I’m still so pissed off about this I don’t want to talk about it, really, but given that I know some of you have stuck around here for two decades and some only to feel good about yourself compared to me, so I think I owe it to you.
This afternoon around three o’clock I was feeling a bit tired, so I decided to settle in for a nap. Got undressed and was fluffing this pillow (this is not code for anything, you sick bastard, Baud), and I was doing that, Maxwell started bitching nonstop from the office, so I went in to see what he was all hot and bothered about and to take care of it so he would not fuck with me during my nap. Food is what he wanted, but he did not get any because fuck him. But I did notice the water fountain could use some water, so I got the gallon pitcher and went to the sink and put it in and turned the water on.
At that point I heard my phone ring, realized it was downstairs, went down and got it. Called the person back, talked to them for five minutes, hung up, and said “I need a nap” and went up to the bedroom, shut the door, and lay down and thought about how awesome the room felt because I have the house ac on 78 to save money, but the movable bedroom unit was on 68 so the room was super cool. Put my mask on, and went to sleep.
It was a great nap- like an hour and a half. Got up, went to the bathroom to use the facilities, and realized I had forgotten to turn the sink water off that was filling the pitcher for the cat water fountain. It had filled the pitcher completely, which then lapped over onto the sink counter, and went into a straight line down to the back of the sink and then down into the cracks. I thought to myself- “That has been running for near two hours.”
I raced downstairs, and yep, my kitchen sink now has a water feature over the island counter. i called Gerald, he came over and called me a dumbass, and I don’t know how many thousands this is going to cost me, but tomorrow we are going to cut a hole into the ceiling and cut out the water damage and put a fan in to dry the whole fucking thing out.
I’m simultaneously disgusted, furious with myself, and sort of numb. Fucking ADHD is going to be the death of me, but I didn’t think it would be this way.
wmd
oops.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I’d like to thank you, John, for doing your part to divert some of this water. This is far excessive. Ground water pushed my parents’ pool out of the ground, took the concrete patio with it.
We’re asking far too much of the wetlands.
Chetan Murthy
oh nooooooooooo
Salty Sam .
It was at this point in the narrative that I knew we were in for another Cole Classic…
Scout211
John, call your insurance company before you and Gerald start fixing the damage. Water damage caused by accidents is typically covered by your homeowner’s insurance. And accidents typically include a faucet accidentally not turned off.
CaseyL
Could’ve been worse: could’ve been a longer nap.
Forgetting the water is running is a very common thing, I’ve never had an al fresco flood in my house, but I have had sinks fill up nearly to overflowing (most recently, filling a watering pitcher).
The fans should dry things out just fine, if you’re able to get and use the professional ones. They’re extremely powerful, and unfortunately very loud. But two hours worth of water damage shouldn’t take too long to dry out.
Ohio Mom
Ouch. Double Ouch. Triple ouch.
Our sewer backed up into the basement last week so I am also dreading the final tally of repair bills. But our insurance will cover some of it so I can’t complain too much.
As the old saying goes, Water is the homeowner’s worst enemy.
Cole, never thought of you as ADHD before but yeah, that puts your years of self-medicating in a new perspective for me.
Jackie
At least it was tap water and not sewage…
Trying to help you find a positive…
Did Maxwell ever get his water?
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: The migration crew left the giant fans and dehumidifier on in our basement for three days and I felt like I was living the life of one of those airport ground crew without the headphones. Yes, they are LOUD.
The migration crew had to note how much water the dehumidifier collected for the insurance adjustor. I am learning so much about things I didn’t know I didn’t know. Including the necessity of monitoring sewer pipes for tree roots. That could be one of John’s future big adventure, the thanklessness of the trees he planted.
J R in WV
OK, that’s pretty funny! Wife calls me to tell me that Cole has a new funny post, and so it is!
And DO call the insurance folks asap!
JaySinWA
As others have pointed out a literal shit show would have been sewage. This is more of a flood show
ETA or water works show. There’s an innuendo in there somewhere
ETA2 Water sports, yeah that’s the ticket.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
Here’s my shitshow story from my family: I am in Seattle visiting my niece & brother, who has a (relatively) new dog, a one-year-old golden retriever with one brain cell that rarely gets used. As in, this dog is so stupid that he tries to pick up sticks that he can’t pick up because he is standing on them.
First week was with family, second week (well, really ten days) is dog sitting while they’re on their vacation. Only issue that brother won’t give teenage niece a key to the house. So I, as aunt, tell the niece she can come in as late as she wants — I’ll stay up for her. She comes in between 11 & midnight, which is fine, except the dog starts barking at 5am every day, and I’m supposed to walk the dog in order to get the dog used to me dog sitting.
They finally leave for vacation, and the first night the cheap smoke detector goes off at 4am. So I reset it, except it keeps beeping low battery. Are there batteries in the house? Of course not, brother does no maintenance whatsoever. So I get batteries at the local chain pharmacy, and spend the next several hours trying to coax this thing to stop beeping. Can’t be done. Finally get a guy from the local hardware store who tries his batteries, it’s still beeping, he says it’s at the end of its useful life and takes it out of the ceiling.
So now I have ten days of basically the air bnb from hell …. The place is filthy, the dog is untrained and a complete ball thief so it’s hard to take him to the park, and I’m just sitting here waiting for the next piece of endlessly deferred maintenance to go wrong. And what I’d really like right now is one good full night’s sleep.
(BTW in the course of spending hours googling how to turn off an endlessly beeping smoke detector I found out why they always die between midnight and 6am. Apparently the cooler it gets the less well the batteries work, so they always go critical in the coolest part of the night.)
any suggestions as to how to stop the dog from stealing balls from the other dogs at the park are welcome. dog is completely untrained, of course.
Patricia Kayden
I love the shout out to Baud. 😂 😂
At least no one was hurt. We all make mistakes. I only eat cold cereal for breakfast now after too many mornings of leaving the stove or oven on for cooked breakfasts. I feel ya,
Ohio Mom
@JaySinWA: The one thing I wil say about the sewerage is that it stayed in the basement. Our life in the rest of the house was undisturbed except for the noise of the fans. Sounds like Cole has a mess in his kitchen.
That’s hard to work around.
Tinare
@Jackie: Yeah. I found out my toilet was leaking recently. It’s directly above my kitchen. So yeah.
dexwood
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Take a dozen balls and toss them out. It’d be interesting to see what happens.
JaySinWA
@Ohio Mom: My sister had a literal shit show in her basement, from a city sewer backup. It took weeks IIRC to get the city to admit fault while getting the damage abated.
Another Scott
Did I ever tell the story about messing with a solid oxygen torch as a kid and almost burning the house down? Pro-tip: Don’t open the oxidizer container when it’s lit and dump the burning pellet on a carpeted floor.
(My quick thinking mom grabbed a pot full of water and put it out.)
Humans get distracted and don’t think clearly at times. Especially male humans.
🤪
Calling your insurance company is a good idea.
Hang in there!
Cheers,
Scott
Suzanne
I had a water and mold problem in my Arizona house from a sink leak. Homeowners covered it. Big fans for a few days.
Lyrebird
Well Cole created a fountain with room for all the pets to reach, sounds like! They could drink their fill all around the kitchen island.
Cole: you are a very good person. And yes, thank you for being even more ADHD than me today.
Ohio Mom
@JaySinWA: The city workers came right away. They were a cheerful pair who quickly assessed that the back-up was not the city’s fault, the clog was under the front yard, under the maples that turn such beautiful reds and yellows every fall. They left a small packet of helpful literature too.
Now we feel like idiots, not knowing we were supposed to check on the sewer pipes periodically for clogs caused by roots.
Another Scott
@Ohio Mom: Another old saying is:
Water is the universal solvent.
Time and water are a massively damaging combination. It dissolves continents after all…
Cheers,
Scott.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Ohio Mom: and check the expiration of your smoke alarms and change the batteries in them too. there’s a lot of routine invisible maintenance that has to happen that it seems no-one ever talks about
Yarrow
Oh, no. Hope the repairs go well. At least you didn’t leave the stove on and burn the house down.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@dexwood: He’d be in clover. Morning walk is by a tennis court; he ran through the open gate and grabbed two tennis balls in his mouth. We got him to drop one and only realized he had two when the tennis players wanted their other ball.
Tim Ellis
The ADHD tax is real, and it is expensive.
Speaking of which, you’ve just reminded me to pay the four parking tickets I keep forgetting about lol, so hopefully you can take some heart from knowing you helped me out (Assuming I don’t get waylaid again in the next five minutes lol)
Maxim
As a fellow ADHDer, you have my deepest sympathy, John.
TS
I am reminded of the time when I had what was known as a “stand alone dishwasher”. It plugged into the kitchen tap. So I set it on one evening when home alone & wandered off to the living room to watch a movie on TV. No recorder/no internet. It was hilarious & I laughed my way through a couple of hours. Then I turned off the TV & heard a weird noise in the kitchen. Walked in & I was wading in 6 inches of water. The water pressure had ripped the tap asunder – the water was spurting onto the ceiling & thence around the room. It was definitely a fountain.
JaySinWA
@Ohio Mom: Yes they are quick to insist it isn’t their fault. My sister got that line for days until they found the backup in their own lines. More than one house was affected. She was just the first uphill from the blockage.
dmsilev
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Hah. I had the exact same journey of discovery and enlightenment a couple of dead batteries at 3 AM ago.
Ruckus
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Well, like any dog training it takes you as long as it takes the dog to actually learn. But the only way you can train the dog to stop stealing balls is to keep him on a leash at the park and admonish him in a power voice. That’s the tone, not the volume. Not an angry tone, a power/strong voice. Not NO!!!!!!, not no, like you are defusing a bomb, a middle ground, strong, firm No. And that’s it no explaining. just No. oh and a firm leash so there is some form of attention. Some dogs require a tug on the leash with the No. Not a violent tug, just some tension to get their attention.
Ohio Mom
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: We actually just checked the smoke alarm. Because Ohio Son is an adult with a disability, the county sends a social worker out once a year to make sure that wherever he is living, it’s safe, including that the smoke alarm is in working order.
When you consider that very many disabled adults live in iffy conditions — on their own or with roommates in the sorts of places affordable on very limited means — you can see why the social worker comes out. It’s argueably overkill for our household and not sufficient for many others.
The annual inspections also gets me to get the whole house clean at once, rather than my usual one room at at time. As long as you don’t look at the deconstructed basement.
glc
Talking to my cousin about apartment insurance and she says “Yeah once i was making jewelry with a blowtorch in my bedroom and I realized I couldn’t shut it off. … Finally had to lug it back to the shop on the bus. People were glancing at me, but you know, it’s New York.”
Midway through that I had the phone on speaker.
Sorry to hear about the water damage. Not fun.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I knew exactly where this was going when I read “At that point…”
Ouch! I hope you can get dried out for minimal costs.
No One of Consequence
Hey,
When you have the ceiling/floor open, be sure to look for the mustard while you’re in there.
Sorry to hear of your troubles, but I got a good chuckle out of it, if that is any consolation.
Good luck, and peace,
– NOoC
BigJimSlade
Hmm, I didn’t think “fluffing the pillow” would be a water sport.
Westyny
ADHD has cost me thousands. But . . . this is so human. We are all Cole.
Yarrow
This is why I never nap. Too dangerous.
Jackie
@Tinare: I’m sorry! Hopefully it gets repaired FAST!
Jackie
@Lyrebird: 👍🏻 😂 True.
I really shouldn’t laugh…
Odie Hugh Manatee
Thinking about this more and I have come to the opinion that you should have given Maxwell his food. If you had done so then this whole chain of events may have been avoided.
Cat karma bit you…lol!
CaseyL
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
Oh, ugh. What a situation! And unlike an actual airbnb you can’t leave a lousy review or ask for your money back…
If you have a few days, maybe you could sneak the dog into a PetSmart for a quick obedience class? And maybe deputize your niece to remember and use the lessons?
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Ruckus: I’ll try it, but this dog hears “no” so much he probably thinks it’s part of his name.
Jackie
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: My daughter’s beagle loves racquet balls. He can hold FIVE in his mouth at once. When she’s tired of playing toss, she throws multiple balls at once and comedy ensues!
Benw
These things happen. Give yourself some grace, my dude
SuzieC
When have we all not fallen asleep and had a sewage explosion?
BJs, my elder cat Duder, who is on the BJ calendar as a Halloween cat, crossed the rainbow bridge. We loved him so much.
That occurred a month ago. We have adopted a new kitty, a baby tuxedo named Tux. I know the name is uninspired. We wanted to rename him but he had lived in a foster home for a year with the name Tux. A friend who is a cat whisperer ( he has 8 cats) advised to keep his little name that he was known by.
Ruckus
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
The leash is a big part of this. The dog has to know who is in charge and it isn’t the dog. And nothing more happens until the dog gets to at least that minimal part of learning.
Aimai
I love you JC. That is all.
Brachiator
Coming late to the thread. Got nothing but sympathy for you, John Cole.
Take care of yourself, brother.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Suzanne:
I read the problems you are having in the other thread and wanted to say that I hope you can get through this stressful situation while not going crazy from everything. My Mom didn’t like to listen to reason either but with enough pressure and lots of patience we were able to get her on the right track.
Good luck and best wishes to you, your family and your mom!
MMM
You are a weird mixture of Charlie Brown and Winnie the Pooh.
Torrey
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
If you think “no” won’t work, try another sound like “psst” or “whisht.” Something that will get his attention and not be likely to be used for anything else. The idea is to get him to associate the sound with what you want him to do, so that ultimately he responds to the sound alone.
mrmoshpotato
Oh no! Hope it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to repair.
mrmoshpotato
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
LMAO!
Sherparick
@Salty Sam .: i was thinking, uh-oh as soon as he went to answer the phone.
RaflW
My cousin’s kid had a handheld shower fight with a friend of his (they might have been seven years old, maybe less) in the all tile master bathroom of the house they’d owned for about 6 hours.
The parents at some point noticed water coming out of the living room ceiling. Needless to say, it was a collosal mess similar to yours, John.
Now days you’d never know it had happened. Hope you get to that point fairly soon!
BigJimSlade
@SuzieC: Aw, rest in peace Duder. And I wish the best for you and a fine Tux.
Jude
Ooof.
2. I’ve totally been here 20 years. I’m 51 and this is one of my favorite corners of the internet. Chin up, John. You’ve done worse.
Gvg
The only thing I can add is the make water leak detectors for aquarium owners, and I have often wondered if I should install several near my water appliances and sources because I know so many stories from so many people. My own adventure was living in an older budget apartment when young, and realizing the carpet was damp then wet but no reason I could see. Maintenance found the old copper pipes were wearing out and had 7 pinhole leaks which were at high pressure all at the same time at different places inside my walls. New pipes and a week of carpet drying. I had to vacate to my parents and they did not reimburse me for that. Well I was young and inexperienced and didn’t know to make them. I was lucky to have family near. Anyway, it was a learning experience and I have been rather suspicious of water pipes ever since.
Mai Naem mobileI
John, hope it’s not as expensive as it sounds. I am probably one of the few on this thread who’s going to tell you to figure out how much it may cost OOP without insurance before going the insurance route. Insurance companies don’t like claims because apparently that’s not their job. You see their job is only to collect the premiums. Seriously if there’s not a huge net difference between your cost and the deductible, and you can pull it off, I would avoid the claim.
Steeplejack
Ugh. I hate those disasters that turn on one simple point. (“I should have turned the water off when I went to get the phone.”) So much room for later recriminations.
Soprano2
@JaySinWA: Weeks is fast. I do the damage claim memos for the sewer department in our city. If the backup is caused by something like roots or grease, and we’ve done our “due diligence” by cleaning the sewer main within our cleaning schedule, we don’t pay because we feel that we’ve done what we can to prevent problems. The sewer is an open system – we can’t prevent people from pouring grease down their drains or having root balls growing out of their service connections. We do pay if there is a structural defect, if we haven’t cleaned the main within our schedule, if we push sewage into a building when we’re cleaning the main, or if there are other factors we think mean we are responsible. Thinking about liability like a lawyer does is different.
Plus, that is not the city’s sewage – it comes from your neighbors. We transport and treat it, we don’t generate it.
Soprano2
@Ohio Mom: If you don’t have a finished basement and don’t go in the basement much, you probably didn’t have any idea the drains were running slowly until it backed up. Do you have problems when it rains a lot?
lurker
one thing to consider on the insurance route … we had a water issue years ago, reported it to insurance, deductible was most of what the overall cost was. We paid out of pocket, but had the loss reported, showing the insurance company we found a problem, were dealing with it, and were not making a claim. It did suck paying out of pocket for it, but it was the kind of thing some insurance companies value and they noted it when I was speaking to an agent a couple years later on our renewal.
Your mileage may vary on this. I discuss this type of thing with a broker before reporting it to an insurance company and get advice for any type of loss or claim. Some policies and some companies are managed in a completely mercenary way and reporting anything is an excuse to gouge you. Other companies are looking for a better approach to things and will reward you for it.
Also, thread is dead and killed and there will still be a few more comments.
Also also there are a bunch of stories that go something like start some time sensitive thing (baking and cooking are good examples…) get distracted by a phone call or someone coming to the door (etc.) and realize one way or another that things have gone overboard, haywire, SNAFU achieved, etc.
lurker
one other story … when I was younger I was notably inept at cooking. I also have a tendency to use a line over and over as a signature in conversations. So, I would joke about how lame I was as a cook and say that I could even burn water.
Go visit some friends I had not seen in several years due to various things (I moved, they moved, etc.)
They ask about how things are going and I think I was single at the time and not a good cook, could even burn water … the reaction was something like Oh Wow! You did that too!
Ummm…what?
Turns out, one of the couple had left water on the stove so long it burned through the pan. That half of the couple was very excited to hear someone else our age had done it … which I had not actually done. We eventually agreed that both of our mothers had stories about doing that in their youth, so that eased up the pain of my friend having achieved this impressive feat.
Anyway, let us know when you have burned water. I pretty much stopped using that line after that. And eventually learned to cook something other than pancakes and scrambled eggs (although not that much).
Steeplejack
@SuzieC:
Sorry to hear about Duder. Condolences. 🌈 🐾
Betsy
When shit like this happens, that’s when i suddenly realize that I’m fucking overextended and exhausted and have been for months or years, and can’t keep doing like that any more. Sadly it usually takes some disaster for me to realize it. But I’m getting better with practice.
I hope you get a break. If you’re a chronic over extender, and I think, Cole, from 15 years of watching this blog, you might be, I hope you are able to do what it takes to set some limits, if possible.
Chris T.
Could be worse … we’re having some Deck Issues fixed and when they took the covers off and looked underneath, not only was some of the deck plywood rotten, the drainage had run down the side of the house and rotted out a chunk of one corner. It’s all ripped out and redone now for a mere $7k or so, none of which will be covered by insurance because it didn’t happen as a single “pipe broke” type water-damage event but rather over the course of some years.
(The new deck membrane will be installed correctly so it shouldn’t funnel water into the house any more.)
satby
@Ohio Mom: Every few years I have to get the pipes to the street rodded out to clear the roots. In between, I use a root killer for pipes that doesn’t kill the trees. It lets you go a bit longer between plumber visits. And makes the roots thinner and easier to remove once it’s time for a professional again.
satby
@Steeplejack: Always turn off whatever you’re doing when leaving the room if it involves running water or a fire (stove top or candles). Shit happens and you get delayed more often than you’d imagine. Ask me how I know 😞
Juju
Most people have done something like that. I once was cleaning a bathroom sink and when I cleaned and dried the faucet I pulled the sink plug lever near the faucet up so I could clean around that part of the faucet, because I am a perfectionist and can’t stand drip spots and gunk on the faucet. I forgot to put the drain back to the open position, and I didn’t check to see if the water was completely off. There was a slow drip. I left that while I went about the rest of the day and when I went back to use the upstairs bathroom, I discovered my error. The water had managed to fill the sink and I discovered that the sink overflow had a clog in it so water dripped down the floor and into the pantry that the bathroom sink was above. I cleaned the floor and underneath the sink and let all that dry. I had to empty the pantry of mushy wet food and let that dry. Since it was not a chronic drip problem I just let things dry and didn’t worry about the ceiling in the pantry, because you had to be some sort of pantry perv to find and see the ceiling damage, which turned out to be water rings. When the kitchen was redone and the pantry that looked like a basement entrance door was replaced with a pantry cupboard, all the damage was disappeared.
My advice would be to get in the habit of turning off the water when you need to go do something else. I always check to make sure the faucet is completely turned off and the drain is in the drain position. I also rarely stop what I’m doing to answer a phone. The caller’s information will be left in my phone log and people can leave a message if they choose to, or I can call back. It’s a nice feature of the cell phones. It’s a lot nicer than the way phones used to be during my childhood.
evodevo
@Ohio Mom:
Yes. This. Mr. Evodevo and I, both septuagenarians, got to spend a couple weeks in Feb digging up the blocked sewer line all the way to the septic tank…of course, the blockage was right at the junction into the septic tank – BIG root ball – we had been neglecting to put root killer down the sewer pipe for several years, and this was the result…good times!!
Rusty
This winter our teenage son came home from practice, started a bath, laid down for a few minutes while it filled and fell asleep. The tub overflowed for hours. Water from second floor to basement, kitchen ceiling collapsed, wood floors upstairs and downstairs warped, etc. Insurance covering most of it. Had to move out for a week while they tore out ceilings, still no ceilings, living off paper plates since most of downstairs was packed up and put in storage, may need to move out again when they rebuild, which will be this fall since contractors are so busy. We didn’t kill son, but a near thing.
EntroPi
About 8 years ago I was up in NH visiting my parents for my birthday.
During my birthday dinner, got a call from a neighbor that the alarm was going off and the fire department was in front of my house, and he had let them in.
Turns out the 30-ish year old tank on the 3rd floor toilet had spontaneously cracked.
So the toilet dutifully refilled itself. And kept doing so.
Central alarm went off when the collected water in the 2nd floor ceiling shorted the smoke detector.
By then the basement floor was also flooded.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Is there anyone who didn’t see that one coming the minute the phone rang?
TerryC
Checked into fancy Chicago hotel. Hung my shirts and suit on the shower curtain and started the hot water running so that the dampness would take wrinkles out – as was my habit at the time. Closed the bathroom door and called my wife. Spent about 20 minutes talking with her balanced on a chair overlooking a big window and enjoyed the view from the 15th floor while we talked.
Hung up. Put my feet down and heard and felt – “splish, sploosh. Three inches of water filled the entire room. And I could not stop it because the maid had left the bathroom door lock button down and the door was locked. Embarassing times ensued. Turns out the bathtub stopper was also closed which was why the tub overfilled.
SteveinPHX
Holy shit!!
Ohio Mom
See, this really is a full service blog, I’ve learned about root killers for underground pipes. Also reassuring to hear about all the household floods survived. We can do this!
Skepticat
Besides Cole?
Naked mopping v. 2.
Ohio Mom
@Soprano2: Oh, I go into the basement all the time due to the never-ending laundry. I discovered the backup when I went to move the newly washed clothes into the dryer. So it hadn’t had time to back up too much before being discovered. Just about an hour from when I put the dirty clothes in.
Our sanitary sewers are separate from the storm water system pipes so no missed clues there.
The Up and Up
I know this might be yesterday’s post but … I will reassure you, (Insert Desired Honorific Title Here) Cole, that my brother did something similar when he lived in Tucson. Jacked up his water rates as a result.
mvr
I don’t know what your ceiling is made of, but FWIW, clean water isn’t going to be as much of a disaster as you might think, so long as you get it dried out in a timely fashion.
Cutting a hole to let it dry out sounds like a good plan. I would add that maybe borrowing, buying or renting a dehumidifier or two and placing them in the area might help as well. Probably you have thought of that.
My guess is that you will have to replace any drywall that got wet. For plaster it may depend on whether things such as the lathe expand and crack it or it cracks due to the weight of the water. Very likely all of the structural stuff (ceiling/floor joists, etc.) will be OK. If the plaster is OK there are primers that will cover water stains (generally shellac based primers like Kilz) that will keep water stains from bleeding into the next layer of paint. Probably your friend Gerald will know about that.
Good luck with the repairs!
brantl
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: On-demand shock collar, but you will probably put him off of balls, forever, unless you show him his own very shortly thereafter without shock.
RA
I did almost exactly the same thing in our 3rd floor apartment, in a shower, filling a much larger plastic container that blocked the drain when it got full of water. It ran for about 4 hours while we went to the store and came back and still didn’t notice it until maintenance guys started banging on the door to see if we had a leak. Flooded our bathroom and part of the closet and bedroom, destroyed the living room ceiling on the 2nd floor apartment below but only dripped a bit into the 1st floor apartment. A few weeks later I almost did the same thing in the kitchen sink but caught it as water was starting to flow out onto the floor.
Soprano2
@Ohio Mom: Then you don’t have rainfall- related backups, because if you did you’d know. Separate sewer systems can cause rainfall-related backups if you live in the older part of town where the sewer main pipes are clay or concrete. All those defects in the main and in people’s service lines leak like crazy when it rains. Cities all over the U.S. are spending millions of dollars to fix those pipes so stormwater won’t get in when it rains, because it causes sewer overflows. My city was one of the first in the country to have a program to do this, it’s how I got hired in 1993.
We’re in the process of having our bathroom renovated because the bathtub and the whole outside wall was sinking down. The contractor found termite damage, so Terminex is coming Monday. He also said my new bathtub is four inches taller than the old one which means he has to cut some of the cultured marble that’s on the walls around it in order for the tub to fit in that space. Stuff like that is par for the course for this house. Old houses are full of surprises like that. In a little bit we’re going to the locker room at my office to take a shower because we only have one bathroom in the house. At least we have a toilet in the workshop, or we’d be staying in a hotel.
suilebhan
I did the same stupid turn the water on and take a nap thing about 15 years ago. Insurance covered the fiasco, less deductible, and I was able to use the insurance money and some of my own to repair and upgrade the kitchen. One of the dumbest things I ever did and it worked out great.
Scout211 is right; call your home insurance company.
RaflW
@TerryC: Random travel tip (on a dead thread): Maids are, I believe, trained to put the stopper down. It’s how they know if the tub was used, even if the guest was meticulously clean. Drain up means they should wipe it down, since the guest obviously needed to let water out.
The hotel tub should have had an upper emergency drain, but oh well.
Tim in SF
My ADHD keeps me from holding down a regular job, but I’ve never destroyed a house. Gratz. Achievement Unlocked.