just fell over." Then I was inside, and a moose came up the stairs from the basement, and then it was followed by an elk head--one of those mounted ones--then there were vampires everywhere, and some were following me too closely, and I said, "You do NOT want me--I eat a LOT of garlic [this was a lie] and I've been sick [another lie]." They weren't scary, just irritating and annoying. At which point I woke up.

Don't I have some work I'm supposed to be doing?

 

[jimbom]

Those mushrooms. The ones on the trees and in the woods. Don't eat those. Bad mojo.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

Okay, so this is probably a sign that I'm spending way too much time on the forum (ignoring all the other obvious indicators), but I just zonked out and took a badly needed nap, and dreamt about your basement. I was standing right outside a door near a corner, and I felt this sort of suction effect, and fell over. Some people were talking to me later about it, and I said, "Wooh--I almost got sucked into the basement," and they said, "We saw you. You didn't get sucked in, you just fell over." Then I was inside, and a moose came up the stairs from the basement, and then it was followed by an elk head--one of those mounted ones--then there were vampires everywhere, and some were following me too closely, and I said, "You do NOT want me--I eat a LOT of garlic [this was a lie] and I've been sick [another lie]." They weren't scary, just irritating and annoying. At which point I woke up.

Don't I have some work I'm supposed to be doing?

That's hilarious! And I thought some of my dreams were wierd... sure you haven't been doing some of those 'shooms lately? :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[snowleopard]

That's hilarious! And I thought some of my dreams were wierd... sure you haven't been doing some of those 'shooms lately? :lol: :lol: :lol:

This is the edited version; I only included the details that I hope will help Nancy get to the bottom of this situation. :roll:

I don't think it's the shrooms--maybe the smoke? Fire season is upon us in earnest, and the air is dense enought to slice. Never saw it hit this early, this hard. Envying you that snow.

 

[SnapCracklePop]

Weather gurus aren't calling for any rain for the next seven days, so this mystery is going to remain just that for a while.

I do have Class A, triple (?) wall pipe from the ceiling up thru the roof. I will see what happens during a heavy rainstorm and then maybe try putting a garbage bag over the opening to see what that does.

I need to crawl up into the attic anyway because there's a shield that needs to go over the insulation barrier thingie (I disremember the proper term) -- the square box that I put up thru the ceiling. I had it up there ready to install when my buddy Norman was here, but he moved it... long story. Anyway, I'll have a good look-see when I'm up there. Gotta do it soon before the day heats up.

Oh, and there's no water pipe up there to explain this either...

From down here, there are no telltale tracks to indicate water dripping down and out the stovepipe, or along the top of the stove. I'm not a fussy housekeeper; there's a fine layer of dust on top of the stove; a water trail prolly would be quite obvious.

And I thought there'd be no need of Crew Hearth during the summer. Silly me.

Meanwhile, I'm not ruling out a ghost at all. I've had too many adventures in my 69 years to pooh-pooh the possibilities... The worst one was a voyeur in an apartment who appeared only in my bathroom. When I was buck naked... I never told houseguests about him, but more than once folks remarked about feeling eyes on them in the bathroom.

Nancy

 

[SnapCracklePop]

Ski Bum,

Your dreams give mine a run for the money. I dreamt the other night that I was back working in prison (which I did in real life), and that an inmate had a cat (this comes from watching Lockup on TV), and that the cat was full of baby ducks. Some inmate had stuffed the ducks down the cat's throat. Somehow it was my responsibility to resolve this situation (I have recently taken training to become a part time Humane Society Police Officer). I woke up before I figured out how to rescue the baby ducks.

I don't have moose or elk, just whitetail deer. And my constant thorn-in-the-side black bear(s) who get into any birdfeeder I devise. One bear came to my back door last summer, pressing its nose against the screen door, intending to get the bag of birdseed just inside the door. My dogs were barking their fool heads off. Didn't faze the bear. I rushed up and closed the sliding glass door before the bear could figure out that one swipe of its paw and it was in my house.

I do have a recurring dream about bears. Usually I have to rescue small children and everything goes in slow motion.

Nancy

 

[SnapCracklePop]

Of course, I meant Snow Leopard.

Senior moment.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

That's hilarious! And I thought some of my dreams were wierd... sure you haven't been doing some of those 'shooms lately? :lol: :lol: :lol:

This is the edited version; I only included the details that I hope will help Nancy get to the bottom of this situation. :roll:

I don't think it's the shrooms--maybe the smoke? Fire season is upon us in earnest, and the air is dense enought to slice. Never saw it hit this early, this hard. Envying you that snow.

I honestly think it seems kinda odd that Fairbanks, which is well north of Montana, is getting 80+ degree weather this early in the season, while it is still acting like early spring down here...

with all the moisture we've been getting, I doubt we'll have much of a fire season this year (or at least hope so!)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sort of makes one wonder what snowleopard has been drinking rather than eating. Funny nonetheless.

 

[cptoneleg]

When your not drinking bag it. See post Do you bag your chimney cap?

 

[snowleopard]

This was a wow morning. A bit of rain last night, and overcast, which actually allowed us to see the extent of smoke. There was a long cloud of smoke stretching from the east down around to the south of the city, viewed from up on a ridge. I looked at that and was floored by the length of that stretch of smoke. DD said, "I think it's the mountains," and I told her we didn't have fluffy mountains here.

Grateful that we don't have tornadoes here. Could you imagine the devastation of having that combination, wildfire and a tornado?

Nancy, how about keeping a spray bottle with ammonia in it next to the screen door? No living creature I know of would stick around for a second faceful of that. (You could also try keeping it next to your bed for dream bears . . )

Yep, Ski, we had a beautiful summer--all two weeks of it. Now that the smoke is here, it's a roll of the dice. If the fires are contained, and if we don't have a lot more starting, then we might get a great summer out of this. If we go the other direction, it will be too smoky out to do much of anything. Such smoky summers were the exception, then became more frequent, now it seems like it's every year. This is getting rough.