Well the washer is on linoleum…right next to laminate. I was in the garage trying to figure out where a puddle of water came from. So the water was a little more than 1/4" deep and jumped the T-strip and was coming through the wall.
Now, I have a pan for the washer, the deepest they have, and a water sensor is coming for my alarm system.
While I am in there a few things need to be done anyway that is why I am not too pissed about it. The hoses and spigots are horribly rotten so replacing them and getting a washer pan was actually on my short list but not short enough. I actually called to have that done almost a year ago plumber told me $900, I said, thanks I can do it. Slap on some paint while every thing is out of that closet, better than new, when I finish it.
I believe ours are 18mmDx13.25mm That is a 10mmGT2 20T idler 5mm bore.
I was in the utility room and all of a sudden my phone went off saying water was detected. I turned around to see my 3 year old nephew with the water detector puck in his mouth! LOL
was actually on my short list but not short enough
Prevention definitely beats cure when it comes to water damage.
I strongly suggest the stainless-wrapped supply hoses, and also suggest putting them on an inpsection/replacement schedule of maybe 5-7 years. Our old washer was low enough that we could see when the rubber started to bulge. Now we’ve got front-loaders on pedestals and I need an inspection mirror to peek back there.
We’ve been in our house long enough to have 2 sump pumps fail. Finished basements are expensive to rehab from water damage, even with homeowners insurance helping out. Replacing the pump on a day it isn’t raining cats and dogs is much less stressful than trying to stay ahead of the rising water after the pump has shot craps.
I got some fancy hoses, the old ones were rusted on I had to get at them with a sawzall to get the spigots off. They were old hose spigots so I go the correct 1/4 turns on there now.
Everything is done, waiting for some Spackle to dry, then paint, and do laundry!
Paint the spackle blue, call it woad, and skip laundry!
(Yes, I know Braveheart was a travesty from historical and cultural points of view, and woad was never used as a body decoration by the Celts, but a half-naked, blue-spackled madman playing with CNC machinery in his garage just sounds… fun!)
We came back from a 3 week trip to Europe. Our friend who was watching the house had checked it a couple days earlier. We had been traveling for something like 36 hours. Walk in the door, sounds like a faucet is on. I start checking around and it was the water meter, in the basement, fully open. It looked like the faucet of a bath tub. The bottom had just blown out.
We were lucky it was an unfinished basement and the drains worked. The water successfully traveled across the whole floor and into the drain. It ruined a couple of cardboard boxes but it missed things like the particle board desk I kept down there. We talked to the person who was checking the house and she heard it and thought maybe the sprinklers were running. So it must have been running for at least a few days.
So I shut off the water main and call the city. The repair guy calls me back and asks if it can wait until Monday. Nope. Tonight, please.
Shortly after I bought this house I had a plumber in to do a little work, disconnect the dishwasher that wasn’t working, replace the fitting to the hot water heater because the old ones were corroded and plumb in the water and drain for my espresso machine. I was heading out of town the same day for a week at a customer site. I got a call from my wife two days later, she’d stopped by the house to drop something off and there was water all over the kitchen. Seems the plumber had gotten frustrated with the plumbing for the espresso machine and walked off the job Monday afternoon. He’d gotten the water heater done, disconnected the dishwasher and then left without finishing the espresso. That was Monday. On Tuesday the city dropped by and turned on the water. Turns out the plumber had disconnected the dishwasher but hadn’t actually closed the valve. Had to pony up for a new floor, the previous owner had installed cheap laminate flooring and hadn’t sealed anything in the kitchen.
Your story reminded me of one more very lucky moment as well. I was plumbing my downstairs bathroom remodel and using PEX for the first time. I was using a SharkBite connector between the copper stubs and the transition to the plastic pipe. I swear I was not even touching the plumbing but working for a couple hours in the general area when the SharkBite let go of the PEX and water started pouring out! I had the water main turned off in less than a minute because I was right there with the wrench. I know many people swear by those fittings but I have soldered every copper connection since.
Well since we’re swapping water damage stories…About 7 years ago at our old house I came home one winter evening from work and stepped into the kitchen from the garage. I immediately realized my day was about to get worse when it felt really humid, the faint smell of chlorine filled the air, and I could hear water running. I ran down the basement steps to find a pipe had burst in the basement. Luckily it was near the water tank and furnace so there was a drain in the ground. Unluckily the pipe was directly above a shelf that was full of bins containing my wife’s old collage stuff and some stuff of mine from growing up. That sucked. Now I feel really stupid about it because it was totally avoidable. I never turned the shutoffs for the outdoor spigots off. That only has to happen once. At least it was the CPVC part the split, since my copper pipe sweating game is pretty rusty. Of course, the really funny part was that my wife was working from home the whole day. Well, at least Voltron survived…
Thanks Ryan, mines are also idlers 10mm GT2 20T with 5mm bore, but the ones with teeth (ordered that accidentally), so may the ones without teeth are a little bit smaler, I will check this.
All that vibration is bad for the structure of the house. After a while it will start to loosen the nails holding whatever is below and around the washing machine together.
Regarding instructions being easy - I pulled a NOOB move when I cut my first belt. I included the length needed to fold over at each end but omitted going around the idlers/pulley, I knew the mistake as soon as I made the cut. I even measured twice!
The instructions talk about inserting the belt while building the trucks. I don’t think I had enough big picture understanding at that point. I think the solution would be to include the X and Y belt cut lengths in the calculator, not just the total.
Had to pony up for a new floor, the previous owner had installed cheap laminate flooring and hadn’t sealed anything in the kitchen.