It’s not unusual for a family to sneak out of town for a little R&R during a weekend getaway. Make sure everything is turned off, all windows and doors are closed and locked, then take your pets to friends, family or a boarding facility. For most of us, this is as far as we go when preparing to leave our home for any stretch of time. Our latest victim learned the hard way that even a short, two-day absence can be enough time for water damage to destroy almost his entire home. This is the case of the homeowner who got a wet welcome home.
Dwelling: Single Family
Category: Water Damage
Location: Whole House
Irony is a highly subjective topic. Being that as it may, we find it ironic whenever a catastrophe happens to someone who works within the insurance industry since most of our cases involve submitting claims to home insurance providers. The victim in this case happens to be an agent himself. He and his wife left town for only a couple of days but came back to an unwanted wet welcome.
The first sign that something was amiss was the steady drip of water coming from the ceiling in his kitchen. The victim immediately ran upstairs to inspect the room above the kitchen. As soon as he grabbed the banister to help turn the corner and keep his momentum he felt and heard the telltale “squish” of wet carpet under his feet. That slowed him for a brief second before he finished his ascent to the second floor. At the top of the stairs, he gathered his bearings and ended up facing the hall closet which housed the water heater. A pool of water was seeping out from underneath the closed door. Thinking quickly, he flung the door open and found the water valve to the offending appliance and turned the handle counter clockwise until it would turn no more.
Being an insurance agent and having helped his clients through similar situations, he knew that a mop and bucket wouldn’t be enough to get his two story house dried out. He called the emergency service number for Mammoth because he and the owner of Mammoth, Nate, have been longtime friends. He was put in touch with our lead water inspector, Maurice – Rees for short. There are those who call him “Guns” as opposed to his real name because he has trouble fitting through standard doors without having to turn sideways. He attributes his size to power lifting and has quite the entourage at all of the five or six gyms he visits regularly.
Rees arrived on-scene with his partner, Rob. Rob is 6’7″, which is what all of us at Mammoth and most of our customers call him – six-seven for short. As the victim opened the door his eyes widened as he looked up at the two hulking figures standing in his doorway.
With his customary politeness Rees said, “Good morning, Sir. We’re here from Mammoth. I spoke with you on the phone a bit ago.”
Still taking in the sheer size of the men in front of him, the victim, chuckling, asked, “What are you going to do, scare the water out of my house? It’s a good thing this leak isn’t coming from the attic. You boys are so big I don’t think you’d fit up there.”
“That’s what we’ll do if we have to”, Six-seven quipped. “That’s our secret…we show up and water just seeps into whatever hole in the ground it can find.”
The victim welcomed them in and walked them through his stages of discovery, giving Rees a visual of what he’d been told over the phone. Puddles of water covered the tile and wood flooring on the first floor and the paint on numerous walls was bubbling as often happens when it gets wet. They sloshed their way upstairs and the victim showed our water team where he’d shut off the line going to the water heater. Six-seven reached down and did a quick turn to make sure the water was all the way off. Rees saw immediately that the water tank was old and seemed as if it was the original one installed with the house. He knelt down after pulling his flashlight out and examined the area under the tank.
“Obviously this is the source and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, it looks like there’s some significant damage to the flooring under the water heater that will require pulling up part of this floor and putting down a new one.”
Summary: Because the water heater was so old, it had actually rotted through. That, coupled with the cracked pan, is what led to the waterfall down the stairs and kitchen ceiling. While our team was removing the baseboards and casings around door frames to begin the dry-out process, it was discovered that water was still actively leaking from the water tank. The ball inside the shutoff valve was also broken. To make matters worse, the victim didn’t know where the water main to the house was located. In searching for it, it was discovered that the association had some new landscaping done awhile back. The crew doing the install had covered up the main shutoff to the house with plants and several inches of mulch. It took five hours and finding the original blueprints from the association before the water was completely shut off.
There are two major lessons to be learned from this unfortunate series of events. The first should be a no-brainer but we see it all the time: know where all of your water shutoff valves are located. Each water source (i.e. sinks, tubs, dishwasher, etc) has a water supply line with its own shutoff valve. There is also the main shutoff valve to the whole house. For single family homes, these are usually located outside. Condos and townhouses may have them inside the unit. The second lesson is that perhaps it’s not a bad idea to shut the water off to your house if you’re going to be gone overnight, and especially if you’ll be gone for a week or more.
If you’re unsure of where you shutoff valves are located, call Mammoth and request a courtesy walk-through. We’ll find the valves and mark them with bright red tags so that you can find them easily in the future should the need ever arise – all free of charge.