My foreign neighbor who lives in the rooftop house next door to mine recently had her entire front over-hang sawed off because awhile back the Taipei city gov’t came by after someone on the 2nd floor complained that one of our parties were too loud (it was… we carried on until 10 am) and said that the roof extended too far out. So, the landlord had no choice but to get someone out here and saw the entire thing off. Now when it rains (which lately it has been… heavily) water comes pouring into the house when you open the front door and through the ELECTRIAL BOX in the wall. Obviously, since we both manage to take our foresight pills every morning, we find this extremely dangerous. Not only is water flowing out of this electrical box, down the wall, and forming a huge puddle on the floor all over computer wires etc… the landlord doesn’t seem to see much wrong in this and isn’t in much of a hurry to fix the problem. She said to give it a month… let the place pass the second inspection, and then the overhang will be put back on.
Since this entire country is already jerry-rigged, is there anything we can do to stop water from coming through the electrical box? I know the water isn’t coming into direct contact with the breakers (or at least i don’t think); it’s just coming out from the side.
If you know where it is coming in from on the outside…do your own ‘jury-rigging’ and cover it with a plastic bag or something. Do it as well as you can, but make it look hideous for the landlord, and others, to see.
Yes, this is indeed something bad which could be dangerous.
Same thing happened to me. Accidentally got the shock of my life when I tried to wipe out some of the water (which on a positive note cured me of my depression). The guy who came to fix the problem told me the water follows the wires down into the wall. He used some of that plastic caulking you can get at B&Q and sealed around the wires on the roof. It seemed to work.
Electricity and water is still new to many people in this country – one formerly held belief from decades ago was that attaching a faucet and sink to the wall would suffice to create running water and not too much has progressed from there. Rare, indeed, is the home that has drains in the lowest part of a given area of floor.
One landlord I had early into my time here actually owned a lamp factory and still had no idea of the basics of how a circuit works. He found a break in the line coming into my apartment (rats gnawed the line) and figured that capping all the lines would suffice to restore power.
So now, you’re living in a rooftop apartment that approximates the water/electricity problems posed in the movie “Fight Club.” Consider this time your punishment for holding a party that lasted all night – most Taiwanese neighbors go nuts at 10 p.m. instead of 10 a.m., so you’ve actually been very lucky here. For the month until the landlord fixes the overhang:
Look for a drain where the water is pooling outside your front door that might be plugged. If you find one, pull out the leaves, mice corpses and other crap that’s accumulated in there.
Move your computer and its wires out of the water.
Shut off your electricity when it’s going to rain or when you’re heading out of the apartment. You can reset your VCR later.
[quote=“mofangongren”]Electricity and water is still new to many people in this country – one formerly held belief from decades ago was that attaching a faucet and sink to the wall would suffice to create running water and not too much has progressed from there. Rare, indeed, is the home that has drains in the lowest part of a given area of floor.
One landlord I had early into my time here actually owned a lamp factory and still had no idea of the basics of how a circuit works. He found a break in the line coming into my apartment (rats gnawed the line) and figured that capping all the lines would suffice to restore power.
So now, you’re living in a rooftop apartment that approximates the water/electricity problems posed in the movie “Fight Club.” Consider this time your punishment for holding a party that lasted all night – most Taiwanese neighbors go nuts at 10 p.m. instead of 10 a.m., so you’ve actually been very lucky here. For the month until the landlord fixes the overhang:
Look for a drain where the water is pooling outside your front door that might be plugged. If you find one, pull out the leaves, mice corpses and other crap that’s accumulated in there.
Move your computer and its wires out of the water.
Shut off your electricity when it’s going to rain or when you’re heading out of the apartment. You can reset your VCR later.
Wear non-slip shoes.[/quote]
Thanks for all the replies everyone. There is no drain near the front door. Because there is no overhang you’re basically just standing in the rain, which goes right into the house as soon as the door is open. The electrical box is inside the house. We’re both too freaked out to go near it as we’re not sure if Jian Bao will cover the costs of electrocution. If it’s raining and we go to shut all the breakers off we’ll surely be zapped as water is flowing into the house from the breaker box.
not if you flip the switch with a dry piece of wood. of ourse, then you have to get all the water out before you turn it back on.
any water on the floor in contact with mains will zap you, but probably not kill you if it goes through your feet to another part of your feet, or if you stand in an earthed pool. i have done that a few times myself. (from working on outdoor rock concerts in the rain). what you do have to avoid is touching live things with your hands, especially your left hand, if you’re also standing in an earthed or neutral-live pool. dat shit is BAD.