My small-scale home disaster

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Some time around 7:45, based on my last bleary-eyed look at the alarm clock as I drifted in and out of consciousness while trying to use my Saturday morning to catch up on lost sleep, I heard my wife* saying something to one of our cats, and then, or so I thought, I heard her start taking a shower. The shower sounded a little odd to me, a little louder than usual, but I was half asleep and, to the extent that I thought about anything at all before rolling over in bed, I thought that maybe she left the bathroom door open so the cat could get out.



A few moments later I was awoken by shouting. "Kerry! Come here, quick! We've got a disaster!"



I stumbled out of bed barely awake, but was soon shocked into a higher state of awareness by a spray of cold water in my face. Water was all over the floor and flying everywhere in the bathroom.



To explain the situation better, it helps to know that we have our washer and dryer in our upstairs bathroom. Water was shooting out over the top of the washer, but I couldn't really see what was happening through the obscuring spray. I fumbled around trying to find the cut-off valve, but not being able to find the valve quickly enough (even with all of the water splattering in my face, I was still a bit groggy and not clear-headed enough to solve plumbing mysteries at high speed) I decided I'd better run to the basement for the main cut-off valve and worry about the details later.



I quickly squished my way down the wet carpeted stairs and saw, as I dashed by, water pouring out around the recessed lights in the ceiling and onto the dining table. Once I got to the basement, I saw water pouring out of the middle of basement ceiling onto the carpet on the basement floor. Fortunately I knew right where to go for the cut-off valve, and had it turned off in just a few more seconds.



That taken care of, I had a little more time to survey the damage. Water was still pouring out of the basement ceiling. Part of that ceiling is a suspended ceiling, and just by chance we had one of the ceiling tiles pulled down, directly beneath where the water had decided to take a ride to the basement down along the ventilation ductwork. (Condensation on a pipe above the tile had discolored the tile -- we'd pulled the tile down only a few days ago to figure out why the tile was stained.) It turned out that more water had also run off elsewhere in the basement ceiling, damaging some other ceiling tiles and some drywall, but having that one tile pulled out ahead of time let most of the water go straight down to the carpet.



In the living room, another fortunate coincidence had a large decorative vase on the dining table catching a good bit of the water pouring out around the recessed light above it. Still, the table got very wet, and a library book that my wife took out (from the library where she works as a librarian) got thoroughly soaked. Just to the side of the table, a section of the carpet was drenched from the water pouring out around another light. I grabbed some towels out of the downstairs bathroom and wiped off the table as best as I could. Meanwhile my wife was upstairs trying to sop up what she could using a mountain of bath towels. When the water still kept coming, I had to move the table and wipe it down again.



Water continued to flow from the two ceilings, including a second spot in the basement ceiling that started up later, in addition to the first place I saw, for about half an hour before trickling to a halt. Quite a bit of water was obviously puddled inside walls and floors to keep feeding those flows for so long.



What had happened? We weren't even using the washing machine. The cold water feed hose simply burst spontaneously, tearing open just below where it was attached to its faucet.



The sounds I'd heard while lying in bed were of my wife telling the cat that he couldn't go outside, and by the timing of it, the hose burst just as my wife closed the front door to leave for work.



I can't remember the last time my wife left the house for work and then decided she needed to run back inside for something. It doesn't happen that often. Only by luck did it happen today. She was already sitting in her car when she suddenly decided to bring a Dove Truffle Egg to a friend at work -- I suppose she'd been telling her friend about them, and wanted her friend to try one.



If my wife hadn't come back into the house for that piece of chocolate, chances are that the water would have poured out of the broken hose for another 20 to 30 minutes, maybe even longer, before I got out of bed and realized that I wasn't really listening to the sound of someone taking a shower.



The damage caused by 2-3 minutes of water was bad enough. I'm already well above my $500 insurance deductible for getting Service Master out here to assess the damage, suck up water, pull up carpet, slash the basement ceiling open to drain water out, and set up fans and dehumidifiers all over the house, not to mention the follow-up work they'll be doing when they come back Tuesday to pull out their gear, fix what they can of the damage, and clean the carpets. There's also the electrician (charging weekend emergency rates) who had to come out and inspect our wiring to make sure it was safe, and then coming up we'll need two ceilings repaired by a dry waller after things have dried out. Finding someone to inspect and clean our ventilation ductwork has also been recommended, so we don't end up with fungus and mold growing in the ductwork.



All of that from a mere 2-3 minutes of uncontrolled water flow.



I absolutely shudder to think how bad this could have been if no one had been home. Seeing how much water poured out in 2-3 minutes, hours with both of us at work would have probably flooded the basement. Ankle deep? A foot deep? Who knows!?



As it is, I was supposed to be in Florida this weekend. I was going to visit my father after he had surgery this past Monday, but his doctors failed to tell him that he was supposed to stop taking one of his prescriptions for five days before the surgery, so both his surgery and my trip to Florida were postponed. If I'd been in Florida, and if my wife hadn't stepped back into the house for a piece of chocolate, we both would have found out the hard way what a day's worth of water damage would be like.



What if something like this happens while you're away for a long time, like on a long vacation? In our situation, we'd probably have someone stopping by every day, or every other day at least, to check in on our pets, but if we could find someone to take care of our cats and rabbits (just try to find a rabbit kennel!), a water disaster like this could go on for days on end, probably not stopping until we returned home, or maybe a little sooner if a neighbor called the police because water was cascading down the front steps of our house.



I can't think of any reason why, left on its own for days on end, a simple thing like a split hose couldn't keep going until the entire basement filled with water, why it wouldn't keep going until water had completely infiltrated walls, floors, and ceilings.



I can tell you this: From now on, if we don't have someone watching our house when we go away on a long trip (meaning there'd be no need for anyone inside the house to use any water), I'm going to be shutting off the water main. This episode makes me wonder if there's anything like a "smart valve" that you can install, something that only allows a certain amount of water to flow over a certain period of time before it forces a cut-off. Even with someone to watch the house, given the right technology I'd allow no more water than a single toilet flush and a bowl's worth of water for our pets to flow per day, for every day we'd be away from home.



We are so, so lucky that nothing much besides a little bit of the house itself and the carpet was damaged. The dining table's finish might be a little spoiled, that's about it. Ten feet from all of that water pouring out of the ceiling was thousands and thousands of dollars worth of expensive electronics -- a 70" high-def wide-screen TV, expensive speakers, surround-sound receiver, DVD, etc. A thousand-disc CD collection was a mere two feet from the downpour, in a shelf mounted to a wall that had a lot of this water flowing inside of it. No computers were in harm's way. I didn't leave my brand-new 12" PowerBook on the dining table. No artwork on the walls, no special treasure or mementos were damaged. None of our pets were harmed.



I called this lucky, but is it good luck to get by with so little damage (and have so many amazing coincidences occurring to limit the damage), or bad luck to have any of the mess happen at all?



*My ex-wife who lives me, ever since I let her move back in after she'd been out of work for six months, and who is kind of settled in now, even though she finally did get a job and has been working for a year, and with whom I have only a friendship relationship, although she'd like for us to get remarried... and any way, the English language sucks because alternate terms like "friend", "ex-wife", "roommate", "housemate", "partner", etc., all sound so lame and I'm left with the choices of lame, inaccurate, or long-winded whenever I have to refer to her... but that's another story.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    that was worth reading for just the asterix...
  • Reply 2 of 18
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    congrats on taking the optimist (or at least the realist) view rather than the pessimist



    might want to edit: $$ home contents, personally identifiable info, and planned absences.
  • Reply 3 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    might want to edit: $$ home contents, personally identifiable info, and planned absences.



    Well, I only put the idea of planned absences in my story, not the actual dates and times of any such absences.



    Besides, there's the fact that I've also said that any time I'm gone from home, there's likely to be someone watching over the my place to take care of our pets, so I don't think I'm creating too tempting of a target.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by shetline

    Well, I only put the idea of planned absences in my story, not the actual dates and times of any such absences.



    Besides, there's the fact that I've also said that any time I'm gone from home, there's likely to be someone watching over the my place to take care of our pets, so I don't think I'm creating too tempting of a target.




    perhaps you can just "upgrade" the pets to more ferocious/deterrent species

    might I suggest... Tiger?

  • Reply 5 of 18
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Did you collect 2 of every animal?
  • Reply 6 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robot

    Did you collect 2 of every animal?



    We only have two cats and two rabbits... a male and a female of each, but the fact that they've all been neutered sort of spoils the whole starting-again-after-the-flood scenario.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    carol acarol a Posts: 1,043member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by billybobsky

    that was worth reading for just the asterix...



  • Reply 8 of 18
    fellowshipfellowship Posts: 5,038member
    Before I went to Paris I turned off my water main.



    Sorry to hear of this whole thing Shetline,,



    fellows
  • Reply 9 of 18
    carol acarol a Posts: 1,043member
    Back when I had my condo, I was walking my dog one morning when I saw water streaming down the front door of a neighbor's house.



    I dashed home to call the fire department, and within a few minutes a huge ladder-truck arrived on the scene. It was a two-story condo. The firemen ended up breaking in a second-story window, and entered to find a water pipe to the toilet broken. It had flooded the entire top floor, and undoubtedly the bottom floor too, soaked all the carpet, the walls, etc.



    The worst part is that the people were traveling in Europe at the time, so all that wet carpet must have gotten all moldy and sour. What a horrible disaster to come home to, after a major trip.



    My dad used to watch over his neighbor's house during the summer. The neighbor lived half the year in Minnesota, and half the year here. Dad went in to check on the house every few days, and discovered one day that though the main water line coming into the house had been turned completely off, it had somehow leaked and flooded the entire house.



    When he called Minnesota to break the news, he found that up there his neighbors (the very same day!) had just had a tornado destroy their barn and damage the roof of their house. Geez!



    So, yes. You were *VERY* lucky.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    fellowshipfellowship Posts: 5,038member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by shetline

    We only have two cats and two rabbits... a male and a female of each, but the fact that they've all been neutered sort of spoils the whole starting-again-after-the-flood scenario.



  • Reply 11 of 18
    tmptmp Posts: 601member
    I saw on an episode of HomeTime that it's a good idea to have shut off valves for the feeds to your washer. It's not uncommon for the feed hoses to burst. The guy on the show made a point of saying that you should keep the water to the washer shut off unless you were using it.



    Who knew?
  • Reply 12 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by tmp

    I saw on an episode of HomeTime that it's a good idea to have shut off valves for the feeds to your washer. It's not uncommon for the feed hoses to burst. The guy on the show made a point of saying that you should keep the water to the washer shut off unless you were using it.



    Who knew?




    I'm at least replacing my hoses with metal-clad hoses. They hold up longer, and if and when they do fail, they usually just trickle rather than gush water full-force.



    In order for it to be practical to shut the water on and off as needed, I'll have to replace the current valves (the kind you have to turn a dozen times to go from fully on to fully off) with quarter-turn levers.



    Of course, no solution is perfect. Valves can fail too. I have to wonder how much sooner a valve might fail if you're turning in on and off all of the time rather than simply leaving it in one position.



    And what on earth do you do if you main cut-off valve ever breaks, or the part of the pipe that comes before the main valve bursts?
  • Reply 13 of 18
    tmptmp Posts: 601member
    swim, I believe.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    whisperwhisper Posts: 735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by shetline

    And what on earth do you do if you main cut-off valve ever breaks, or the part of the pipe that comes before the main valve bursts?



    I thought that the main cut-off valve was right before the meter -- outside and under the water company's jurisdiction. Of course, I could be wrong. I've never looked or anything. That's just how I would do it.



    Oh, and to answer your question, I would call the water company
  • Reply 15 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Whisper

    I thought that the main cut-off valve was right before the meter -- outside and under the water company's jurisdiction. Of course, I could be wrong. I've never looked or anything. That's just how I would do it.



    Perhaps I'm not using ultimately correct plumbing terminology, but what I was refering to by "main cut-off valve" was the single, home-owner-accessible cut off valve that's inside my house and that I can use to shut off all water to the entire house.



    I wouldn't be surprised if the water company has another valve outside of my house as well, but if the main valve inside my house fails, or the pipe that comes before it fails, some amazing flooding could occur between spotting such a leak and getting the water company out to do what they can do. Especially if no one was home when something like that happened.
  • Reply 16 of 18
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    Terrifying story!!



    We have the metal-clad hoses right now and our washer/dryer setup is in the basement...so we'll just flood a bunch of junk. All the same, it's remarkable how damaging water can be. I'm betting that Shetline groans every time he sees the trailer for "The Day After", the one where the wall of water comes slamming into NYC.
  • Reply 17 of 18
    whisperwhisper Posts: 735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by shetline

    Perhaps I'm not using ultimately correct plumbing terminology, but what I was refering to by "main cut-off valve" was the single, home-owner-accessible cut off valve that's inside my house and that I can use to shut off all water to the entire house.



    I wouldn't be surprised if the water company has another valve outside of my house as well, but if the main valve inside my house fails, or the pipe that comes before it fails, some amazing flooding could occur between spotting such a leak and getting the water company out to do what they can do. Especially if no one was home when something like that happened.




    Yours is inside? Maybe they all are then. Like I said, that's just how I would've done it.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Update: This morning, Service Master came back, determined that the upstairs and ground floor were sufficiently dry, and collected the blowers and dehumidifiers on those floors to take away.



    The basement failed the moisture meter test, so one blower and one dehumidifier are staying for a few more days down there.



    It is an enormous relief for most of the equipment to be gone now. Living with these blowers and dehumidifiers has been awful. They are LOUD. I never even heard any knocking or the doorbell ringing this morning when the two-man crew came by, and when they called me on the phone to get my attention (they're used to people not being able to hear them) I just barely lucked out and moved close enough to the phone in time to wonder if maybe I'd heard it ring.



    Because it was the bathroom connected to my bedroom where the flood started, two of the blowers had been parked in my bedroom, right in the two doorways (to the hall and to the bathroom), with flaps of carpet pulled up over them, plus, mere feet away, another blower and a dehumidifier cranking away in the bathroom itself.



    I haven't exactly slept well these past few nights! I turned two of the blowers off for a few hours one night just to get some rest, but decided against that last night simply because I didn't want to jeopardize getting things dried out enough so the equipment would be taken away.



    I'll be happier when all of the equipment is gone, but at least what's left now is well out of the way and the noise situation is greatly improved.
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