My basement's underwater!

Jesus, Diva! Are you okay? Do you have anyone nearby that you can stay with, or are you still all right in the apartment?

Tonight seems to be the night for NY apartment mishaps. I was sitting here minding my own business when my carbon monoxide detector went off. I have two - one battery operated, and a back up one that plugs into the outlet. This was the backup outlet one, so it wasn't the batteries going dead - although, the one with the batteries wasn't doing anything. I hated to do this, but better safe than sorry, I called the fire department. A few months ago, the same thing happened to one of my neighbors, and they came out and checked his apartment (it was fine).

So about five firefighters in full gear came tromping into my apartment, did a quick reading, and everything was fine - their equipment was getting a negative read, thank god. They said that the battery operated one seemed fine, but maybe the electrical outlet one was defective (it's a few years old). I thanked them and apologized profusely for dragging them out here for nothing. If it had been the other way around, the outlet alarm being silent and the battery alarm beeping, I wouldn't have been as worried - would have just chalked it up to the batteries going dead. But the fact that it was the wall unit had me more scared, or I wouldn't have bothered the fire department over that. I still feel kind of dumb, but I'm glad it was nothing.

That sucks Diva. Hope everything gets worked out today or tomorrow.

Diva, glad the landlord's there now. Now that he sees the severity of the situation, hopefully he'll take care of it tonight, regardless of how late it gets. There are 24/7 hour plumbers (I had to have one come out on a Sunday night once some years ago in my old place), glad to hear he was able to get one there tonight. Stay warm and have the landlord fix your radiator while he's there, too!

I lived on the top floor of a triplex that had open access down two stairwells to the basement. In the dead of winter I come home to find my apartment full of musty steam. Went down the two floors into the basement to find the boiler pouring all of the hot water onto the floor and the steam rising up into my apt. The other two units were cold getting neither hot water nor a shit load of nasty ass steam rising up to ruin your painted walls, authentic movie posters, framed photos, but leaving your skin wonderfully fresh .

It was about three days until the landlord got, like Diva, his free-lancin' buddy from where ever the fuck to show up.

I thought this thread was titled "My basement's underwear!" That would have been a weird thread title.

Good luck Diva. NYC landlords/apartment managers are notorious for their slacking as we all know.

Holy Shit! this reminds me of what happened to my grandparents (They live over in Whitestone), there had to be some major renovating done to correct the problem if IIRC.

Also this reminds me of the only Drew Carey show episode I can remember in which he dead lifts two massive wet porno stacks and later goes out in his basement with a dingy and an accordion.

Best of luck with that, Diva. Hope it's all nice and working by the time you return! That sounds like a shitty situation to happen right smack in the middle of January. Ugh. Miserable.

Here's to hoping, Diva! Fingers crossed for toasty warmth when you get home.

Sadly, those CM detectors have a shelf life of 5-7 years. I've had 2 plug-in detectors go out on me within 2 months of each other. If you read the "fine print" in the instruction booklet, you'll see something about buying a new device after 5-7 years, or after a certain error code shows up on the detector. I've only got 1 plug-in now, and 2 battery operated. A friend who is a firefighter told me essentially the same thing--replace the detector after 5-6 years. Considering the plug-in detectors are like $50, I call bullshit on that. That's why I bought 2 battery usage ones instead--they're like $20 each.

Yeah, I tossed the outlet one - that one was about three years old. The battery operated one, which was the one in the apartment when I moved in two years ago, is fine. I'm planning on getting one of the ones that's a combo smoke detector/carbon monoxide detector. I have a smoke alarm too, but having a back up for both of them makes me feel better.