Bang, crash, flood aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

Paul B

Well-Known Member
No, not the tank, My house. I am so lucky, no, not that I got this flood, but the circumstances.
My wife and I were getting ready to go out to our marina for dinner and my wife hears this Bang. Then she hears water running, fast. She says, what was that and why do I hear water running. I only want to hear Supermodels running but I can hear water running. I check upstairs and don't see any water running, then I go to the basement which is finished and don't see any water running. Then my wife screams AAAAAAHHHHHHH WATER IF FLYING OUT ALL OVER THE KITCHEN, DO SOMETHING PAUL, PAUL, DO SOMETHING. and she dives under there and tries to put her hands around the leak. I run to the water main and shut it off then as I turn to go upstairs I notice the bathroom looks like Noah's flood on the third day when it was raining so hard the elephants had to put their trunks up in the air to breathe. Water is pouring our of the ceiling (think Niagara Falls) . I run to get the shop vac, but it is full of dirt, so I quickly empty it and take out the filter, just as the water starts coming over the marble saddle I get the vacuum running and start to suck it up. It fills up to it's seven gallon capacity so I empty it and suck some more. I happened to take a quick look at my reef tank and most of the fish had their noses pushed against the glass just waiting for the water to rise to the top of the tank so they could escape. But that didn't happen as I am quick with a shop vac. I ran upstairs and pull my soaking wife out from under the sink and crawl in there with a flashlight. This flexable hose that I installed 7 years ago burst. In five minutes we would have been out for the evening and the basement would have filled with water and I could have then had a really big reef tank. I would have had to sell the house because there are no drains in my basement and the water would have filled to about 2' deep.
I just finished that basement last year and luckily I installed a steel, diamond plate sheet metal ceiling so it didn't get damaged. I ran to the plumbing supply to get a new hose, 10 minutes later it was done and we went out to dinner. Of course we had to leave the ceiling open to dry and everything is out from under the sink. But since I installed that sink we have been to Europe twice and Hawaii. If that happened one of the times we were away. OMG. Now, being I am always prepared I am going to run a small copper line to my furnace so when I go away I can shut the entire house off except the boiler. Then I am going to install an electric valve on my main and leak detectors all over the house so if there is a leak, the main will shut off. I already built that system under my tank and boiler, but now I will make one on my main. I only want these things to happen to me once. :apimp:

 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
Nice that you caught it before going out, best of luck drying out. I thought hoses that look like that lasted longer.... hmmm, maybe time to replace some here, have a half dozen like that.
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
This line comes with the faucet that is not cheap. It's $600.00. It has a metric thread and "O" ring that feeds into the faucet. I could replace it with copper but to get that fitting may be a nightmare as it is probably a weird size made by the faucet manufacturer so you don't replace it as they want you to buy it from them. I also have a whole house vacuum that uses a weird size PVC pipe that is "almost" the same as a 1 1/4" PVC because you are supposed to use their pipe for 4 times the price. I made adapters to fit their fittings on normal PVC and saved a few hundred bucks.
I have been doing plumbing all my life and was a plumber for a few years and have never seen a stainless steel covered pipe burst. They leak, but don't normally explode like that. Washing machine hoses are made of the same stuff and of course hold the same pressure. I will start building my leak detectors next week and put them all over the place where a leak can occur. I already made them under my boiler and fish tank and just need one on my house main. If it happens again, the main will shut off hopefully before any damage can occur.
 

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
I have some of those 2. Hey paul do you know what your pressure is at your home. IE do you need to use a pre pump on your RO. As far as I know that seems to be the only place any of us know or check our water pressure. Funny thing is I had the choice to use those in a few places over PVC and chose the braided line. I only have about 40-45 psi In my house and the house is 7 years old. Then again after having a new house my next one will be an older one. The new houses are crap and I have had nothing but problems. Things like PVC leaking in a wall upstairs and ruining the ceiling on the first floor and carpet. Whos bright idea was it to put a washer and dryer on the 2nd floor. Almost everyone has been through a leak with a washing machine. OK I am done complaining
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
My house, which is stone, was built in the fiftees but I installed most of the plumbing as the old iron piped corroded long ago. I tested the pressure a few years ago when I installed my sprinkler system, I forgot what it was but I have the gauge and will test it again. I don't need a pump on my RO unit. I have lived in this house about 38 years and this has never happened. The plumbing in my house is for the most part copper. You were not allowed to use PVC for supply lines here and I am not sure if you can yet but copper is the best. When I moved in I replaced any iron pipes and changed all the valves. I also replaced the boiler and any plumbing associated with it. I do all my own work and would never think of hiring anyone to do anything, I never have and I never will. No one has ever touched my house, car, boat or appliances. This stupid hose came with the faucet, I didn't buy it separately but if I did, I certainly would not have installed a supply line from a place like Home Depot where I would expect the part to fail. That hose was made in Germany but if it was from Home Depot it would have come from a place with much lower standards.
 

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
I am the same way as you Paul. No one touches my home, car, or anything else for that matter. I own a transmission shop so my cars are covered. 2 months ago I tiled half of the ground floor and removed the majority of those damm GFI outlets. Had to repair the drywall ceiling where the PVC leaked upstairs and replaced the PVC where it had broken. I live in FL so we dont have the freezing issues you do so everything is PVC but when they build these houses they do it with the cheapest materials they can find which just erks me to no end. Why not take a little pride in what you do.
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
Sirrealism, I wouldn't think to hire anyone as I want it done correctly. When I bought this house in 1979 I raised the dormer and installed 3 kitchens and bathrooms as well as the plumbing and electric. I even built much of the furniture and installed solar electric. I take pride in everything I do and I love to do it. My wife is afraid to tell me to do something because I have no problem taking down a wall and moving it 3/16th of an inch :rolleyes:
I also like doing cement work, maybe because I am Italian and was probably born with a trowel in my hand. Once when I was working around the clock my wife wanted a new porch and sidewalk because a tree fell down and broke it. She made me hire a company to do it. That was the first and last time I hired anyone. They put in the sidewalk and I told them to put in a stress crack in front of the large oak trees so when the trees move, it would crack at that pre-made groove. Of course they put in those grooves every place but where I told them and now my sidewalk is cracked all over the place. Then they replaced my stone and brick porch. I built a plywood box and I told them to dig out the dirt under my porch and put in this box, up side down, then pour concrete all around it, then install the stone. I don't want dirt in my porch because here in NY the water gets in, freezes and cracks the porch. They are virtually all built with dirt in them which is why they are all cracked. I build like the pyramids, I want it to last forever. Of course he put the box right side up and filled it with dirt. I caught him in time and made him remove the dirt. Then the cement truck came and poured cement over the box as I wanted. The driver asked what to do with the extra cement and the "contractor" told him to pour it in the storm drain. The driver just shook his head and drove away. Storm drain, really!
So I come home and the guy is putting in the steps that were supposed to be brick. He is making the steps out of cinder blocks. I said, the steps are supposed to be brick, this isn't a factory. He said, this is the way we do it in Mexico. I said, look around, I have been to Mexico, does this look like Mexico?
I come home the next day and the steps are installed. The first step is 6", the second step is 14" and I didn't get to the last step because I was so mad I tried to run into the house to blow my head off, but I couldn't open the door because he made the porch higher than the door. Now there is no way for me to get into my house. He said to cut the door. I said, I am going to cut your throat. He said, he would grind down the concrete so I could open the door. I said, you came here with a shovel with a hole in it, a sledge hammer that is put together with duct tape and a stick with string on it for a ruler, How are you going to grind off 2" of concrete? I said take your shovel with the hole in it, your hammer and string and get off my property. He said, I don't think you want to pay me. I said "PAY YOU! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU".
Get out of here, now.
Then I hired a kid and spent the next day demolishing the porch and I re built it in a day which is what I should have done in the first place.

 
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