I own a duplex unit that is between tenants and getting new tile floors to replace the old vinyl...
The installer pulled the quarter-round *and* a nail that was driven through the molding and into the plastic house main supply water line coming up out of the slab!
Turning off the water at the street did not completely stop the flow ;( but I managed to clamp and seal it (after using the nail as a plug).
I figure that 2 inch (!) casing nail had been there since the last floor was installed, maybe 10 years ago...
Like the guy walking around with a framing nail in his head for a few days, until his dental hygienist wife made him see the dentist. The next move was the ER.
Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."
Several years ago in my sister's former house which was six years old at the time she had her ducts cleaned. One of the crew removes a vent cover in one room and all of a sudden water starts coming out from under the wall. It turned out the screw for the vent cover was driven into a water pipe for the toilet on the other side of the wall. My sister had always wondered why there was a wet spot in the crawl space below, but never had anyone investigate.
had a floor contractor cut right thru a waterline, it was laying in a notch in the beams.
on another issue found out our home builder worked hard to keep basements dry in our neighborhood.
over 50 years ago the homes were built, all with some blocks with holes blasted in them at footer level so water trapped in walls would go under house. then they installed the sewer running a extra spur line ending in a gravel bed under house.
heavy rains flood the sewer plant. the fellow in charge of the sanitary aurthoority reports they have to replace the sewer plant or require
2400 homeowners to replace their sewer line at a cost of 5 to 8 grand including tearing up their basement floor.
this news explains the sewer line to nowhere seen on tv here, and all the tree roots coming out of that line.
Wife And I, Left for, and had a wonderful time (two weeks) in Bar Harbor Maine.
When returned, (2am, after 10hour drive through from LLBean) went to put Lobster, fish, and other items in fridge, but couldn't.
When, whoever, (I'm prurrty sure it was me), pulled last gallon of tea out of fridge for trip, bumped hi/lo switch, and it stopped right in the middle.....effectively shutting off fridge.....It's a Wonder we didn't have a fire.
The smell was indescribable......I hope none of you ever have to experience that.
The switch is now taped in the lo position, unless in the dead of summer.
BUT,...........Believe it or not, a good scrubbin', ( I stayed up till
4pm doin' damage control, talk about DOA ), A case of Arm&Hammer, and one sear's frige deoderizer with coconut shells $8 US....It's smellin' just like new, 5years later.... knock,knock.
I have a couple a more, but I'll let others join in.............Sky
I went to work last year in a brand new development. A row house/townhome actually. These units were 4 stories high. You'd actually have to walk up three flights of stairs to get to the top of the unit. The new owner had closed the week prior. She had workmen putting finishing touches on the place before she moved in. She was a bit anal about her new floors, insisted booties be worn.
A guy on the top floor was putting in z brick & was nailing a template on the wall when he hit a fire sprinkler line. The fire dept. showed up. I was outside thinking not much about it when, after about 20 minutes I stuck my head in the front door & saw water running out of the ceiling fixtures. Wearing my booties I went up. Second floor carpet was saturated. Third floor was two inches deep in water mixed with insulation swirling around, flowing into the heat registers. I got to the top floor where the brick guy had been working, the fire dept. had cut a hole in the wall exposing the pipe. He stood there muttering to no one in particular. I didn't have the heart to speak to him. I wasn't sure whether to feel more sorry for him, or for her. I beat it out of there.
I spoke with her later she said it took 40 minutes before the fire dept was able to shut the water off. She handled the whole thing rather well. Nobody got hurt, her furniture wasn't yet in. They had to pretty much gut the unit. Took a month to put it back together.
Ok, note to self. A rubber pad and three big hose clamps are an important part of your disaster control equipment when working on someone else's house. Other note to self, a pair of trash cans and two people to cart them to a window or bathtub would do a lot to limit damage.
my moms house was built in 1957....... around 1992, we had a leak in the wall under the kitchen sink.
I called in a plumber friend of mine...... and he removed the paneling under the sink
the copper hot water pipe (3/8 inch or so), was "bent" to get around a 2x4 cross stud in the wall............ eventually the "venturi" effect around that rough bend , deteriorated the pipe, and started a leak
The day I finished remodeling the master bedroom a pipe leaked in the master bath and the water decided to go between the subfloor and hardwood floor so the entire floor could be ruined.
Heehee, I usually lurk here, but this reminded me of a story of my own. Dear Husband and I were getting things together to visit the relatives over the holidays a few years ago. We'd be gone for a week to 10 days. We'd done some baking and were pulling loaves of potica out of the freezer to take along.
DH has a thing about buying a cheap whole turkey in Nov. or Dec. Even though there are only two of us. But we roast it in Jan. and eat it for months.
Which is how we came to have a whole frozen turkey in our small apartment freezer-over-frige unit. Apparently the turkey was in the way and DH put it on top of the freezer to get the xmas goodies out.
So we packed our goodies up and left. For a week. When we got home the smell as we walked in the door....
Poor DH kicked himself for weeks. I've since 'migrated' several things that now live on top of the frige. No more room for turkeys up there.
I redid a bathroom in an upstairs bedroom last summer. I was taking up the floor (preparing for tile) under the sink when I found the subfloor all rotted out. Two layers. The previous owners tried to hid water damage by adding a 1/2" plywood subfloor and then a flashing and calk "tub" around the walls to try to contain any water on top of the vinyl flooring. The problem wasn't inside (the kid's) bathroom at all, rather a leaking pipe in the wall. There was a nail on the *inside* of the pipe that found its way through. The leak was so slow that the sheetrock in the kitchen below wasn't damaged, but the subfloor under the vanity was gone.
had a similar problem, left on a trip, Verticle deep freeze was full of meat and when we came home the door was cracked open enough to let everything thaw and spoil. So I have experienced that smell, worst I have ever experienced.
Forgive me for resurrecting this aging thread, but I've been on vacation. I'm right in the middle of a horror story myself, and couldn't resist adding it in.
Remember a few years ago when a manufacturer of water heaters was making tanks that featured a dissolving dip tube? Some models of White heaters had a tube made of defective materials which caused the tube to disintegrate prematurely. You ended up with tiny plastic "chicklets" jammed in your sink's spout filters.
I had one of those heaters.
Around four years ago when the heater was approximately two years old (if memory serves, always a gamble), I started noticing that the faucet filter in the kitchen sink constantly needed cleaning out or replacing. Soon afterwards, I began having to clean the shower filter every month or so.
This progressively got worse, so I finally called our plumber. He was the guy who installed the heater, in fact. He replaced the dip tube, we replaced the filters one more time and the problems stopped.
Two years later I noticed that the water in our third floor bathtub was sputtering and that the flow had become even more restricted than usual -- it's always been just barely adequate, because of the top floor location of the room.
We never use this tub, so it was easy just to ignore the issue. And we did. In fact, we also ignored an unrelated problem with the stopper in the tub, which would no longer go up and down.
But recently we decided to sell the house and move into a condo in a year or so. I thought I might fix a few minor issues around the place to make the house a little more saleable and to avoid some of the haggling that takes place during closings around these parts. A $200 plumbing job can easily turn into a demand for $1,000 price deduction ... or worse.
When the plumber came to fix the tub, lo and behold there was now NO water at all coming from the spout. He fixed the stopper, temporarily repaired a toilet so it functioned until a new part arrived, and snaked out a slow sink drain. He also pulled the two cartridges from the tub faucets. These latter two were frozen and coated in hardened crud. He would order new ones.
We went on vacation. Upon our return, the plumber came again and finished fixing the toilet.
Then he installed the new bathtub cartridges. Still no water. We removed both faucet assemblies and the spout. Water would spray from each faucet feeder pipe, but not from the spout. The mixing valve was blocked with something.
He ran a small snake up into the spout but could only get into the shower portion of the mixing valve. He tried a coathanger, but no joy. We got an electrician's fishing wire and clipped the end off of it and tried jamming it in, but no luck.
We reluctantly began breaking tiles and wallboard to get into the wall. He cut out the valve (it was running through a stud, maximizing the damage and making the work twice as hard ... of course!) and again we attempted to get into the thing to get out whatever was blocking it, but could get nothing.
He called two suppliers. The valve, a Grohe, was no longer available. A similar Kohler would take a week to arrive and require all new fittings and new faucets. And money. The new faucets would not match the sink faucets. And so on.
He left, promising to use acid to burn out the old valve (didn't work).
In the meantime, I found the Grohe valve available through a supplier on the Internet. Yesterday, the plumber stopped by and looked at photo and specs and approved it and we ordered it. It will take a week or three, but it costs "only" $93.00. Not bad these days, I guess.
He temporarily capped the two pipe stubs in the tub so we were able to turn on the water again in the bathroom. He flushed the toilet, it worked, and then he left.
Soon after he left, I turned on the water in the bathroom sink. This sink worked fine before. Not now. Nothing. Nada. Zero.
Thinking the plumber had turned off the sink shutoff and forgotten it, I tried them. They were open, no problem. I flushed the toilet again. It worked OK and filled up again, so the water to the bathroom was on. I tried the valves to the bathroom anyway, and both were on.
But no water came out of the sink. Not a drop. I mean, no sputters, no drips.
Called the plumber, who was home by now. He suggested it must be the filter on the spout. I pointed out that there isn't even a drip. He hums and haws a little, truly perplexed (as am I). He agrees to come over today, Memorial Day weekend, to see what can be discovered.
I woke up this morning, the next day, and decided to check out that filter on the sink. I take it off, turn on the faucet, and sure enough, the water sputters, barks, and comes gushing out.
I look at the screen of the filter to see what's blocking it. What do I see?
THOSE TINY WHITE CHICKLETS FROM THE WATER HEATER DIP TUBE.
Remember the dip tube?
Like a virus, these tiny little chicklets from the disintegrated, long-ago-replaced dip tube have lain dormant in the unused tub valve. Now, with the valve gone, like something contageous, like little zombies risen from the dead, they have migrated along the piping and infected the nearby sink, clogging the screen at the tip of the spout so effectively that not one drop of water can escape.
But the story doesn't end there.
I went to the hardware store, purchased a new water break/filter and installed it. Water poured out into the sink at a rate unseen for the last half decade! Success!
But wait. When I went to turn off the water, it would not stop flowing. The chicklets had infected the faucet cartridges and the hot water faucet would not close.
On a hunch, I again removed the filter from the sink spout and allowed the hot water to run at full force for around ten minutes. Bits of crud, including tiny chicklets, appeared in the sink.
Finally, I turned off the hot water. The faucet seat was now clear. The faucet valve closed completely. The water stopped.
Now all I have to do is wait for the replacement rough-in mixer valve, have the plumber replace it, and all will be well.
My in and out laws visited last week; he had his home built 28 years ago and still lives there. During a kitchen renovation he found, burnt/seared 220 wires and charred insulation between ceiling joist.
The installers apparently had too short a wire and just added on for the oven/range area. It had been cut and wire nutted together. There is really no reason; that he knows of as to why a fire never started.
Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."
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