Good day, my friends.
And despite the water leak mentioned in the title of this post, it feels like a very good day because it could have been so much worse.
Our town is replacing all the water meters in residents' homes. In order to do this, they require access to the meter. Ours is in a closet under the basement stairs. A closet that is used as storage and is packed to the brim. A closet that is, or was, inaccessible due to storage of yet more stuff lined up in front of the closet, several layers deep.
Yes, we should have dealt with it long ago. Somehow, with everything else going on the last few years, it never got tidied up.
But knowing I had to make an appointment to have the meter changed got me going. Bit by bit, over the past couple of weeks, I worked on clearing away the items outside the closet, and this morning, very very very early, between my first and second sleeps (some day I'll explain that, maybe), I thought I'd finish up by removing the things from inside the closet.
No sooner did I get the floor cleared than I noticed a drip of water on the floor. Just a drip, but a steady one.
I got a pan. The drip increased. I debated turning off the water main, but the arrows on the lever weren't all that clear or intuitive to me, and my tentative try only made the drip worse.
I got a bucket. When it was half full - in a surprisingly short time frame - I tried the lever again.
And then all heck broke loose. Well, not exactly heck, just water, but it was spraying in every direction. Suddenly there was no time left to be gentle with the lever. I gave it a good yank out of desperation, and the fire-hydrant-like spray reduced to a steady stream. I calmed down enough to decide it was just the water draining from the pipes in the house, via gravity, and sure enough it eventually slowed and stopped.
I called the 24-hour plumber, who came within the hour, replaced a severely deteriorated rubber washer, and restored water to all the things that use water.
As seems to be my habit these days, I cried after he left, from a combination of relief and the terribly lonely feeling of having no one to talk with about the near-disaster.
Nevertheless, disaster was averted and I feel overwhelmingly lucky that I was right there when the leak began. Maybe I brushed against the pipe while moving stuff, but I was being careful and I didn't think I had even touched it. The washer might have just been ready to give out, without any help from me.
I shudder to think of the flood that could have been, if I had gone for my second sleep and not noticed anything amiss for another four hours. I'm so thankful for 24-hour plumbers and the serendipity of noticing the leak as soon as it started.
Shall we celebrate with some funnies?
Of course we shall.
That's it for now.
May your week be leak-free in every way.
And may you leave your worst (or best?) leaky story in the comments so we can all feel less alone with our plumbing problems, whatever they may be.
39 comments:
HOORAY for twenty-four hour plumbing services.
I so understand first and second sleeps. It is just after 4 in the morning here. Later I may well retire for another sleep (hopefully with no water related disasters).
And thank you for the funnies. I often want to plug my face into the couch. And leave it there.
Yay for catching the leak early and averting disaster. Sorry for the emotional toll of just one thing 'on the pile.'
Plenty of leak disasters here…most recent one was due to a bathroom renovation. The whole bathroom was refitted, so the toilet was professionally replaced. But out turned out that the big pipe taking the waste down, evidently cracked during installation and sprung a leak the day afterward. It was quickly discovered and, luckily, a call to my contractor brought the plumber back pronto and he fixed things right away. The leak had gone through the floor and puddled on the garage ceiling. When it did finally start to drip through, the liquid (thankfully, only liquid) happened to drop into a fortuitously placed car wash bucket on the floor. So, disaster was averted here, too. The contractor took responsibility and repaired not only the toilet pipe, but also the ceiling.
My dog feels the same way about water as the cat hanging on the shower curtain. As for you, hang in there, too!
Wow, you just were in the right place at the right time. Serendipity at work, hard.
When I was small we lived in a big house, where the plumbing for some reason unknown to humanity did not follow the rules and drawings laid down by the municipality. When the came knocking to tell that they were going to close the water, we just said yes, thanks, knowing fully well that our water never was shut off. But when it did shut off - always without notice, they were working in the next street, whence our water came, notwithstanding drawings and diagrams to the contrary.
My father had installed a high water-closing thingie in our pipes, because water-works in that other street often meant a flooding of one of our cellar rooms.
Next time after it was installed, I was down in the cellar as they once again started working in the other street. The water-closing thingie kept up with the pressure, but not so the pipes in the floor, so suddenly we had a fountain in the cellar. Dad did not really believe me - I was five and endowed with a lively fantasy, but luckily decided to come and look at my 'fantasy'fountain before his workbench and tools were flooded.
I'm glad you were able to get that taken care of. Plumbing problems can be the worst. I used to install appliances for a living, and just the insurance on dealing with any water supply plumbing in the course of your work was frightfully expensive. We were expressly forbidden from installing the water supply line to refrigerators with ice makers because of multiple five-figure settlements over floor damage.
We found ways of doing it anyway, on the side, with damage waivers, but it was stressful and I only did it for customers I liked, and if the price was right...
I used to read a blog called "Watergate Summer" written by a nice woman with a very tall son, and she wrote about having the toilet in a little third floor half-bathroom causing a flood when the water supply pipe broke and the off valve was on the other side of the wall.
It took her a couple of hours to get the main water shut off for the house, which had multiple apartments in it, and by that time, a huge amount of her stuff was ruined, with water running downhill and all.
I told her that having the valve inaccessible wasn't legal, and she said she knew that, but the landlord was crooked, and I don't recall whether she was ever compensated for the loss.
So I take it that you don't have the kind of meter that they have to read every other month in order to send you a bill? Don't they call those "smart meters"?
Perhaps yours needed further instruction...
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Well done! You averted a disaster. Water is such an unwelcome visitor when it can’t be turned off.
Oh my goodness what a day for you! Those kind of leaks are scary! Maybe everything in the closet was some how applying just the right pressure to prevent the leak? (don't mind me, I don't know what I'm talking about!) I understand how difficult things like this must be for you right now, but you are really doing a good job taking care of things like this! Good for you!
I love the funnies!
Oh, dear. As you said, it's a good/bad/good thing, in many ways.
You're absolutely right about the dark sense of humor and terrible coping mechanisms!
No disaster then, just your purse a little lighter. Too many leaking stories to tell but only one geyser story, when I stuck the garden fork through a very new copper mains pressure water pipe. The water was shooting up into the house eaves, so I had to stop that before the inside of the house became wet. I like the Chevy to the levee.
You were very lucky, now, will you sort out the stuff? Sending hugs.
I would have cried too, crying is a great stress reliever. Followed by a nap. I have a story. At a house where I used to clean the kitchen and bathroom, most of the plumbing is iffy and one day after I had scoured the tub I noticed the shower was dripping a bit more than usual. So I gave the handle a little turn trying to slow or stop the drip. The handle came completely off and water geysered out from the wall! Shot straight across the room hitting the door, so I put the plug in the tub, got a bucket and filled it by holding it against the geyser, then went outside to the water meter and turned off the water. I used the bucket water to fill a large soup pot and boiled it on the stove so I could wash the dishes and wipe down the rest of the kitchen, then I went next door to where the landlord lived and told him. He came to have a look and right away called his plumber who came within the hour and got to work. I had to stay until he was finished, because the people who live there were both at work. The work took quite a bit of time because the plumber quite firmly told the landlord he'd been fixing bits here and there for years and now it was time to actually replace stuff like all the washers, a couple of the taps and the shower head. Luckily I had my kindle with me and was allowed to eat food from the fridge if I got hungry.
Those pipe leaks are terrifying. You're lucky you found it when you did.
My very first house had an indoor water meter. I read it conscientiously every time the "mark your own bill" came. After several years the powers that be said they must come in to read the meter to be sure all was accurate. I would not allow my children to admit meter readers and I worked and they would not make Saturday appointments and I would not stay home from work, and we had a fine stand off, until I came home from work one day and had no water. I was livid and called the town mayor a.t. h.o.m.e.! There were phone books in those days. I told him I'd spent years trying to educate his water department in courtesy, kindness and cooperation, and now I came home and could not make a pot of coffee, and on and on. I was livid. The mayor called the water department, then called me and said they would be out to turn on my water within half an hour, and they were. I stood at the curb and watched, and realized we had a tool in the garage that would have restored water to the house, which would be handy for next time, and while he was at it, he could come in a officially read my meter! He protested, but I insisted, so he did. A few months later the city began replacing those indoor meters with outdoor meters. Then I sold the house; my job was done.
I think I have every kind of story but a leak one!
I'm glad you got it fixed up without a complete disaster.
"Dear, what doesn't kill me, I'm strong enough now" sometimes feels like the story of my life, which of course makes it very funny
I love the You didn't warn me cat!!
So thankful that you were clearing the area anyway...the rubber washer was ready to go so that was good timing.
Yikes! That sounds stressful! But yes, thank goodness you noticed the leak right away and got it taken care of. I was afraid it had been leaking in the closet all this time! That would have been a mess!
Water leaks, grrr! It's so lucky that you just happened to be there at the right moment. I'm sure you could have done without the stress, though.
Coincidentally, we just had a water leak in our crawl space, too: Our air conditioner's drain line got clogged. We rarely go into the crawl space, but fortunately we had installed a water sensor down there when we built the house four years ago. By the time it went off, we had an 8-foot-wide pool of water, but it wasn't too difficult to clean up with the wet/dry vacuum, and it hadn't spread to anything important. The worst of the job was scraping out the sodden insulation inside the furnace; because (of course) the backed-up water filled the shallow sheet-metal pan before it ran over onto the floor. Still, it was only an inconvenience, not a disaster. We're considering ourselves very lucky!
i felt like i was watching an intense scene from movie dear Jenny ,yes your description put me right into the scary situation which surly could have been worse no doubt but i feel like the good energy has surrounded you and protecting you you from odds by alarming your senses like it did in this scenario and i truly believe that it is because you have comforted many hearts who' prayers follow you everywhere!.i am grateful that nothing went seriously wrong and issue resolved in time.
please keep in your mind that may you notice or not there is an energy surrounding you all the time and never leaves you alone unless you deny or avoid it ,it just mutes .yet it waits silently for your call ,it not just around you but it is within you ,you are part of it ,so you are not alone !
i so enjoyed the funnies ,the first one made me smile ,it could have make me laugh but i was still captive of your words so ...
hugs and blessings!
I get the tears. I'm glad you let them flow. Hugs.
I am grateful it all worked out, jenny_o, because, yes, it could have been so much worse. I think the worst leak experience I had was dealing with our sprinkler system and dealing with a broken sprinkler head while trying to figure where the water cutoff was in our crawl space. I got very wet and very mad because I didn't know where the cutoff was. As a first-time homeowner, it wasn't something I was familiar with so we had some fun. Take care and I hope the rest of the week is boring. =)
I'm so glad someone else has that kind of sleep schedule. Well, not GLAD, because it's not as good as unbroken sleep, but glad I'm not alone.
I waited two hours to call the plumber so I wouldn't drag anyone out of bed, and then realized when I found the yellow pages ad that of course there would be plumbers available at all hours . . .
Wow - you had a lucky break there as well. It just seems there are no end of ways for things to go wrong, so when something goes right, it really feels good.
Your poor dog - cats don't normally have to be bathed, but dogs do, so I feel sorry for him/her :)
Oh no! I bet your dad went into hyperdrive after he saw the water - and I hope he never doubted you again :)
It can be crazy how municipal water and sewage pipes were installed years ago. And electric lines. In the town where I live, when the power goes off in one area it also goes off in a completely unrelated area, meaning that one business can have power while the immediately adjacent business doesn't.
Ironically, the smart meter is the one they have yet to install :) I'm not sure how they get the meter reading at the moment. They don't come in the house, but our water bill shows the meter readings on which the tax is based.
That poor woman with the flood. Landlords can be vile people. Too many are in it strictly for the money and don't put themselves in the shoes of their renters. Of course there are bad renters, too, but . . . everybody just needs to smarten up and be nice!
Exactly - water damage is so easy to have happen and so hard to clean up. I'm still in a bit of disbelief that I was actually there to catch the problem before it became a huge issue.
House repairs were always my husband's domain. If I saw something that didn't look right, I'd tell him, and he'd fix it (usually himself). So, you're right, I find it difficult to deal with everything myself now. But I guess the only way to learn is to go through these kinds of experiences.
There was nothing up next to the pipe. And I could swear I didn't so much as touch it while moving stuff out. But maybe I did. In any case, I feel so lucky to have been on the spot when it started!
We have to find a way to deal with things and sometimes that's "the way" :)
Oh dear! Now that's an excellent story - of course, the best stories always have the most drama :)
Yes, yes I will, and you can quote me on that, e :D
Ack!! You were a quick thinker to get the situation under control like that! I hope the folks you were working for gave you a bonus . . .
Extremely lucky - I can't believe how lucky. I'm still half in disbelief. It would have been such a mess if it had given way while I was out - which could easily have happened.
Another great water story - and I would expect no less from you in this situation, knowing you as I do from your other stories on your blog!
It hurts less to laugh than to cry, generally . . . I love that meme too.
I still can't believe my good luck. It could have been such a huge mess.
Gah, yes - I couldn't believe what a close call it was. Water makes such a huge mess.
That's how I feel, too - it could have been such a disaster! I'm glad you caught yours early too. It was smart to install that water sensor, so it's not all luck in your case :)
It felt like a really BAD movie, to be honest :) I really didn't know what I was going to do if I couldn't get the water shut off. It was very stressful, but that was balanced out by the relief of finding it before there was any damage!
Is there a way to keep from crying? If there is, I swear I don't know what it is. All I know is that it feels better out than in :)
Oh, man, that would be even worse - knowing you had to shut the water off but not knowing where the shut-off was . . . water is capable of doing so much damage in a very short time.
Yeah, there's a lot I don't know about houses because that was my husband's area of expertise. I usually hovered on the periphery and listened to anything he said, but it's not the same as dealing with it yourself. The week has indeed been boring so far which is just dandy with me :)
That kind of Serendipity happens far too seldom! But I'm certainly glad it did in this case! ;)
We haven't had any plumbing problems, but Husby and water have a long and fateful history that started when he built an addition on our first home--a trailer. He COULD NOT get the seam between the house and trailer to stop leaking! He put buckets and buckets of tar along the seam and up both sides. He re-shingled. He added more tar. Still, whenever it rained, we poured.
We finally solved the problem by selling the trailer and junking the addition. Whew.
Recently, he built a sunroom on the back of our house. Beautiful when sunny. Then it rained. And all of our 'ghosts-of-rainstorms-past' came back to haunt us. Leaks everywhere. Poor man. He finally solved the problem by installing a whole new ceiling.
It rained. And we had NO leaks. You should have seen the dance then!
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