The carpet and foam padding in the Frey theater has been ripped up to prevent any further spread of water damage.

Note the dark color of the soaking wet padding at right compared to dry padding to left.

The Frey theater experienced a major setback on February 16, 2008, when it was discovered that a large amount of rainwater had soaked through the basement walls and completely saturated the wall-to-wall carpet and padding in the front 10 feet of the theater area.  The water evidently had been slowly seeping in over the past week, while the area had experienced quite a lot of rain.  A faint smell similar to cat urine was noticeable in the basement the previous few days, and slowly got stronger until the damage was discovered.  The brand new ultra-modern deco throw carpet that was just installed a month ago was also saturated, and was very foul smelling;  It may be damaged beyond further use.  A request for help in cleaning up was sent out, and Matthew Frey, Dave Callis,  Dave Lechlitner, and Darren Weller came to the rescue.   All the wet carpeting and padding was removed, and the floor and baseboards were dried out with the help of a dehumidifier and two fans.

It appears the outside rain gutter at the front corner of the house had enough sediment accumulated in a wire trap at the top of the downspout that heavy rains during the past few weeks must have backed up and overflowed the gutter, just outside the front wall of the theater, consequently running into the basement.  The sediment was removed, so hopefully the basement floor will not collect any more water.  But, the damage has already been done, probably around $500-$600 dollars worth - not very good timing for this to happen to the theater...But new plans are already in the works to help avoid damage to any new carpet installation...

Drying the floor with fans and dehumidifier.  The wet carpet padding did not smell too appealing, so it was cut up and loaded into the trash can. 

All the front speakers and the seating is crowded

into the rear of the theater area.

The concrete floor underneath the carpet and padding

had been painted at one time, so the paint began

peeling wherever the floor had been flooded.

The carpet was removed to a point just behind

where the front row of seating normally sits.  A

12'x13' area of carpet and padding was lost.

Standing, from left, Darren Weller, Matt Frey, and Dave Callis

inspect the floor area after they finished bagging up the carpet and padding.  Darren's son is sitting at left, and unseen to left of pole, Dave Lechlitner scrapes up the last small

pieces of padding stuck to the floor.  Unfortunately, The bare floor  flooded a second time in early April, so the water problem had to be resolved.  I cleaned out the rain gutters on the house and installed good quality gutter screens to keep tree droppings from clogging and overflowing the gutters.

 Finally, on May 24th, more than 3 months after the initial damage,  I hired my old High School classmate and local carpet installer Lamar Grube to install new black carpet and padding into the theater area.  I decided a dark color carpet would be best to help reduce any reflected glare from the movie screen when watching a movie.  Here, Lamar performs the final touches laying the carpet and finishing the edges around the baseboard.

All the work to improve the theater room, which was delayed by the water leakage, could now begin in earnest...

The Frey Theater is finally back to normal, May 24th, 2008