Water, Water, Everywhere....

and not a drop to drink. Or bathe with, or do laundry with, or flush with....because when you have a leak and don't know where it is coming from, you must shut off the water. Oh, the things I am learning that I never thought I would have to know!

Last Friday the kids had early release, and Noah came over to play. Being the ace mother that I am, I told him and Sophie I would give each of them a dollar if they picked up the basement. All toys had to be put away properly, etc. They were thrilled and hopped to it. About 30 minutes later I went down to check on them, and Noah told me his feet were freezing. Ace mother responds: "Put your shoes on honey, and your feet won't be cold." "Well, Miss Darfy, I can't, my feet are really wet." "So are mine, " chimes in Sophie, "I told you last night Mommy, I think Emmy spilled her cup down here." This rang a bell, I do remember Sophie telling me her feet were wet, but I was more interested in herding them all upstairs for bed, so didn't pay much attention.

Now I was paying attention and felt the carpet; it was soaked. I quickly opened the door to the furnace and water heater room, and the floor had about 1/2 inch of standing water on it, this was leaking out onto the carpet and had soaked it almost all the way over to the pool table, about a 6 foot span. So I did what any grown woman would do when her husband is unavailable: I called my father. He arrived about 40 minutes later. Upon his inspection he realized it was not the water heater leaking as I had told him, but a leak coming from above, dripping down from the floor joists. We quickly checked every toilet, sink, washer and dryer and tub in the house. Nothing amiss. By now Kathleen had arrived with Samuel to pick up Noah, Michael and Emily were up from nap, and chaos was ensuing. Dad filled some pitchers, told me not to flush unless we had to, and said he would be back in the morning to take out the bottom of the cabinet that was directly above the leak. Then he turned off the water. I made pizza, Kathleen and I fed the kids, and then she left, taking Sophie with her to spend the night.

The next morning Dad removed the cabinet bottom, and found...nothing, it was completely dry. Wow, that really stunk. So now we had a leak somewhere, but could not find it. By this time he had cut out a section of the drywall in the basement to get at the pipes. Still nothing. We had coffee time, he thought some more, and gave it one more look. Then I got the call to come down and see. Here's what he had found, and only because he felt the spray.

That gray pipe on the left has a tiny pinhole in it, and you can barely see the spray of water it is sending up onto the joist on the far right. The vertical wire in the middle of the picture is the hanger that Dad threaded down from the hole in the cabinet above, to make sure he was in the right area. It was hard to see the leak, it was so fine, and was spraying up and across. The water then leaked down and pooled behind and under the water heater.

One the leak had been found, we were quite pleased with ourselves. That was huge, not having to start making holes in the wall to find the offending pipe. Dad again showed me how to turn the water on and off, since I hadn't been able to do it the previous night. He would come back the next (Sunday) afternoon to make a temporary fix. All was well, except I could never get the water off all the way, so we did have more leakage that night, but it was mininal, and able to be contained with a couple of towels I left down.

The temporary fix is a clamp over the leak, plus tape. Dad also installed this baffle (material from his boat deck) to catch any water in case the clamp fails. And the bucket for it to drain into. So far the clamp is holding, now we (and by we I mean Dad) will figure out what sort of pipe to use to replace it. But, in the meantime, we have water, which is huge.

A huge thanks to both my parents, Dad for saving me the ton of money that calling a plumber would have been, and Mom for keeping the twinkles busy so Dad could work in peace, and I could be his helper. Also to Kathleen, for loaning me her box fan and for taking Sophie to spend the night and next day. Sophie wanted to know how Grandpa found the leak, and I told her he found it because he didn't give up. It took some thought, and some time, but in the end it all turned out well. A good lesson for this grown up as well.