Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Now that sucks big-time.

When I lived in Ohio, I was always very fastidious about shutting off the gas and water before leaving for any extended period of time. Down here we don't have gas, and who'd have though that a relatively new expansion tank would fail like this?

I have finally taken a hot shower after three days. Well, it was lukewarm as the new heater had only been on for a few hours, but still. I seem to have one tiny leak in a 3/4" NPT union (where the shutoff valve goes on the supply side) which sadly I can't tighten as I've soldered myself into a bind. I think I'm going to eliminate the threaded coupling and replace it with a solder-style ball valve.

And the cleanup continues...

chriscar

iTrader: (24)

Joe,

I hope you've contacted your insurance company, you should be covered for the damage, cleanup and repair. Also, if you're not opening up the walls, you could be in for some nasty mold in the future.

C

Saml01

iTrader: (9)

My sister usually gets a house sitter when she goes out of town. Crazy I know. Person stops by once a day, walks the property, checks the entire house and leaves. Drops her an email once a day that everything is A OK.

JasonC SBB

FWIW insurers typically won't insure a house that's vacant.

Machismo

iTrader: (1)

Feel for ya Joe.....dealt with this kind of stuff too. Just not on this kind of grand scale.
Glad to hear you have warm water now. Nothing like a shower to make you feel civilized.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

My insurance has section that says the house either has to be occupied or checked every three days :(

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

I have never been so physically exhausted in all my life. I know it's still winter for some of you folks, but it's in the upper 80's here. And in the garage, with 150° heat pouring out of the attic, it's just insane. I've slurped down about a gallon of Gatorade so far, and it helps, but only so much. I can't imagine doing this **** for a living.


Fair enough.

The new heater, in all its glory:



The blue orb on top is the expansion tank. This is what failed on the old one, shooting a stream of water upwards and to the left. At a mere $50, this unit will now be a bi-annual maintenance item.

Here's the new hole in the ceiling, after having been cleaned up. The insulation has mostly dried out, so I stapled it back into place. The surrounding sections of drywall got a bit damp and have sagged, so they'll probably have to come out too. But that project can wait.



A shot of the side of the garage that I've got stripped out so far. The drywall used to extend all the way to the floor, with base molding at the bottom. I prised out all of the molding (it was pretty rotten) and then took the circular saw all the way around the perimeter, removing the lower 4" of drywall. That which remains is a tad moist, but not totally ruined. I'm sure mold is growing behind it. Unfortunately there's no airspace behind the drywall- it lays directly upon the foam insulation. Fortunately there's no wood back there, just concrete, foam, and plastic furring strips. At the back of the garage, the drywall did not extend to the floor- there is about a 3" air gap with nothing but concrete behind it, so I lucked out there. Also, you can see the tremendous amount of still moist carpet glue all over the floor. That's going to be a joy to clean up...



And lastly, what the place looks like from the outside. Fridge, workbench, pile 'o garbage, a bunch of lumber, etc. The carpet had been sitting out in the yard to dry, finally rolled that up and put it on the trailer. The left 1/3 of the carpet is still in the garage. My goal for tomorrow is to get that side of the garage emptied out (still a bunch of shelves and boxes left), get the carpet pulled up and drying, and basically prep for the next stage, which will be to dry the place out and sand the floor.




I'll look into this. My immediate goal, once everything is out, is to rent a dehumidifier and get the garage thoroughly dried out. This is necessary before I can sand the floor. Once that's done, an ozone generator might be a good idea. I'm just not sure whether it'll be effective at the backside of the drywall, which as I said, has no airspace. Frankly, if mold decides to grow back there, I'm not sure that I care. This is Florida, after all. It happens.

Saml01

iTrader: (9)

How did none of your neighbors notice water streaming out of your garage and down your driveway?

and speaking of fraking, are you caught up with the BSG because this fridays episodes going to be pure badass.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Joe,
Do you have a water softener?

thymer

iTrader: (5)

That so sucks dude. it's kinda weird though, just the other day I was looking at my water heater in the garage and thinking how badly it would suck if it sprang a leak. I ordered a water sensor plate, wired it to a security sensor and then trigger a contactor to turn off the well pump in case of flood.

JayL

iTrader: (12)

After reading this thread I had to immediately go out to the garage and put the tops up on the cars.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

To the north is a vacant lot, and to the south the dude kinda keeps to himself.

No, I am not even remotely close to caught up. Last I saw, a grenade had just been tossed into an airlock. And if you so much as HINT as to the outcome of same, I will ban every address owned by the entire Deutsche Bank Group.

My plan was simple. I'd arrive at RSW Friday evening, drive home and park my car in a non-flooded garage, bake a DiGiorno Supreme garlic bread crust pizza, pour a Rum & Coke, and pick up where I left off. I'd continue this process at a rate of one episode every day or two.

Instead, I've been laboring my *** off in a swelteringly hot, mold-ridden garage, demolishing drywall, fixing insulation, brazing plumbing, and schlepping around a lot of really heavy, wet carpet, taking frigid showers every evening and pausing only long enough to sleep and ban idiots. In short, my life really sucks right now, and it's likely to continue sucking at least through the end of this week and possibly into next, by which time all y'all will have seen whatever badass thing is about to happen, and I'll still be coughing up concrete dust.



No, I do not. I had a water softener at my house in Cincinnati, and I came to loathe it greatly. I simply could not tolerate the feeling that it gave when showering. No matter how long I rinsed, I always felt like I was still covered in a sort of slick film. And I don't use some fancy moisturizing soap either, just plain ole' Ivory. Fortunately, I plumbed in a bypass when I installed it, so I simply bypassed it and that was that. I'll never know if the lady who bought the place figured it out.



Heh. I've had my fair share of electrical disasters, but this is my first foray into residential plumbing malfunctions. I have definitely gained a new respect for the important of inspection and preventative maintenance. In hindsight, there was enough corrosion on the unit that I should have replaced it long ago. Not that it would have been easy- after I cut the old heater out of the system I tried to unscrew the fittings from it and they simply crumbled under my wrench. Absolutely astounding, given the age of the house.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

I asked about the softener because it tends to protect copper pipes a bit here in FL but also has a bad effect on steel. It turns out that the water here is pretty corrosive to steel and copper if untreated. Did you check the sacrificial magnesium anode in the old water heater to see if it was still present? They usually don't make it seven years down here and you are supposed to replace it so that the chemicals in the water don't attack the steel and copper parts in your system. They screw into the top of the water heater and cost $20-40 bucks. Cheap protection, but most homeowners don't know they exist, or to change them. It usually costs them a water heater, and most still never know why. I just changed my water heater and learned my anode had apparently given up years ago.

JasonC SBB

OK that's the first I've heard of that.
Are they needed in NorCA?

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

They're needed everywhere. Check yours if you never have.

kung fu jesus

iTrader: (1)

something that helps: i give my neighbors a card with my name, my wife's name and our cell phone and work numbers. i also list the name of our dog.

i don't talk to my neighbors much, but just introducing yourself and giving them some info under the guise of being neighborly can be really helpful in instances like this.

good luck with the clean-up.

ScottFW

iTrader: (4)

I went and looked at mine last night, and it appears to be the original part, 12+ years old. I will be replacing it soon. Good info in this thread.

Decent instructional video here.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

When replacing choose the magnesium anode and not the aluminum one.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

+1
All water heaters have them, and the best ones have two of them. If you don't know how sacrificial anodes work in water heaters, it's definitely worth reading up on. They are cheap protection from expensive problems.

Edit: Some good info here and on the related pages- http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pag...er-anodes.html

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

Well ****, you learn something new everyday. Going to check this out when I get home. Mine is less than two years old. I'd heard of a dip tube, not the anode.