Calling the plumber 3 times in 24 hours...

Tuesday morning, a hole opened in one of the old copper pipes running to the washer with water shooting out onto the wall and soaking the rug in the basement. It seems a previous owner had used a steel bracket on a copper line and it corroded over time. The plumber came and fixed it, and I cleaned up water. That night, as I ran the dirty old towels from cleaning up through the wash, the drain line clogged and water shot up out of the pipe, covering the same floor with water once more. We called the plumber again and he said he'd be out in the morning. At 5 am this morning, I woke up to hear water suddenly start running. At first I though our son was taking a shower, but then remembered he had done that the night before. I ran to the basement to find that a fitting on the old connection for the long gone water softener had blown off and now there was water, direct from the main line into the house, shooting out at several gallons per minute. I called in to work and let them know I was not going to make it in today, then started the cleanup again. We called the plumber once again. He left at 5:30 this afternoon. What a freakin' day. We had a fair number of things ruined today. We have a few days of cleaning up ahead of us.

The beautiful thing in all this are, the water was pouring out right onto the place where my fly tying box and supplied are usually kept, but I hadn't put them away last time, so they were in the next room.

The reality of all this is that as much of a pain it may have been, it is really nothing more than an annoyance in the grand scheme of things. I think about the devastating losses that those in Long Island and the Jersey shore have suffered, and are still suffering, and I know that this is nothing at all.

Still, I just had to put it out there to get it off my mind.

Classic case of some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you. Glad there wasn't any major damage and that you still have a sense of humor about it! Hope your plumber can be similarly calm when he discovers he is now subject to the alternative minimum tax in 2013. ;)

Dave,

Know how you feel. My main sewer line developed a blockage Tuesday and the water in my house was, shall we say, a little 'chunkier' than yours.

Hope not much was ruined.

And I thought I had a bad day.

Rocky

Sounds like the opening lines for a good joke, if it wasn't so darn sad. When it rains it pours.....ooopppssss, maybe I shouldn't have said that.

Hope you get all your plumbing problems fixed, that is really a pain.

Larry ---sagefisher---

They say trouble comes in threes, so hopefully the worst is past. It's been over 24 hours and still holding together.

New2thefly, I'll count myself lucky. Your situation trumps mine. I hope you have that resolved quickly.

Dave, As a guy who has had his share of plumbing problems, I can certainly empathise with you. My happiest day was when the kid who grew up across the street became a plumber.

Wow!
Thats bad. I have been in the plumbing trades since the 80's and that is prolly the worse I heard but you are fortunate is wasn't up stairs on third floor where it really get into costly repairs.

I would advise you to check with your insurance company tho. I will bet you are not thru with problems tho. Sounds like you have well water and with softner system and they must of installed thin wall "M" copper in which is not to code in Ohio but is still sold in stores like home depot and lowes. Softners can and will ruin that thin wall piping.

Thanks Flyfish Dog! We're happy all this transpired in the unfinished half of the basement, and that we were home each time. It's an older house, built around 1950, and was pretty nicely put together, but one of the past owners suffered under the delusion that he could save money by doing things he had no business doing. We find them occasionally and shake our heads, but usually they don't cause us this much trouble. In the meantime, I'm considering having a cut-off valve put in next to the front door in the living room...last one out, please turn off the water.

I learned the hard way about using dissimilar metals when I installed a water heater.