Sitting on the couch watching TV at 10pm and there’s an odd noise in the background. Hmmm. I mute the television and hear a sound of….water? The hairs on my neck stand up and that little adrenaline rush bumps me from ready-for-bed to red-alert mode.
When you live in the same house for a number of years you become very attuned to the sounds of your surroundings. You know what noises are supposed to occur (or not occur) and when. This was a ‘something is not right noise’. It took about six seconds for me to run through the possibilities and then I was bolting down the stairs to the basement where, even before I saw it and heard it I could smell it…water.
We had snow during the week and the temperatures dropped abruptly. I wasnt ready for it and didnt turn off the water to the outside spigots. One of them cracked and a high-pressure jet of water was doing its thing.
I immediately grabbed the main shutoff lever and swung it closed. That solved the immediate problem. It also turned off the water to the entire house. But…with the immediate problem taken care of, now was the time to look closer.
The outside spigot branches off from the main water line and has it’s own shutoff as well. I closed that off and re-opened the main. Water was back to the rest of the house and the outside spigot line was isolated and shut off. I’ll deal with it in the spring. In the meantime, damage control.
I had always been concerned about pipe breakage in the basement so I shielded all my stored preps that were near any pipes. I also never put anything that was susceptible to water damage anywhere lower than a foot and a half off the floor. So, yeah, a few cardboard boxes of Pmags got soaked but while the boxes are a soggy mess, the mags are fine. I’ve a fan running down there now to dry out things but the bigger issue is: if I had gone to bed early, this thing would have run all night. How can I be alerted to such a failure in the future.
Well, first step, is I should have shut off the outside water two weeks ago. That was the biggest fail. But after that, unless I’m taking a stroll through my basement once a day, I need some alert systems. So..off to Amazon to pick up water alarms. Additionally, since I have plenty of unused ‘channels’ on the security cams, I’m going to dedicate a camera or two to keeping an eye on the basement.
All in all, it could have been a lot worse. But it could have been a lot better too.
My mom was “snowbirding” in the house she inherited from her mom. She closed the house up and headed back up north. I told her I’d check on the house every few weeks. About three weeks later I did just that. I noticed water trickling out onto the driveway from between the wall of the house and the slab. I also heard the smoke detector going off. This kind of thing never means something good or minor. I opened the door of the house and found the ENTIRE HOUSE was flooded. There was mold all the way up the walls and covering the furniture. The water heater was centrally located in the house. The supply line had cracked. It probably happened right after my mom left. There was a jet of water shooting out of the pipe that had cut through the drywall and had nailed the smoke detector, setting it off. EVERYTHING in the house was ruined! By the time the demo of the damage was done, nothing was left of the house but the outer shell of the place and the drywall on the ceiling. Total cost of restoration; $200K… for a 1200 square foot house… …So yes, your situation could have been worse! Those water alarms are the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy! Better still, if you can find ones that are net-enabled to alert you when you’re not home!
Yup..wifi but also audible alarm: https://amzn.to/3WXX7kX
Any recommendations on security cameras? That don’t report your every move to some anonymous cloud-in-the-sky?
I got the Lorex from Costco a while back. Hard wired because the wireless ones seem to have more problems. Been in place now for over a year with no issues.
https://www.costco.com/lorex-fusion-4k-12-channel-2tb-wired-dvr-system-with-4-4k-wired-indooroutdoor-smart-deterrence-cameras-and-1-2k-indoor-wi-fi-camera.product.100858406.html
I live in Florida. We don’t worry about frozen pipes here, but I had a pipe leaking inside of the wall. I had to cut into the wall, turn off water to the house, and replace the pipe. Isn’t home ownership great?
“We don’t worry about frozen pipes here,…”
Except if you live near the Georgia border, perhaps.
About ’73, on a bike trip from NJ to South FL early Oct maybe?, the coldest part of the trip was at the FL border on I-95, and it was 0 F*. Roommate rode down a week earlier in shirtsleeves. Timing’s important!
Good catch. I’m redoing the plumbing at my BOL and I just bought the valves to shut off the outside spigots. They’ll go in because it’s sometimes weeks between visits, and at least one neighbor got an unwanted call about a waterfall coming out their back door…
And I’ve got a wifi cam in my garage watching for the reappearance of Mr Possum, who has been knocking food off the shelves. I’ve noticed and caught one from my desk already.
n
I feel for ya.
Had a chinesium-coupler supply line to the toilet tank blow, fortunately while I was sitting right upstairs. If it had been while I was at work, I would have returned hours later to a lake, or a fire-axed front door after the emergency became a neighborhood event.
It’s always the simple stuff.
Good catch Commander. I had relocated/ acquired 40+ year old fix me house that needed love and attention to her plumbing in the crawl space scenarios. If it is at least stick built with crawl or full basement then there is good bones rehab ability there. I have to discipline myself to aquire plumb guy tools with ample torch and solder back ups before another P95 or glocky toy. Shucks. (got torch cannister? And solder w/ spare pipe: fittings?) I probably should go all U-boat engineer and back up with a valve and another redundant valve to all or any other spigot or fixtures. Then do a deep dive on frost free external yard spigots and those deep internal frost free house wall spigots. Your theory on an internal house hose bib for 402/ fire suppression or whatever is a valid upgrade. Basements are man cave- party rooms, store preps above grade, unless extensive drains and a battery back up sump systems are a fall back feature.
Water, drainage,, and sewer infrastructures are tier two important in your survival matrix flow chart.
Stay frosty and fluids flowing.
Replace the hose bib with a freeze proof one.
When you’re installing that hose bib, insure that it’s angled down to the outside so that any residual water in the tube can drain from the bib after you turn it off (http://kcplumberpro.com/plumbing-terms/hose-bibb/).
Just snowed for the first time this year going to get below freezing this week thanks for the reminder. I shut off and drained the outsides water valves.
Stepping off the basement stairs to a ‘Splash’ is never a good moment. Been there and done that.
Funny. Boats, at least the types that offer live aboard options require bilge alarms. Wonder why nobody ever thought of alarms for your situation. But now thanks to you O know they exist. I don’t have a basement. But in the future Is install them anyplace that had water running to them.
You got off very lightly due to timing and other preps, thank kroon. I know -2sp.
I had the cheap gate valve in the garage replaced with a quality ball valve soon after we bought our current home. Now I shut off the water to the house whenever we leave for more than a day. I also got the same leak detector from amazon.
+1 on turning the water off if you are going to be gone more than a day. I have a remote property that has the water turned off. I got in the habit of doing the same at the main house. I had friends come home to a swimming pool in the basement after a month long vacation. It wasn’t pretty.
“+1 on turning the water off if you are going to be gone more than a day.”
I turn the house water off if I’m going farther than 5-8 miles from the house; my alarm system has the capability for water sensors so I bought several and placed them in the usual strategic locations; I’ll get a call from the alarm company if one detects water (they’re pretty sensitive – my phone rang one day right after I mopped the guest bathroom floor, when I put the sensor back on the floor behind the toilet there was enough moisture left on the tile to trigger it).
If I get the call and I’m at the grocery store or Home Depot I’m home in 4-5 minutes; if I’m at the Center for Directed Projectile Expelling, that’s 40 minutes, and even 5 minutes with a 1/2 pipe running wide open is a catastrophe.
Someone MUST make a water shutoff valve that’s controllable via wifi and phone, just haven’t found it yet, being able to shut the water off remotely could be pretty handy someday.
My biggest problem so far is remembering to turn it back on when I get home.
Theres a wifi enabled valve control system out there. One of my neighbors has one that lets him open and close various valves from his phone. Cant recall the manufacturer, but its on amazon. Just play with search terms.
Arthur, did you not learn anything from the Texas disaster? Many who allowed outside control had their heat shut off,any remotely operable system can be used in others best interests.
CZ, do not wait,no telling when or if parts/plumber may or not be available/far more expensive in future.
Perhaps this could spur a new post or series of posts on “monitor” applications for the things we have worked so hard to store. I’m personally looking for something to monitor my garage freezers and refrigerator/freezer. I had what appears to be a compressor go out on one of my upright freezers. I’m sure it probably made noise when it went out, but being in the garage and being deaf I’m sure I didn’t hear it. The lights are on, but it’s definitely not freezer cold. There’s also a lot of meat to have to unload into coolers to try to save while I pull it out from the wall to inspect and hopefully repair it. A freezer full of meat in this economy would be a huge financial loss to occur. We all need failovers and backups for our preps. If any of you have any thoughts, let us all know. Thanks for being the best online resource for this sort of thing CZ!
CZ, I visited the Amazon link you provided and was disappointed to find that apparently Govee doesn’t offer other security detectors for their system. No door/window alarms, no heat/fire alarms or anything like that. Most of their products are light controllers involving colored LED light strips and such. For older folks, like myself, we would much prefer being able to learn one system and then be able to expand it as needed. Do you or your “regulars” have a recommendation for a system that does it all in this regard?
CZ,
Thanks for the reminder, it prompted me to get off my arse and go shut off the valves to the outside faucets.
At least one potential problem averted………maybe?
Cheers,
Ben