One mystery solved, at least.
I have a storage shed on the farm that I’ve used for storing lawn equipment and tools since we moved out there in 1999. It had a gravel floor and the building itself was held up off of the ground by concrete footers that left about a four inch gap all around the bottom. This meant that little critters could get in (usually toads) as well as leaving the place a bit damp (I assumed from water coming in under the building).
We decided to snazzy up the place and pour a concrete pad. This would make it nicer to work on as well as drier, and a buddy of mine wanted a place to park a car of his (he recently moved and lost garage space) so he helped with the cost.
It looks really nice. However, whenever it rains there is a lot of water on the floor, covering about half of the total area. This happens only when I am out of town (the rain, that is) and at first Andrea thought it was the windows, so she shut them, but it still happened the next time it rained.
Well, it rained this weekend and I was able to see the problem.
Our farm is pretty flat, or so I thought. The house is on the highest part and apparently the shed is about 5-6 feet lower. There is a power conduit bringing electricity from the house to the shed, and it leaks. Thus the water builds up all along it and due to the difference in height it is able to trickle out of the end and into the shed. It’s a pretty steady trickle even with a light rain and so it is easy to understand why the shed fills up.
It also explains why the voltage to the shed has been going steadily down over time. One of the two 120V circuits is at about 60V and the other, which worked for a year or so longer, is now around 96V.
It’ll be an expensive repair, but at least I know what the problem is. In the meantime I’ve poured a whole bunch of silicon sealant down the end of the pipe in the hope that it will stop it until I can get around to fixing the problem. The joys of home ownership.