Brooklyn Artist Furious As Muddy Water Floods Home, Studio

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn artist is fighting to save her home and her artwork from a messy situation.

As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, mud keeps gushing into Yan Kong's studio, and she can't seem to get any real help to make it stop.

"It was just pouring from the top down," Kong said.

A muddy waterfall repeatedly invaded Kong's Gowanus, Brooklyn home. The residence doubles as a studio for the artist, who specializes in painted aluminum sculpture.

"I almost died when I saw it," Kong said.

A video from a month ago showed the cascade of filth from the construction site next door. While it seemed to attract Kong's curious house cat, it sickened her -- especially when it happened upstairs as well.

"Mud water poured in to my bedroom twice," she said.

Trails of mud looking like oil slicks appeared on Kong's floor beneath her baseboard heating system.

The problem started last year.

"They took down the house next to me where it used to be smacked against each other," Kong said.

A narrow area between the two properties keeps overflowing with construction runoff, rainwater, and mud -- clogging drains and getting in to cracks big and small.

In one example of the damage, one of Kong's sculptures was too heavy to move at the time. It had been sandblasted clean, but now has been left with rust by the muddy water.

Kong said sandblasting it again and repairing it will cost about $1,000.

She demanded repairs, reimbursements and compensation for days of lost work. But she said all she got was brief help from workers with brooms.

"They scheduled repairs, but they canceled it," Kong said. "They keep saying until I send them more information but I have more information to send them."

CBS2's Carlin went to the construction office, but it is closed on weekends. There was no answer when CBS2 called the owner, 4th Avenue BU LLC.

Kong says buying her house in 1981 brought her order and light, but now, that has been replaced by mess and darkness.

Kong said she has an attorney who is preparing a lawsuit against the property owner.