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Off topic: Murphy's law was such that we never had ANY water when the basement was just a concrete room, after we put in drywall, wallpaper, carpet, a bar, shelves for storage in the newly made closet, it was flooded in one way or another 3 TIMES! (water heater and a terrible rain storm were the other 2).
Murphy's law again.......Every year for years we lost power every summer (overload of AC grid at electric company) and every winter (ice storms). We were ALL electric. After 18 years of this we got a generator (ran off the tractor). We didn't have a power outage of any sort for 3 years in a row!
Thank you for posting this. Having just experienced a flood from a water filter joint that was supposed to have been de-activated, I've had my eye on my washer!
And yeah, it flooded out my downstairs condo neighbor because I failed to shut the water off when I left my place for a few nights as is my typical routine.
Because my condo is circa 1987 and someone is always having plumbing issues hidden in the wall or other invisible places. In this case, the old water filter connection is right next to my water heater 12 feet from where I'm sitting and I definitely would have heard or seen the flood if I had been home.
Water is deadly distructive. I had a flood in 1996 when I was at work from the upstairs toilet plumbing somehow. New construction just a couple years before and I'm not the type to flush ANYTHING bad.
I walked into my family room kitchen open concept after my dog was barking at 9 at night when we came home from my store. He was up to his elbows in water and I had NO CEILING. All the drywall had broken and "melted down".
Stuck on all my applicances and stuff in the kitchen, bookcases, furniture, carpet, walls .....
I remediated it, renovated and sold it and rented for the next twenty years LOL.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 01-19-2018 at 10:21 AM..
There is a product called a flood stop (Flo-N-Stop is one) that detect if something is flowing more than it should and shuts off the water at the source to your house. While you will still have some water it won't be a big disaster. Flo-N-Stop also closes automatically if power goes out with a manual override if you are home.
I never have anything running while I'm not home either at all. My sister leaves her house with her dw running and I told her she is running the risk of having a puddle or flood when she gets home she insists that new appliances don't do that now and I'm still living in the 1950s . I just shake my head and chuckle about it . It will happen to her one day and I'm so hoping I'm around so I can say I told you so . LOL .
I never have anything running while I'm not home either at all. My sister leaves her house with her dw running and I told her she is running the risk of having a puddle or flood when she gets home she insists that new appliances don't do that now and I'm still living in the 1950s . I just shake my head and chuckle about it . It will happen to her one day and I'm so hoping I'm around so I can say I told you so . LOL .
I'd be more concerned about new appliances over old ones. My mom for example is using the same washer and dryer for 30 years now and she has never had a problem. Mine are about 10 years old and this almost flood just happened and last year the belt on the dryer snapped.
When we bought a new stove the guy actually told us that nothing is built to last anymore and they have about a 5 year life span. When I worked in property management we had a few houses with supposed high end appliances like Bosch and Viking and a few with low end stuff and guess what stuff wore out first.
One Bosch dishwasher had a service guy try to fix it and even after a new board it still didn't work. That one was under warranty but the new board and paying the guy to put it in was near as much as a new machine!
The more add ons and gadgets something gets the higher the chance that something will fail.
I have a rental that has a old water heater in it that keeps on working really well for close to 30 years now. Of course it is not as energy efficient as a new water heater would be but I would wager that I new one wouldn't last near as long. I hope I didn't just jinx myself....
I put in a floor drain in the room where the Washing machine and the Water heater are located. Still I tell everyone in the house Washing Machine and Dryer(fire) never should be running if you are leaving the house.
This is not a problem for us, since the washer moved to the back porch after we remodeled the kitchen. If it overflows, the water just runs into the yard.
I'd be more concerned about new appliances over old ones. My mom for example is using the same washer and dryer for 30 years now and she has never had a problem. Mine are about 10 years old and this almost flood just happened and last year the belt on the dryer snapped.
When we bought a new stove the guy actually told us that nothing is built to last anymore and they have about a 5 year life span. When I worked in property management we had a few houses with supposed high end appliances like Bosch and Viking and a few with low end stuff and guess what stuff wore out first.
One Bosch dishwasher had a service guy try to fix it and even after a new board it still didn't work. That one was under warranty but the new board and paying the guy to put it in was near as much as a new machine!
The more add ons and gadgets something gets the higher the chance that something will fail.
I have a rental that has a old water heater in it that keeps on working really well for close to 30 years now. Of course it is not as energy efficient as a new water heater would be but I would wager that I new one wouldn't last near as long. I hope I didn't just jinx myself....
They just don't make things like they used to.
I have a tendancy to think that you are right about nothing being made to last anymore including clothes and shoes . Have you noticed this as well ? I mean I bought a pair of boots two years ago and they are wearing out already . I bought a pair almost twenty years ago and they are still going strong . go figure .
Here is another wrinkle to that situation. One particularly cold winter, I had the fireplace insert going constantly. This often kept the primary heat for the house from running. Unbeknown to us the water in the u joint under the washing machine had become partially frozen. Our furnace keeps the basement warm. The water gushed all over the wash room and trickled down to the basement. It didn't happen twice since the water coming from our washing machine was hot and ultimately melted the jam.
This also had me thinking about warning people. When you run your dishwasher or washing machine do not start it and leave the house. I couldn't imagine the mess of a flooded basement if we had gone out and that thing had kept pumping water. It was such a simple thing to fail and easy to fix but what a disaster it could have been.
If this happens to you you will now know that this is a thing to check on before spending lots of money.
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Originally Posted by 399083453
I agree. I'm always home when running the dishwasher, washing machine. Wife thinks I'm weird.
This has always been my rule ever since I bought my first house. Same goes with toilets. I won't leave the house until the tank is filled and the water shuts off. I've had toilets that didn't shut off for various reasons, so I want to be sure there is no running water anywhere in the house before I leave. To me, it's just common sense. It has nothing to do with being weird or OCD. I also shut the water off if I'm going away for an extended period of time. My Arizona neighbor, where I have a winter home, didn't shut his water off when he went back home for the summer. He had a toilet tank crack and flood his house, causing massive damage. Now he shuts his water off when he goes home for the summer.
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