The call you never want August 08, 2018, 09:54:10 am Well we were camping at the ocean for a few days. And had only been at our beautiful site for about 24 hours. The phone rings and it’s our neighbor. She says water is pouring out of our garage doors. We pack up quickly for the 2.5 hour drive home. Hoping it is something like a water heater in the lower level of our tri level house. No such luck. The water feeder line to the toilet in the master bath upstairs had broken. Flooding the master bedroom, rec room, garage and utility room. Ceiling in rec room came down and the one in the garage is ready to. Good thing for the LD we are going to be living in it for who knows how long.
Re: The call you never want Reply #1 – August 08, 2018, 10:42:35 am Lynn and Lori,This is heartbreaking news. Unfortunately this is not an all too uncommon occurrence. I know of two other friends who have recently suffered water damage to their homes. Recovery is a time consuming endeavour. Fortunately for my other friends their recovery is complete and they have moved back into their homes. Hang in there and yes thank goodness you have your LD and an observant and friendly neighbor. Unfortunately, your loss is our lesson learned. From now on during whole family travels the water will be turned off to the house. Probably the gas too. Surprises like these are devastating. Time to check my homeowners policy.Sorry for your troubles. Kent 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #2 – August 08, 2018, 10:56:06 am Just a nasty deal for sure. Let's hope your homeowner's insurance is helpful with the cost of repairs. Deep breath and know that sooner or later, your S&B will be good as new. Probably doesn't help much but me and my hammer are too far away to help. Please keep us updated on this repair. 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #3 – August 08, 2018, 10:59:23 am Lynn, that sucks! Is this the type of thing covered by a standard homeowner's policy?Frequently when we travel, but not always, we turn off the water to the house. Your incident is a reminder to us all to consider it. At least you have the LD as a back up! 2 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #4 – August 08, 2018, 11:14:28 am So far it sounds like insurance will cover. They sent out a water clean up team. We were lucky that we didn’t have a fire too. We had a lot of electronics in the rec room and they were attached to power strips. One of which melted down. The whole house smells of burnt electrical. Insurance covers personal property of a prorated scale based on cost and age. 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #6 – August 08, 2018, 11:27:43 am Seems to happen all the time around here - especially slab leaks - I know of two neighbors. We have some local friends whose entire bottom floor was flooded. While their insurance covered all the moving/repair expenses, they still had to live elsewhere for 4 months.The good news is the insurance company comped them $12k/month for comparable housing costs (we live by the beach in regular suburban tract homes). With that stipend, they rented a large 2 bedroom condo right ON the beach.Like the old saying, you can't keep them on the farm once they've seen the big city lights, our friends have decided to sell their house - especially since both their kids are out and in college. They're going to take the money from that and buy something like the condo they rented to live on the beach once again.
Re: The call you never want Reply #8 – August 08, 2018, 11:35:13 am Busted water lines are one of the most common insurance claims. The toilet line is one likely candidate and washing machine hoses are as well. Most people ignore these lines as they age. It's one reason we did not buy a 2 story home with the washer on the second floor.However, you might consider replacing the hoses to the toilets and washers with the reinforced type. We used to always turn off the water to our washer when we weren't using it. One co-worker always turned off his water at the main when he went out of town.I handled one homeowner loss where the homeowner had been out of town for 2 weeks. The washer hose burst and water soaked about 5 feet up the sheetrock and all furnishings were destroyed. It had been wet for days before discovered.Now if you want to have real fun there are those losses involving city sewer backups that cover multiple rooms.Jim 2 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #9 – August 08, 2018, 11:41:25 am Jim yea this was a reinforced hose about 5 years old. The plastic nut that screws it to the tank broke.
Re: The call you never want Reply #10 – August 08, 2018, 11:54:46 am Quote from: Duro - August 08, 2018, 11:41:25 amJim yea this was a reinforced hose about 5 years old. The plastic nut that screws it to the tank broke. That's unfortunate but you did all you can do short of turning the water off. Water damage claims were the most common claims and had me paranoid. As I said, we shut off the water lines to the washer whenever it wasn't in use. We did see some losses due to toilets but not nearly as many.When we own a home again I will look into water leak detection devices that can connect wirelessly to the net and send an alert to a smartphone. I'm assuming they have those now but haven't researched it.If you haven't met with your adjuster yet you might want to start making a list of damaged items including model numbers and prices if they are beyond repair.Jim
Re: The call you never want Reply #11 – August 08, 2018, 12:09:06 pm "Turn off the water" and "Water is evil"Those were our mantras when we fulltimed, and it definitely carried over to S&B. The main valve on the outside of the house is easy to remember to turn off because it is just steps away from the driveway, so even if it is just a day trip, the water is off! We learned out lesson.Ditto for unplugging electronics, especially now during monsoon season. We unplug them at the first sign of thunder and lightning, even when we are home. The UPS' screeching can be a jarring wake-up call if we get lax. And all appliances and electronics are disconnected from the wall/plug strips when we leave on a trip. Even with all that care taken, we had a yard maintenance person water our trees when we were gone for several months, and she forgot to turn the water back off at the knife valve on the house after completing the task. And, yes, the water line for the ice maker (which was not in use!) somehow broke and slowly seeped its life's blood into our carpet for days before a neighbor, checking things out, squished when she walked into the house. Two unlikely events conspired to cause us to have to rush back from Oregon to take care of the problem.After that, we fixed it so that the house water stayed off, but the yard water could be utilized separately. Closing the barn door . . . and all that.We were glad to have followed our own rules when we were away and the Loma Prieta earthquake hit our area in 1989. We suffered a candy bowl (empty) falling onto the floor, hitting its two parts together and breaking, and a hard drive fell over (no damage). Reinforcements everywhere (three stories), water heater straps, museum putty, etc., and now with the fire dangers?? Oh my. Hard to leave home at all. Glad we don't live in California any more.Virtual hugs,Judie <-- Sierra Vista, ArizonaAdventures of Dorrie Anne | Photographing the WestToday: Pork Chunks with Herbs and Spices******************************************** 2 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #12 – August 08, 2018, 02:01:56 pm Quote from: Jim & Gayle - August 08, 2018, 11:54:46 amThat's unfortunate but you did all you can do short of turning the water off. Water damage claims were the most common claims and had me paranoid. As I said, we shut off the water lines to the washer whenever it wasn't in use. We did see some losses due to toilets but not nearly as many.When we own a home again I will look into water leak detection devices that can connect wirelessly to the net and send an alert to a smartphone. I'm assuming they have those now but haven't researched it.If you haven't met with your adjuster yet you might want to start making a list of damaged items including model numbers and prices if they are beyond repair.JimThe Best Smart Water Leak Detectors of 2018 - Reviewed.com Smart HomeChris 2 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #13 – August 08, 2018, 02:38:34 pm Our neigbors know where our water cutoff and main electrical pa You can't stop if from happening (if you don't turn the water off), but you can stop it from continuing.Better it was 2 1/2 hours than 2 1/2 states away.Best wished for good adjuster and quick repair.joel 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #14 – August 08, 2018, 02:59:18 pm Joel we are lucky we have great neighbors. They saw the water called us and shut off the water at the street.
Re: The call you never want Reply #15 – August 08, 2018, 03:04:04 pm Just two days ago I got a call from Wawanesa about renewing our homeowners insurance. He asked the usual update questions and along the way the subject of water came up. I mentioned that I had just returned from a trip and had just turned the water back on to the house at the knife valve outside. He was surprised and chuckled, saying I was the only policyholder he had ever spoken to who actually took this precaution. So I asked him, do I get a discount for such good practice? He continued to chuckle. And my rate went up again, despite 45 years of no claims. You can’t win. 🤨. — Jon
Re: The call you never want Reply #16 – August 08, 2018, 03:26:43 pm After my BIL suffered some damage to his house after the water heater sprang a leak, and the main water valve was not turned off, we learned our lesson. Even if we go away for a couple of days, the main water valve is turned off. The few seconds it takes to turn it off and back on is good insurance against a catastrophic event. Best wishes for a successful conclusion of the mis-fortune.
Re: The call you never want Reply #17 – August 08, 2018, 04:01:56 pm I need to talk with a plumber. Besides the shut off at the street. I have a shut off right inside my garage. The reason we don’t shut it off was it shuts off everything. Including the sprinkler systems for the front and back yard. It would be nice if the outside faucets could be left on. With the rest of the house shut off.
Re: The call you never want Reply #18 – August 08, 2018, 04:06:49 pm Sorry to hear about your mishap a plumber can make the sprinklers be on there own so when you turn off the main your sprinklers will still work. JODY 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #19 – August 08, 2018, 04:57:07 pm Quote from: Duro - August 08, 2018, 04:01:56 pmI need to talk with a plumber. Besides the shut off at the street. I have a shut off right inside my garage. The reason we don’t shut it off was it shuts off everything. Including the sprinkler systems for the front and back yard. It would be nice if the outside faucets could be left on. With the rest of the house shut off.Mine is similar to yours but the garage valve only secures the house water, not the exterior bibs.Edit: Went out and double-checked as I was having doubts. Turns out that the garage valve does turn off the bibs as well. 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #20 – August 09, 2018, 11:22:07 am A little good news this morning. I pulled my 27” Imac out of the swamp. It had been plugged into that power strip that melted down. Took it up to a dry area cleaned the plug and plugged it in. Amazing it powered right up. I’m pretty happy as it’s only a couple years old. And I figured insurance would prorate the value at about 1/3 of what I paid for it. Sure hope I have that kinda luck with some of the other electronics. 2 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #21 – August 09, 2018, 11:31:53 am Quote from: Duro - August 09, 2018, 11:22:07 amA little good news this morning. I pulled my 27” Imac out of the swamp. It had been plugged into that power strip that melted down. Took it up to a dry area cleaned the plug and plugged it in. Amazing it powered right up. I’m pretty happy as it’s only a couple years old. And I figured insurance would prorate the value at about 1/3 of what I paid for it. Sure hope I have that kinda luck with some of the other electronics. Most homeowner's policies I've seen have replacement cost coverage for personal property in which case they won't depreciate your stuff as long as you replace it within 180 days of the loss.Jim 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #22 – August 09, 2018, 03:34:26 pm We have had water "challenges" in the past that led to our insurance carrier cancelling us after 25 years. We now make it a practice to turn down the water heater, turn off the hot water pump (gets hot water through the house faster) and turn off the water coming into the house (it doesn't impact our sprinkler system). When we get back from trips it creates burping from the faucets and toilets but it does give us piece of mind.Good luck with the repairs!!!Bill 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #23 – August 09, 2018, 05:15:06 pm One thing to consider is the water pressure coming into your home. If you can test that you might learn if you are at greater or less risk of a leak. Water pressure does vary but our first home saw pressures exceeding 100psi from city water. We also experienced two pipe leaks in the slab in part due to the poly pipe the builder used and problematic crimps. I was thankful to get out of that house and into one with copper pipe.Jim 1 Likes
Re: The call you never want Reply #24 – August 09, 2018, 08:52:57 pm Yea Jim we do have pretty good water pressure at the house. Somewhere a little above 100 psi. Another thought we are having is they are building right behind us. They cleared 13 acres of mostly wetlands. Now they are filling and compacting. The huge compactor shakes the house for hours at a time. I downloaded a Richter scale app and actually saw some readings over 2.0. Enough to shake pictures crooked on the walls. We told insurance about that too.
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