So there I was....(II)

[Sumpter250]

When, Bam!...............followed by the sound of water splashing!
I live in a condo, one of four units in the building, one of which is completely above the four garages, through which (mine) run that unit's water lines.......................my garage is an "Ice Castle". I'll be busy for the next several days, thawing, cleaning, and trying to save things like all the power tools, and other things stored in the "Path Of The Flood". Nothing Railroad, got touched! There is that bright spot, at least.
The Property Manager, now knows what my dark side looks like.
I will be happy when spring arrives! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[Tyson Rayles]

Bummer Pete! I hope the clean-up goes well.

[Boomer]

Bummer!

I have a washer (clothes) on the second floor. Architects idea of "kewl". I know someone who had a hose break while they were away- fo get about it~~~~~~

Good luck with that.

Boomer

[nachoman]

I have a washer (clothes) on the second floor. Architects idea of "kewl". I know someone who had a hose break while they were away- fo get about it~~~~~~

I'd recommend shutting the water off at the valves if you are going on vacation. Also they make valves that have a shut-off activated in the event of a leak. But if you think about it, you have flex lines going to your sinks that could equally fail while you are away.

[eightyeightfan1]

Guess you're lucky that none of the railroad stuff got ruined. Power tools can be replaced. The time, money and pride that would of been destryoed if the layout had gotten flooded would of been worst. Not saying that replacing power tool are cheap.
If that happened to me, and my layout had gotten ruined, the PM would have seen even a darker side, than the dark side of me.


There was a picture going around the e-mail circuit, that showed what happened to this guys gararge in Michigan, when a pipe broke while him and his family were on vacation, flooding his garage, then freeezing, locking both his cars, which were not cheap(BMW and a Porsche if I remember right), in one huge chunk of ice.

Good Luck with the clean-up.

[Russ Bellinis]

You can save your power tools by spraying wd40 into air cooling holes to displace the moisture, then let them sit to dry out for the duration of the winter (you didn't want to work in the winter weather with them anyway did you)? By spring they should all be good to go. The main thing to do is to spray the wd40 liberally in order to keep roller and ball bearings from rusting. The armatures will dry out in a few hours and be as good as new. If you want, you can let them dry for 48 hours; and then turn them plug them in and run them long enough to get them nice and warm to make sure all of the moisture is removed.

[ezdays]

Pete,

What a bummer, I would hope that most of the tools can be saved. Like Russ says, WD40 will go a long way to restoring them to usable condition. Even if this is covered by insurance, there's no way to make good for your time and aggravation. Good luck my friend, sounds like you'll need a bunch...

[tetters]

Haha! I can totally relate to this story. A couple years ago during New Years Day of all days at about 2am. There I was watching Batman Begins just a bit of lighting with my feet up on an ottoman. A beer, some nachos...all set. My wife comes down the stairs 30 minutes later and says, "Hey how come there is water ALL OVER THE FLOOR!!!" I looked down and sure enough there is about a 1/2 inch of water underneath me. I'm sitting right in the middle of it and didn't even notice! :oops:

Long story short. Our 40 gallon hot water tank ruptured at the seam in the next room over. We spent four hours wet vac-ing up the rec room and had to call in the gas company to replace the tank. Good thing we were leasing the tank as they came in that day and had us back in business by the next. But still what a mess.

Glad to hear none of the train stuff was harmed.

Good luck with your own mess there Pete. Hope it all gets sorted out soon. Make sure you get everything propped up off the floor and dried cleaned throughly. Little Styrofoam blocks work great for this. Make sure the PM has his clean up crew pop the baseboards along the walls too if you have them. Other wise the drywall will get soaked from the water and eventually you'll have a mold problem there.

[Brakie]

What a mess! Should that happen here we have maintenance people to clean the mess and do the repairs..A well guarded secrete about living in a "old foggy" apartment complex..

[iis612]

What a nightmare. I am happy that none of the train stuff was touched. Most power tools are quite durable and can withstand alot. I would get them somewhere warm, and use the WD40. If you leave them in the cold the ice will expand and contract with temp changes and cause parts to crack.

I had a basement level apartment a few years ago, and every time it would snow or rain, my apartment would flood. It had to happen 4 times before the property management did anything about it. The maintenance man said it was the fridge, then a leak under the kitchen sink.
Eventually they found the real problem. The vent pipe for the sewer line was cracked at the base of the trap elbow.
My insurance was really great about it, and over the several floods they paid out alot of money to replace damaged clothing, electronics, firearms, and my leather duty gear.

I hope your management does right by you, as well as the insurance company. If you need to borrow some power tools, I live about an hour or so south of you.

Matt

[Sumpter250]

The crew is coming tomorrow to complete the permanent repairs......everybody is fighting with the insurance company. Things could have been much worse, guess I won't be buying lottery tickets for a while......used up this year's allocation of good luck! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[TrainNut]

Haha! I can totally relate to this story. A couple years ago during New Years Day of all days at about 2am... Our 40 gallon hot water tank ruptured at the seam in the next room over. ...Good thing we were leasing the tank as they came in that day and had us back in business by the next.

Ironic, last year, New Years Day, our hot water heater also ruptured. Luckily, as we live in a moderate climate, our hot water heater resides in an outdoor closet. Most of the water just ran out the door onto the concrete porch. I did have some cleanup though as I did not want it to ruin the sheetrock inside the closet... it did. Then we're thinking, New Years day and our water heater goes out. Great. How long is this gonna take to get fixed. Good old Sears was at our house in an hour and a half with a new one and had it installed in half an hour. NOT what I would have expected.

[Go Big1]

Pete, I can totally relate to your situation. 2 winters ago I was camping in Wisconsin with by oldest son (Indian Guides) when I get the frantic call from the wife that the 2nd floor tub won't work. Great, frozen pipes. I walked my wife through opening up the access panel to the main water shut off valve, then told her how to get her hair dryer out and push warm air into the 1st floor soffit (where the pipes were located). I told her that when the pipes thaw 1 of 2 things was going to happen, either the tub faucet would start working again, or water would start gushing all over the place. Wouldn't you know it that the latter happens, and she, in a major panic, starts turning the shut off valve for the main THE WRONG WAY! I wasn't home, but I am guessing we had water running from the 2nd floor down through the 1st floor into the basement for a good 5 to 10 minutes before she figured out the whole "righty tighty, lefty loosey" thing.

Anyway, I have since insulated that soffit as best as I can, and with some additional heat up there, the pipe has not frozen yet this winter. Just make sure when the property manager comes out to fix the damage, they address it in such a way so that it doesn't happen again.

[Sumpter250]

the whole "righty tighty, lefty loosey" thing.

That works............except for the "dimmer" on the dash lights....you have to "lefty" that to make the lights brighter!
Well, it is a "dimmer" control, not a "brighter" control Being an electronics technician, I've become used to "clockwise" increases the function, Counterclockwise, decreases it. A water shut-off valve is turned clockwise to "shut off" the water

There were about 15 pipe, or fitting ruptures. The "owner" bailed out, and had the power and gas shut off. Let's see, water not running, no heat, single digit temps above, and below zero....... pipes won't freeze...........................much!
It is zero dark thirty, "today" is going to be another long day.

[Go Big1]

Pete, I work in real estate and see that all the time. Owners leave houses, and have the gas and electric shut off, but then forget to shut the water off. I would bet that there is a main shut off for that unit somewhere, and had the old owner actually taken the extra 5 minutes to shut that valve and then open a couple faucets in the unit, none of this would have happened. It really is frustrating. Hopefully your nightmare will end soon.

PS - gonna have a high of 10 degrees tomorrow. Man am I tired of this winter...