Plumbing leak while on vacation - not good news

JML755

Well-known Member
There's been a few posts in the last few days about faucet plumbing leaks. Thought I'd post this:

Been seeing a dumpster in front of a neighbor's house in our sub a block away for awhile but didn't think much of it. It's been usually filled with drywall and other construction stuff but our homes are of the age that people are remodeling kitchens, bathrooms, etc.

Found out the other day that it wasn't a remodel by choice. They had gone to their vacation home in northern Michigan for some time (week or 2?) and came home to find that the flexible tube/hose from the wall supply to their bathroom upstairs faucet had burst. Calculation from the township water dept is that 300,000 gallons flooded their home. Don't know the details but evidently ALL furniture was removed and most of the drywall due to black mold. They're living in an extended stay hotel so the house is empty.

My thought: Might be a good idea to shut off the main water supply if leaving for an extended period (even in warm weather).
 
That's a great idea/knowledge to pass on for everyone. Shut off the water supply when going out for more than a few hours. Previous post of the amount of water over a period of day's would do a lot of damage. Cheers, Murray
 
I have a friend down the road who had a line break inside a wall this summer, after the yellow trucks left they still got mold. It looks like the house will be totaled.
 
Knew a family that were leaving on vacation. At the last minute one of the kids had to use the toilet at the last minute. Kid flushed and left to get in the car. The float stuck on the toilet; water ran out the basement windows before the neighbors noticed anything.
 
My sister had the same problem. Came home from
spending winter in Florida only to find home
flooded. Everything, all floors, drywall and
insulation, gone. It gave them a time to remodel
the entire house.

After that happened, I invented a device that
will detect water on basement floor and shut off
well. It works and has been tested 3 times
already. First time a few months after I
installed it, water softner developed leak, pump
shut off. Didn't take much to clean up the few
gallons of water on basement floor.

This is a good lesson everyone should learn from.
Install something that detects water and turns it
off or it will be costly.
 
(quoted from post at 02:27:18 10/18/14) We turn off the breakers for the pump and water
heater whenever we are gone more than 12 hours.

We don't leave home for extended periods of time often, but when we do, I always turn water supply off and also turn power off to water heaters.
With some people, main supply would have to be shut off at water meter or a trip into crawl space.
Turning off water is a simple matter for me because I made it simple, by relocating the valve.
A few years ago, I had sold a home and was in the process of moving and waiting for closing. We were living in another home and had not been back to the sold home for a week end.
We walked in and the refrigerator, with ice and water in the door, was squirting a stream of water on the upstairs kitchen floor! Entire basement had standing water that was running under and out of outside door!
Extensive ceiling water damage to finished sheetrock.
Cost me big time to clean up and make repairs!
That's when I decided to turn off water when I leave home for 12 or more hours.
 
There's got to be another element to your story. A toilet can keep running forever without overflowing unless it's also plugged up. So two things had to have happened at the same time, not just one.

Stan
 
Regarding the overflowing toilet post: yup, something else was wrong. The flapper would have been closed in the tank to keep the water from going into the bowl. But all modern tanks have an overflow pipe to prevent a stuck float from causing a catastrophe. Can't imagine the inflow being more than the gravity dump through the overflow pipe could handle.
 
I had an Omni water filter to burst while we were away a few hours. Sure glad it was in the basement. Hal
 
As a plumber, I can not begin to tell you all the issues I have seen over the last 35 years of plumbing breaks and damage while at church, vacation, etc. I repipe or plumb all houses I work on so that where the main line enters the house, I go to the closet, sink cabinet etc. and run the main line up thru the floor and install a full port ball valve on line then drop back thru floor to hook up all the plumbing system. This way an elderly or anyone can turn there water off in a hurry or before they leave. I also recommend if you leave for the winter to winterize your home plumbing system as furnaces do quit and require repairs and the winterization can sure save a re plumb job due to frozen broken lines. My ball valve is located under my kitchen and water gets turned off every time I am going to be away for more than 10-12 hours.
 

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