UHG

[CUDA]

My yougest son (21) went to the bathroom this AM upstairs. then left the house for 30 minutes. He came back to find the toilet overflowed and flooded the house. Carpets are ruined. Its leaking through the living room ceiling out from the ceiling on the front porch. Thank goodness for insurance. Serve Pro is due out in an hour, well find out then if we are spending the night in a hotel.
the wife and I were planning to replace the carpets and remodel this summer anyways. I guess it's just gonna happen sooner

[CDN_Merlin]

Damn. Sucks but like you said, thanks for insurance.

[woodchip]

Might want to find out why it overflowed

[CUDA]

Might want to find out why it overflowed

His turd cutter, cut too big a turd

[Duper]

Might want to find out why it overflowed

His turd cutter, cut too big a turd

Actually had one of those in an adult foster care house I used to work in.

lol.. and after you guys survived the flood those years ago. .. nevermind you like on a huge hill.

[CUDA]

7-10 Days in the hotel is the initial estimate

[Tunnelcat]

My motto is, never, EVER, turn your back on a big turd dump, especially with a low flush toilet. No one wants a flush and flood.

You could install one of these for those people who don't pay attention.

http://www.smarthome.com/7121/FlowManager/p.aspx

[woodchip]

Well I just got my sewer line from the house to the septic tank fixed yesterday. toilet wouldn't flush. Turns out it got separated at the joint coming out of the house. Coldest day of the year and snow up the wazoo but I got a plumber to come out. Was fun when we dug it up and all the fresh poo came out of the backed up line. Glad I'm not a plumber. Glad it was out side of the house. Glad it is fixed. Sad I had to pay 300.00 for 2 hours of work.

At least I didn't have Cuda's problem.

[Krom]

Well, look on the bright side, it could have been worse...

Like once a friend of ours had a house for sale, unfortunately for them the realtor shut off the heater over the winter. The house used hot water heat, the system had been drained at some point, and then refilled but without adequate antifreeze so all the pipes froze...and then spring came around. This was before the days of smart meters, so nobody found out till a couple weeks later when the realtor went to show the house and found water spraying out of cracks in the pipes on every floor and in almost every room. The next month the water bill was for over 250,000 gallons, pretty much everything below the roof level on a 2 story + basement house had to go.

Or my aunt, who had a fire in her house last year. A large plastic stereo got burned during the fire, so while the fire never got out of the room it was in, the smoke from the burned out stereo system managed to reach pretty much the whole house and left its residue on pretty much everything. All the clothes, furniture, beds, walls, carpet, etc, basically anything that wasn't metal or glass got permanently imbued with toxic smelly burnt plastic fumes and was lost. They were in a hotel for something like 4 months for the cleanup.

[Sirius]

Does anyone know why, if blockages are this common, they don't build toilets with bigger pipes?

[Duper]

A 4" drain should be big enough for anything. I flushed a couple of my brother's diapers down the toilet when I was toilet training! accident of course. ..I think.. I forget..

The internal S-bend in most standard toilets are less than the sewer drain. I think the internal are about 3.5". +/-

[CUDA]

Well, they packed up all our belongings yesterday and cleared out the house. Strange having a completely empty house. Adjuster is due out today to assess. Then we'll find out how long it's going to take.

I want my old bed back

[Tunnelcat]

Does anyone know why, if blockages are this common, they don't build toilets with bigger pipes?

I'm guessing it's because if the S pipe inside the toilet was bigger, the toilet wouldn't be able to start and maintain a good siphon.

Well, they packed up all our belongings yesterday and cleared out the house. Strange having a completely empty house. Adjuster is due out today to assess. Then we'll find out how long it's going to take.

I want my old bed back

Sounds depressing. Accidents like this really suck, don't they? I hope that you have speedy repairs so that you and the family can get back into the old nest pronto.

I dealing with plugging up as many holes as I can find in the attic to keep out the mice I discovered living up there when I went up to repair some faulty insulation my builder effed up on. One thing leads to another...... Watch your repair progresss like a hawk. People seem to like to cut corners fixing things anymore, then you have to go and refix them yourself half the time.

[CUDA]

Went and saw the house for the first time since watergate 2014.
no carpets anywhere, portions of the ceiling and walls gone down stairs. Also parts of the subfloor.

stay at the hotel upped to 30 days

[woodchip]

That has to be depressing Cuda. Look on the bright side though, when to move back in you'll practically have a new house with the new house smell (fresh paint, carpeting etc.)

[woodchip]

You're a jona Cuda. Today I had to fix a burst water pipe. Luckily it was in small alcove next to the garage where the upstairs hot water tank sits. I got to stop reading your post.

[Krom]

Come to think of it, a month or so back we did have to replace both supply lines to the upstairs faucet because they were leaking...

[CUDA]

OMG it's the DBB its cursed

[CUDA]

Now they say Feb 15th before we are back in. 6 weeks

[Tunnelcat]

Went and saw the house for the first time since watergate 2014.

Don't you mean "floodgate"?

OMG it's the DBB its cursed

I'm so sorry for your family that one flush turned into an utter nightmare.

Must be my fault. I started that pinhole pipe leak thread months ago. At least my new indoor lake ended up in an unfinished basement. Still working on designing plans to replace most of the copper pipe, but other projects have slowed me down. I'll take some pics of what happens when a plumber overuses flux. Nasty green pipe joints. I've at least taken down all the ceiling foil and insulation in case more leaks show up.

[CUDA]

OMG it's the DBB its cursed

I'm so sorry for your family that one flush turned into an utter nightmare.

Actually, its turned out to be a blessing, we were planning on replacing our carpet with our tax return anyways. So now this company has packed up the entire house including removing everthing from the walls. So now we can come in on the weekends and paint, we get all new carpets and flooring throughout the house. I'm staying in a Marriott with breakfast every day (not continental) dinner 3 nights a week and maid service. All for a slightly longer commute to work, no cable to watch the blazers and a 250.00 deductible

could be LOTS worse.

[Krom]

You're starting to make this sound a little too much like fun CUDA. Don't get too spoiled.

[CUDA]

Well not being able to watch my trailblazers is almost killing me.

[Top Gun]

Hotel perks aside, that really sucks. We had a toilet on the second floor overflow once, and a bit of water dripped down through a lamp in the kitchen below, but it dried out without really needing to do anything. Other than that and an exploding water heater in the (unfinished) basement, we've been lucky so far.

[Duper]

Well not being able to watch my trailblazers is almost killing me.

wait, what?!??

[CUDA]

Hotel perks aside, that really sucks. We had a toilet on the second floor overflow once, and a bit of water dripped down through a lamp in the kitchen below, but it dried out without really needing to do anything. Other than that and an exploding water heater in the (unfinished) basement, we've been lucky so far.

exploding water heater=BAD

[Top Gun]

Yeah, that wasn't fun, though fortunately I caught it halfway through its leaking out, and since the basement was unfinished the main issue was dealing with a bunch of wet boxes and area rugs. A funny moment came out of it though: when my dad and a neighbor were installing the new unit, they'd forgotten to close the one valve at the top, so halfway through filling it a geyser of water shot out and nailed both of them in the face.

[Tunnelcat]

Other than that and an exploding water heater in the (unfinished) basement, we've been lucky so far.

Good thing it didn't do this.

[youtube]fUkjXGfCLIM[/youtube]

[CUDA]

Ya thats what I envisioned when he said exploding.

[Top Gun]

I kind of meant "exploding" as "having a seam burst and spewing water all over the basement," but sure, let's go with the cooler one.

[Krom]

FYI, the curse is spreading... My sister had a leaking water heater earlier this week, so they replaced it but yesterday she called with a new episode in the story. While she was at work, for whatever reason the babysitter went down into the basement for something and discovered that the quick connect PVC fitting they used to attach the new water heater had failed and partially flooded their basement. Cue panic calls, panic attacks, and general entertainment all around. The babysitter couldn't find the house shutoff valve, so the village water guy came out and found it, stopping the flow. But the story doesn't stop there...to top it off they also had to evacuate the house because somehow or another they managed to find the last water heater on the planet that still uses a pilot light instead of electronic ignition and the flood put out the pilot so the house smelled like gas, so even the fire department got involved airing out the house...

Fortunately they had floor drains and the basement is unfinished, so it only soaked some boxes and misc junk.

I told her to let me pick and install the water heater next time, because I have installed water heaters in several residences in my lifetime and never flooded or blown up any of them.

[Duper]

might be good to install that one well above the floor level. In a house it isn't too much a concern as the water will find a way else where. In a basement (where there isn't a drain) water has no where to go. Bad thing for electric systems.

[Krom]

The floor drains are in the basement, it is a newer development so while the rest of the construction is generally crap at least it had that going for it.

[Tunnelcat]

My fault. I started this curse with the copper pinhole leaks I had months ago. I'm also not liking the looks of most of my other sweat connections. The idiot plumber used boatloads of flux, and the fittings are all corroded and green. Bye, bye copper.

[Duper]

The floor drains are in the basement, it is a newer development so while the rest of the construction is generally crap at least it had that going for it.

Ah good. I actually did think of that, just didn't express it. ...er.. at all.

Nice job TC. Where's the ban-hammer.

[Tunnelcat]

Nice job TC. Where's the ban-hammer.

Don't worry. I haven't even gotten around to replacing all those really nasty green and corroded plumbing connections yet. And quite a few of my pipes have those suspicious little green spots that indicate there's probably a tiny cavity inside about ready to let go soon. The curse will come back to haunt me.