Drains that drain and washers that won't...

[Twich]

Well, yesterday was supposed to be a relaxing day at home with hubby and the kids. I had all these big plans to work on my newest fic (a parody/crossover that is already receiving rave reviews from pre-screenings...oops sorry. Shameless plug there.) and hopefully get some laundry and cleaning done around the house.

Well, at 8:52 yesterday morning, something absolutely dreadful happened. My washer DIED. I mean DIED. My hubby is the most incredible fix it guy on the planet and he's already fixed it several times, so when he looked at it and said "We'll never have a new washer by tonight" I knew we were in trouble.

I knew it was even worse than that when I asked if he wanted me to start scouring thrift stores to see what they had...and he said NO. We need a NEW washer. Now ya gotta understand hubby. He's NOT someone who is stingy or anything. He LOVES new things as much as everyone else, but he is a die hard fixer. He likes things that he can fix if they break. Therefore, he doesn't like new-fangled fancy computer chip type appliances. You can't just go in and replace a part so easily on those. He likes "solid" appliances. So he told me long ago that we would probably always stick with older used appliances that were easier (and cheaper) to fix. So him telling me that we need a NEW washer made me about :faint:. We spent the morning scouring the internet for the "best" because if we're gonna buy new, we're gonna get the highest rated/best there is.

We not only FOUND it...but we found it at a local Sears store IN STOCK! We were able to buy it and go pick it up LAST NIGHT! So, washer broke before nine, we had a brand new washing machine by seven.

Problem? When taking out the old washer, we found out (in a very unfortunate way) that the drain pipe had been improperly installed. It broke. Drain pipe sticking out of the wall with all these jagged edges....just pouring water into our house. (Since the washer died in cycle....) We had a flood. In a tiny military house, that constitues most of the downstairs before we were able to stop it. (Can't turn off the water, it's a DRAIN.)

Hubby, very angry at himself for not noticing the problem with the drain pipe, decides to go to Lowe's to get the replacement and see if he could fix it. He leaves...and then disaster strikes.

Our house is part of a large structure. It's sort of set up like townhouses/condos, but it was built in the early forties. We found out last night that whenever ANY of the other three families in our unit does their laundry, it all drains through the same drainage system, pipe. Ergo, EVERYONE'S DIRTY LAUNDRY WATER DRAINED INTO OUR HOUSE AT VARIOUS INTERVALS LAST NIGHT. We had SEVERAL floods in our house. Never knew when it was gonna happen. Two sets of neighbors was gone, but had left their washer going. The other set of neighbors were able to stop theirs, but not before our house was under several inches of water.

SO....we did get a new washer. AWESOME washer. Front loader...REALLY nice. Lots of gadgets and fun things on it. (Even tells you if you used too much soap...digital display says SUDS :lol ) And hubby DID get it hooked up around midnight or so.(He's very determined.) But now I'm spending at least the next two days cleaning up debris and ruined things from our flood. *sigh*

Mixed blessings. I think they are the staple of life. Makes you glad for what you have. :) And today, I'm awfully glad I have a new washer. Even with all the extra work.

Just thought I'd share.

[BlackThorn]

Ouch! That had to have sucked majorly!

We had our washer break and flood the house a few years ago. Fortunately, it wasn't nearly as bad as yours sounds (total damage to three rooms: the laundry room, my bathroom, and my bedroom . . . plus the hallway connecting them.)

I hope you get everything set to rights soon. :hug:

*wanders off imagining Twich and family stranded on the couch in a flooded living room with the family pet swimming past*

[NebariNookiee]

When it rains, it pours...

Sorry -- couldn't resist.:smokin:

[Selena]

Sorry about your disaster. I have found when something goes wrong it usually happens in the worst way at the worst possible time with the direst outcomes.

Your tale of woe reminds me of a movie I saw in Australia when I was home a couple of years ago.
The Movie was called "The Man Who Sued God."

It's the harrowing tale of a poor guy who is a barrister (trial lawyer) and has been through a rather nasty divorce and suffers a bit of a breakdown. So he buys a fishing boat that is his business. One day the boat is hit by lightning and sinks.
He tries to claim on his insurance but the company refuse to pay because they claim the lightning strike was an 'Act of God'.
He decides to sue God and the insurance company in the process.

So do you think you can claim flood insurance when the flood came from inside the house instead of outside?

[stellar]

That's a horrible story. When my wife and I lived in an apartment our washer did that too... twice. It always seemed to happen near major hollidays... wierd. Fortunately for us it was an apartment and we were on the second floor so it eventually drained through the downstairs ceiling... sucked pretty bad for that guy though.

We've got a house now and a Whirlpool Duet washer/dryer set. Front loader, all the bells and whistles. It'll wash as much stuff as you can shove in there and uses half the soap as a top loader. Is that what you got Twich?

[Twich]

Yes actually! But it's the Kenmore version. We just got the washer and we'll hope the dryer we have holds out until we move. Then we'll get the dryer. But yeah. I love that it uses SO LITTLE detergent AND that I can actually wash my blankets and comforters in it. :D

Good thing too. My youngest daughter woke up at midnight vomiting. Covered her sheets and blankets. I told hubby it was a darned good thing I didn't have to tote two kids and baskets of vomity clothes to the laundromat today. :lol

So yes, despite everything, I'm VERY thankful for my washer. :D :D

[DentArthurDent]

ah, Twichie, you always try to look on the "broight side of life"
have a hug
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Twichie&Family}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

AFD
'who'll be whistling that tune all day'

[samati75]

So, not to be morbidly nosey (but I am!); what happened to the house and the neighbors? Do you have ppl below you? What does base housing do when something like this happens?

[Clarsax]

Sounds like a mess. I hope there wasn't too much damage.

[eta_carinae]

Originally posted by Twich
Well, yesterday was supposed to be a relaxing day at home with hubby and the kids.

Silly girl! Don't you know Mondays are never relaxing? Glad to hear you got a new washer out of it though. What a story! And your daughter puking too, that's the icing on the cake :D

[Digger]

Our house is part of a large structure. It's sort of set up like townhouses/condos, but it was built in the early forties. We found out last night that whenever ANY of the other three families in our unit does their laundry, it all drains through the same drainage system, pipe I know exactly what you mean. I live in a condo. There are major drainage pipes that run all the way up the three stories of the building. All the water that drains out of every toilet, sink and shower runs out that drain. A few months ago I started noticing small puddles of water in my bathroom. I thought it might be a loose seal on the toilet, as most of the water seemed to be around it. Sadly, this turned out to be not the case. Very soon the water problem got much worse, and the walls started to rot. I called a plumber and he said it ws almost certainly due to the "common" drain. He had to tear out a section of the wall and replace a section of the pipe. Then I had to have the entire bathroom fixed. new walls, new vanity, new tiles, new paint. The works. The good news is that because it is the common drain pipe all the costs of fixing things fell on the Condo Association. The bad news is that (a) it took 5 months to get it all fixed due to the condo association making me prove it was the main pipe and then taking their sweet time to hire a general contractor to come and fix everything. Oh, and the general contractor did a crappy job. Made a mess, didn't replace the tiles along the baseboard, didn't put down a base-coat before painting, installed the vanity crooked. They still haven't come back and fixed it yet. I had just spent thousands a couple of months earlier on new paint throughout the condo as well as new carpet. Everything looked new. Then this. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!

[NebariNookiee]

I lived in this apartment a number of years ago. We lived in the bottom apartment under two others. The plumbing for the bathrooms in all three apartments were accessible by a hatch in the linen closet. If you stuck your head into the hatch in my closet you could see all the way up to the top floor bathroom.

Well, I noticed one afternoon that there was some water coming down into my closet, so I informed the office and they “claimed” to have fixed it. About two days later a massive flood occurred in my closet. Everything on the floor of the closet was destroyed (including my “Metallica: Binge & Purge” box set). I went to the office and myself and the maintenance guy went to the apartment upstairs to figure out what happened.

Come to find out that the pipe for the shower had cracked and some total dipsh!t had wedged "drywall plaster" into the crack, thinking it would hold. All it did was dissolve. I got a new apartment for the same price out of it – so I can’t really complain.

To this day I can't believe how moronic some people are -- and they get paid for their stupidity.

[Twich]

Originally posted by samati75
So, not to be morbidly nosey (but I am!); what happened to the house and the neighbors? Do you have ppl below you? What does base housing do when something like this happens?

We don't have anyone below us. Base housing is side by side. We only have a crawl space (unfinished at that) underneath us.

Funny thing. Our entire house is linoleum that has been pasted over beautiful hard wood floors. (Yes, my living room is brown linoelum...like you would find in schools.) Thing is, when they put the linoleum in, they never sealed it. AKA, when it gets wet, it soaks into the floor. Stays there. Moldy. Icky. Our neighbor lost an entire mop bucket of water once. When she came back with towels to soak it up, it had soaked completely into the floor.

So we "lost" a portion of it through the floor and we mopped up the rest of what we could.

And base? They do nothing. Absolutely nothing. They will probably charge us for a warped floor underneath the washer although when we move, they will be destroying the house.

Last year we had a heater break in my daughter's room. Flooded her whole room, soaked through the floor and into the downstairs. Know what they said? Just clean up the water. It'll be fine. Our entire house smells like rotten onions in the summer, but "it'll be fine". This from the people who let us go six weeks in the middle of winter last year without heat, and two weeks this year with no hot water.

So base? No worries. They couldn't care less except to "charge" us for the damage when we leave. And we'll probably be able to fight that since our housing is actually deemed uninhabitable and no one is supposed to be living here. (Substandard for humans...seriously.) :rolleyes:

[trubador]

My Dad sold washers & dryers at Sears for over 25 years before he retired in '91. Whirlpools and Kenmores (the generic/Sears model Whirlpool) machines were always the best units. He wasn't too keen on front loaders (seals/leaks down the line), but for heavy duty washing they're still great units.

:aok: Twich!

[BrowderChick]

I live in an upstairs apt and the drain got plugged with the apt downstairs and backed up mine and my sink and the washer over flowed all over my kitchen. I have shut off valves and I turned it off as soon as it started...They got a major flood down there but not from my washer...