All Forum Posts by: Kelly B

Hi,

Thank you for all your replies. A few updates:
1) I hired another plumber recommended by a friend. He opened up the bathroom wall near the tub. As soon as he did that, tons of drain flies came out. He said the bathroom tub was leaking badly, and the concrete wasn't sealed, which should be the source of the problem. He fixed that last night. Hopefully this is the only source. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
2) As he's fixing the bathroom tub, he found there was mold growing in the bathroom walls because of the leak. He said the entire wall in the bathroom needs to be taken off and replaced (sheetrock and tiles). I just called a mold removal company and they said they could penetrate walls to treat mold. I am getting an estimate from the mold company now. Does anymore have experience with mold inside walls?

Thank you!

K

I totally agree with you. This is my second tenant. I am still working on it.

I saw a couple of them lying on the kitchen floor. I spoke with the neighbor next door, who have been living there for 30 years. He said they also had these drain flies until they replaced their plumbing last summer.

Hi Jon,
Thank you very much! I just found my local Harbor Freight store carries it. I am heading there right now. Will keep you guys posted!

Did I mention that I asked my tenant to cover the kitchen sink drain hole with a duck tape overnight and see if any drain flies get caught on it. Nothing was caught! I am really puzzled. I will also hire a contractor to seal all the cracks in the house.

Thanks again!

When I went there, there were a couple of them lying on the kitchen floor. The tenant said there were 30 of them in the bathroom this morning, but I never saw them. I'll try to replace the traps myself.
The exterminator will be there again to spray the house this afternoon. Oh I forgot to mention that this house has an attic/crawl space. Do you think the drain flies could come from there? The pest control company said they couldn't spray the attic.

Thank you all for your replies.
1) I swallowed the furnace bill because my husband didn't see the phone call from the tenant until the next morning. When we called the next day, the tenant said he called the furnace company on his own. Since it was in mid winter, we felt it was an emergency and paid the bill.
2) When the plumbing issue occured, I arranged for a plumber to go to the house the next day and informed the tenant. However, the plumber was told to leave when he got there as the issue was taken care of. The tenant said he misunderstood and thought I'd let him take care of the problem like "last time". I sent him a certified mail and told him all the repairs in the future had to be authorized by me. I also bought a home protection policy for this house since (Arkidus).
3) The tenant tried bleach but I don't know how diligently he did it. I bought them some enzymes and wrote down step by step instructions for them to do at bedtime. Again they claimed they did it but the enzyme didn't work.
4) The lease didn't mention pest control at all (the realtor said she'll add it next time). To be fair, the tenant does keep the house in a fairly clean condition. I will call my home protection company and see if they can get the p trap and down tube replaced for me. I will also buy the Quat sanitizer Mark recommended.
5)My last question: how much do you guys think is a fair price if I let this guy take care of the problem on his own? He owns a moving company and I guess moving cost is pretty low for him. The lease is for two years and they've only been here for six months.

Thank you again for your replies!!!

I am a landlord of a single family house in New Jersey. For the last two months, I've been battling some drain flies in this property. I called several pest control companies and they basically told me upfront that they cannot get rid of drain flies since they come from drains. I still hired one (horizon) that costed $200 and sprayed the house, just show my tenant that I am working on it. I also had plumbers (twice) to come in and did leak detection on my drain and the plumbers claimed that they didn't find any leaks. Basically I think I did all I could and have no idea where to go next. I also bought different products and asked my tenant to pour down in the drain, as recommended by plumbers and pest control company.

The plumber says there might be a hole in the foundation as it's an old slab house, and I don't know what to do about it.

My tenant just called and yelled at me for not being able to solve the problem for two months, and threatened me that he would take matters into his own hands. In the past, he had charged me over $200 for a drain stoppage, and $350 for changing filter on the furnace.

Could someone recommend what I should do next? I searched on the internet for drain flies and tried almost every chemical that claimed to kill them.

Should I offer some credit to the tenant once for all? I sincerely would like to take care of this issue for him but I just don't know how.