Bummer!

I'm sitting here at 11:30 PM and feeling rather bummed out.

I'd been having a fairly normal day.  No big deals.  No problems.

I was in the bathroom around 6:30 PM & it was dry as a bone.  Then, around 7:15 PM I walked into the bathroom and started splashing as I walked.  PROBLEM!  By the time I noticed it, the water was about 1/8th inch deep in the bathroom and was headed down the hallway.

I put a bunch of sponges down to try & stem the flow & sprinted over to my neighbor (a handyman kind of guy) to ask if he could help me shut off the main valve at the meter.  Believe it or not, he actually has one of those wand tools that is designed to shut off the valve with a minimum of fuss.  Which he did.  I then went back inside to start mopping things up and also to call a plumber.

I tried calling the plumber I'd used on the past 2 plumbing problems.  I discovered they don't have 24 hour emergency service.  Since I didn't notice the leak until well after 5:00 PM, they were out of the equation.  Having seen a RotoRooter truck doing work at a couple of houses down the street after February's freeze, I called them.  The supervisor said all their work crews were booked for the evening and suggested I call someone else.  I then called a plumbing firm that I'd used several years ago for a small leak at the T-joint behind the kitchen sink.  They'd done good work then, so decided to use them again.

They had a crews out on several jobs but said they could get someone out if I didn't mind waiting.  I said OK.  A tech called around 9:15 PM and said he was finishing up a job and could be at my house in 45 minutes.  I said OK and then sprinted down the hill to Walmart to use their bathroom.  Thank goodness for stores that are open 24 hours a day!

Side note:  when you ask people a question, why do they give you an answer and then say - oh, but you might want to disregard what I just told you?  When I walked into Walmart I asked the employee near the door where their restrooms were.  He pointed to one near the front of the store.  Then he said - but you probably won't want to use THAT bathroom since they called for housekeeping to clean it and nobody's been in in yet.  Sigh.  He then said there were bathrooms at the back of the store.  Why not just say - the bathrooms at the front of the store are out of commission so you should just head to the back?

In any case, the plumber showed up around 10:00 PM.  I was hoping it was something small.  It wasn't.  It was coming from under the slab.  Sigh.  The plumber gave me two options.  He could fix the leak which would involve jackhammering through the slab.  Unfortunately, I could expect more leaks in the future since I have that poly-whatever piping which has been discredited in recent years.  This is also the fourth leak I've had to fix in the past however many years - including one several years ago which did require jackhammering through the slab.

I decided to go for Plan B.  This would be re-piping the house.  (Although the price is about what I expected, I do have room on my credit card - thank goodness.)  The plumber did a whole lot of explaining what would be involved.  Interestingly - there will be no jackhammering.  What they will do is replace the water line from the meter to the house.  They will then run a pipe inside the wall up to the crawl space and then run the pipe over to the area of the house where my pipes are located.  (Note:  I have one bathroom.  It and the laundry area and the kitchen area are all located in one area of the house.  This makes it easier to do the work).  They will then replace all poly-whatever pipes in the work area.  In addition, they're replacing all the turn-on/turn off fittings.  Plus they will put a main turn-off valve inside the house so in case of future leaks I can sprint into my bedroom and turn things off instead of sprinting out into the front yard.  Much nicer.  Plus, I've had a few turn on/turn off fittings that really need to be replaced.  These will be replaced as part of the work.  Oh, and they will also be putting some insulation in so I won't have to worry as much in the future.  (The builder put NO, absolutely NONE, insulation in the area where the pipes are located.  Was this stupid or what.  Cheap jerks.)  I decided to go with this plan since I'm still 'between jobs' and I might as well take the time to do it now instead of worrying that when I get a job - I'd come home one day to a flooded home due to yet another leak.

The plumber said he could have someone out to start the work tomorrow morning - around 9:00 AM or so.  The job should take about 1 1/2 days.  The plumber said he'd guarantee that by the end of day one I will have toilet use.  Day two should be involved with insulating the pipe area.  (Another good note - the price I was quoted is the final price - the plumber guaranteed I would not be hit with any surprise 'extras'.)

After the plumber left, I went back down the hill to Walmart.  I bought three 24-packs of bottled water.  This way I have water to brush teeth.  Fortunately I washed my hair last night and should be able to stretch things until the water's back on.  If I really need to pee - I can use a bunch of the bottled water to fill the toilet tank.  Otherwise, there's always Walmart.

In the meantime, I'm curtailing my fluid intake.

Papillon