We had some seriously heavy rains over the weekend, and last night I discovered the water found its way into my studio. I thought it was well protected, but the runoff found a way past two drains and shot straight under the door, filling the whole studio to about 1cm deep.

I had just repairing the cyclorama (the curved wall) and painting the floor and walls, and now I’ve got to do it again… But the damage could have been far worse. Because I had a big shoot with AdamL on Friday (watch for photos from that one coming soon!) I had swept up and cleaned every corner, and under every desk, shelf and rack. So the water didn’t have much opportunity to ruin too much. What little damage it did do would have been even less if I’d noticed it when it happened, instead of 3 days later after it’d had a chance to soak in so thoroughly.

Probably the worst damage was to my guts. I’m still not shooting much because of these kidney stones, and after sweeping the water out, and scrubbing the whole floor, I was in agony. It’ll be a couple of days before I stop hurting, I think.

When I first got there, half of the studio had already dried up. The waves of mud near the door were already very dry, but after sweeping the water from the painted end all the way out the door, I was able to scrub most of the mud off and push it straight out the door.

This is the corner of the painted end of the studio. The lighter patch was where I’d swept the brook already, the dark patch is settled mud under about 1cm of water. And you can see how the paint and plaster have started to bubble up. I could push the bubbles and brown water would squirt out wherever there was a hole. =(

Almost everything was off the floor at the time. There was stuff underneath the workbench that has been there for -years- but I had cleaned it all up last week. And it didn’t matter too much that the tripod feet got wet. ^_^

The next morning I opened the door, and it was incredibly humid inside. After three days of a liquid floor, the water had evaporated and coated every surface. Everything was wet. Water was running down the windows, the roller door, the insulation. It was about as awful as I could imagine.

Luckily I have this enormous fan, which I normally use for blowing hair and dresses, etc. I set it up in the door, at full blast, and annoyed the neighborhood with its noise for about twelve hours. By the end of the day it was totally dry and back to normal inside… I think. Time will tell if anything’s been long-term ruined, but I’m cautiously optimistic.

Now I have to figure out how that water skipped over two 4-inch drains, each six meters long, to reach the studio door.

And then I’ll probably have to dig a huge trench.

Fun times. =/