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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Bathroom Renovation – day one

Bathroom Renovation – day one
Monday was day one of our guest bathroom renovation.  Monday was demolition day.  Everything went smoothly until around 1:00 when the contractor had to shut off the water. 
The shut-off valve did not close completely. 
I was in the basement when they were shutting down the water.  There seemed to be a problem.  The boss came down and started clinking on the valve; it did not seem to be working.  I left the room as I really don’t like to hang around people working.  People generally do better work when the owner is not watching like a hawk.
Around 1:30 Mrs. C called me to come down stairs.  There was a problem and I might want to make sure nothing was wrong.  I went down to our finished basement to find the valve blown off the water main pipe and water was gushing uncontrollably and running over the slow draining slop sink.  Three workers were running a bucket brigade from the pipe to the sump pump on the other side of the basement.  There was an inch of water on the floor slowly creeping into the finished part of the basement.  I first saved my guitars…there was little else of value in danger.
The boss was shopping for a shut-off thingy to stop the problem but was having little luck.  They claimed everything was under control.  Mrs. C disagreed and called the town water company to turn off the water from the street.
Twenty minutes later the water guy came and shut off the water.  An hour later the boss showed up with the necessary parts to replace the broken valve.   Three workers were soaked and were near exhaustion from the bucket brigade process.
To give credit where credit is due, the workers did a terrific job of minimizing the damage, and the broken valve may not have been their fault (but it probably was.)  We may need to replace a carpet which should be covered by the insurance I have paid for 40+ years and never made a claim.  All is well, but there was some real excitement at the Cranky house for a while. 
We were a little fortunate in that the sump pump operated for over an hour and did not burn out, and the floor was pitched correctly so the French drain was efficient.
After all was repaired and the water dude came back to turn on the water, Rick the supervisor said to the water dude,
“I’m just glad that the shut off from the street worked.”
“Wait a minute, you mean sometimes the street shut off doesn’t work?”
The water dude answered, “Oh yeah, these old hook ups snap all the time.”
“Crap, what happens when they snap?”
“Then you’re really fucked!”
This was information I’m glad I didn’t know at the time.
I guess we were pretty lucky after all.

22 comments:

  1. This is why I love having a well, even with the extra maintenance and hassle. Flip one breaker and everything shuts down .... well, except the 30 gallons in the pressure tank, but that'ts gone pretty quick.

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  2. I hope your insurance is not Geico, otherwise, I doubt they will pay a claim......just saying.

    Everyone's horror story with home improvement projects! I can only hope it gets better from this point forward!

    betty

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  3. First, I'm happy you saved your guitars because that's important. And yay for a correctly pitched floor and working drain. You'd be surprised how many people don't have that. Let's hope this is the last mishap you encounter. Fingers, eyes and toes all crossed. :)

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  4. You don't like watching people work? Bud was born a couple of centuries late; his ideal job would have been overseer on a slave plantation!!

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  5. There's not much worse than water damage, the smell afterward if things take too long to dry out, possible mildew/mould problems, yuk.
    Hope all goes well from now on.

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  6. Hopefully that disasters out of the way and everything runs smoothly from now on! Glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

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  7. Goodness, all that would have put me off living! I've been through a flood scenario and never want to go through it again.

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  8. You have my sympathy, trust me. We deal with water issues all of the time. The water guy is right about those main shut off valves, too.

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  9. Excitement! That's a term you don't really want to hear when renovation are going on.

    I hope the rest of it from here on out is much more boring!

    I had a water emergency a couple years back where the water couldn't be turned off at the street because the city had concreted over the box and the plumbers wanted permission for the city before messing with the city's work. Meanwhile, thousands of gallons of water were pouring into the street.

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  10. That was Monday, today is Thursday. I hope the excitement between is watching the bathroom grow. Our well excitement was the hose by bil ran to carry water to an outdoor faucet--thirty years ago. It broke overnight, in the midst of my bathroom renovation, we woke to no water. Pump guys, well guys, plumber guys all looking for the problem. My sister went into the garage to get her car and go, and the water was running out to the street as fast as the poor well could pump it up.

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  11. Just a little water can make such a mess. You were fortunate indeed that the guys were on hand to run the bucket brigade. The last time we had water trouble I woke in the night to the sound of water running.....

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  12. That's what happened at the house we just sold. However the shut off valve broke off and the city had to come out. Our insurance replaced the linoleum in the kitchen and laundry room. Didn't get to the carpet. Glad you got it all cleaned up. Mold is not your friend.

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  13. Let's hope this will be the only mishap in your bathroom remodel. Wow, I would have been pretty nervous too.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

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  14. We have yet to do a project where at least once the main guy has to make a run to town (9 miles away) for a part while his helper(s) sits around outside smoking ...

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  15. Good grief! Sounds like a stressful first day.

    I try to keep out of their way, too.

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  16. I'm a watcher. I keep thinking if it turns out to be an easy job, maybe I can do it next time. HOWEVER, that turned out to be a mess. I hope you get a cleanup (water and mold) estimate also before you put in a claim with your insurance. Water damage takes a while sometimes to show up.

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  17. This is why I procrastinate as long as possible when having to have construction type things done to a house in which I'm living. Right now have a couple (or more) things that really need to be done...such as fixing the roof overhang for the back stoop...the (non-licensed) painter screwed up a repair job on same, and replacing the wood(?) flooring in living room/kitchen area with tile. My rationale is why not just wait till it's time to sell the house and then I don't have to go through all the crap :)

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  18. I know you're up to the task, but I don't envy you for going through a remodel, but I also know it will be worthwhile in the end.

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  19. wow. glad it wasn't worse! this doesn't sound like a good start.

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  20. Is your contractor's name Murphy?

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  21. See, that's why I don't remodel. I move.

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