Plumbing Issues
We’ve had some pretty harsh rains here lately, so when I saw a puddle on my front porch I thought nothing of it.
Even the next day. I came home and noticed the porch was still a bit damp with a small puddle. OK. No worries. It must have rained a little during the day.
Day three. There’s that pesky puddle. Pretty sure there was no rain. That shit should have dried by now. Closer inspection showed that it was coming from the seam of the garage on the sidewalk.
My first thought was THE ROOF! The roof is on fire! No. Wait. That’s something else. The roof might be leaking and the water is making its way down the inside of the wall separating the garage from front porch. Some bad news, indeed. The wall felt… normal. Wasn’t gushy or damp. I went inside the garage to have a look. That’s when I noticed the drip. Coming from one of the connections at the water shutoff inside the garage.
That’s some pretty good news! I don’t have to work on my roof! Simple pex and shark bite connectors. Say… I wonder if I wiggle the pex tube a little if it would settle into place and stop dripping? BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA! Now the water is spraying out. I’ve made a huge mistake. Note to self: never wiggle a dripping water line.
I run out to the water box at the edge of the driveway, pull the top off, reach in with a pair of pliers and turn the water off to the house. The spraying stops. A quick check of the time – 9:04PM – tells me that Lowes is closed. Fuck. Guess this is going to have to wait until tomorrow.
For fear of loosening up the other connectors tied to the same area as a result of me yanking the old connector off, I figured I’d replace the entire set up in that box.
Problem solved. But not before going a night and morning without running water. I can’t tell you how many times I reached for the faucet to rinse something out. Carol went to the store that night to get 6 gallons of water to hold us over. It was almost like camping. Well, tent camping. Not like our RV camping. Where we have actual running water.