[mpwalsh]

I live in an area hit by Sandy. My house was very lucky relative to many of my friends and neighbors.

In some sections of the house we took about 18-24 inches. In other sections, it was as low as 1.5 inches.

Obviously the stuff that got wet was removed - especially in the deep areas. However, some sections of the house weren't hit that bad and I'm really wondering what the right course of action is. My wife wants to remove 4' from every wall - redo everything. I told her that's crazy. In one section of the house the water was barely above the 1/4 Round...

There's no smell. No visual signs. Even in the areas in the back - the bad areas - there was only a few inches of water in the insulation. How much 'wicking' action does this stuff actually have?

But what about the areas that had 3-4 inches? So here are a few questions -

Would it be reasonable to pull 1 foot out? - Is that particularly hard to install just 1 foot?

What about bleach? I did all the mitigation stuff (Washed down everything with a water/bleach solution - then Air, Dehumidify, Then later Hot Air + Dehumidify) Would it be possible to drill small holes in the wall - Spaced every 4-6 inches, then shoot some bleach and/or anti-mold stuff back there?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[joecaption]

Just 1' would be a real pain to try and refinish.
If your not going to open up the wall to make sure there is not damage like you should then remove the 1/4 rd and baseboards and cut the sheetrock 1" less then the width of the baseboard.
Reason being is you can refinish with out having to deal with a visable seam.

There's going to be water trapped between the bottom plates and the subflooring, some is going to be wicked up the wall by now in the sheetrock and yes the fiberglass will not dry out and should have been replaced, at least the bottom part.

 

[Windows on Wash]

You will know more once you open it up. I would bust it open and see what you got.