A friend of mine went on vacation for a week. While he was on vacation, the supply line to one of the toilets ruptured.
When he returned he found this.
That has always been a fear of mine. I know someone whose washing machine hose burst while they were gone for 2 weeks.
However, a few years ago we were leaving at the butt-crack of dawn for a vacation. Everyone was waiting in the vehicle when I dashed downstairs to shut off the main water line. I did so, and then I saw drip, drip, drip. The freaking main shut-off was leaking.
Luckily it stopped after 10 minutes or so. I was still worried about it so I had a relative stop in every couple of days to make sure there was no further leaking.
Those seldom used shut-off valves - often they work fine until you mess with them.
mmm
I once had the icemaker in my refrigerator spring a leak. I was only gone for a day though. When I got home and opened the front door, the first thing I saw was water dripping from an overhead light fixture. (!!!) I ran upstairs and saw water trickling out of the refrigerator.
Now you, calmly reading this, could probably tell me the one thing I should NOT do in that situation. But I was a little freaked out and didn’t take the time to think through my subsequent action. Yes, I immediately pulled open the refrigerator door. The damn thing was FULL of water, which gushed out across the kitchen floor.
After that day, I disconnected my icemaker and have never connected a water supply to any refrigerator I’ve had since then.
I was in FL on vacation with the family unit. As we were leaving KSC, my phone rings, and my buddy/cat feeders first words were " Remember that scene out of ‘Risky Business’"?
A sweat joint let go between my unit and the dingbats upstairs, blew a meter square hole out of the ceiling, and flooded the first floor and basement. When I got home, the cat was sitting on the stairs with it’s legs crossed, watching the litter box float by.
Of course, the condo association did not want to hear of it, despite said pipe being located in common space between floors, beyond my paint. There was a few years of court activity from that.
Hmm. I never did, but maybe I should. I do turn off the hot water heater and it would be easy enough to turn off the main valve.
I have a drip irrigation setup on a timer, set up to keep part of the garden (a raised bed and pots) watered while I’m on vacation.
It’d be a real downer if a hose or gasket blew and I came home to find Lake Edna replacing the yard, but fortunately that hasn’t happened.
I do. I’ve had two hot water heaters die on me, with no damage since I was there, but I’d rather not have it happen when I’m away. Yeah, you’d still have a flood, but it will stop.
This happened to some neighbors. Went for an extended visit with in-laws, came back to a ruined house. They never moved back in or fixed it. The house sat there rotting for a good while. (At the same time as the housing bubble burst.)
Eventually bought at auction, some brothers spent a lot of time and money fixing it. Lots of mold control contractors. Then they sold it. Took a while, the price kept coming down. I did the math. The net money they got on this had to have been on the order of a dollar or two an hour for their own time spent on it.
Santa Fe now has high tech water meters that record hourly data and upload it every 24 hours, presumably via a cellular network. I can go to my online account and see my usage daily. They incorporate software monitoring to alert you by text & email to a leak - presumably indicated by high constant hourly flow over 24 hours, since it does not seem to be bamboozled when I start periodic irrigation in summer and my usage increases dramatically. Check with your local water company - few of my neighbors seem to be aware that the service exists here, so maybe you have it too.
Consider that there might be unforeseen consequences of turning off the main water supply in winter - it may affect your heating system if it’s not well maintained. In principle I think it should not matter over a short period, it should only be required to replace slow losses due to evaporation.
I went on vacation and the valve to my water softener broke, spilling full pressure water into my basement (partially finished ) The floor drain was at least partially clogged (from dryer lint that was in garbage can that tipped over?)
I had ~4 inches of water. Since it was clean water, insurance covered it.
So when I leave for more than 2 days I shut off the water main
Brian
We’ve never been able to find our main shut off.
A few years ago I was trying to do some toilet repair but couldn’t get the water supply to the toilet to shut off all the way. So I called a plumber to come out and replace the supply valve. He asked me to go shut off the main downstairs while he went to get the tools out of his truck. I went down and turned the handle – which probably hadn’t been turned in the 20+ years since we moved in – and the handle came right off in my hand! Water started spewing everywhere. I thank my lucky stars that it happened while I had a plumber there – he was able to turn the water off at the street, so the amount of water I had to wet-vac out of the basement was minimal.
We’ve always had someone staying in our house to tend our critters, but after a toad-soaker of a rain, we had a lot of water in the basement. Our sitter called us and cleaned it up as we directed, and he got a bonus.
Eons ago, we had a rental property that was vacant. And the toilet supply line upstairs failed. Thank goodness for insurance. Then thank goodness we got rid of the property. Never again.
You really should call in a plumber so they can locate it for you and test it to make sure it works. Better that than the panicked search for it when something bursts.
Or call your city water folks. At our previous house, the main shutoff was in the street in front of the house and you needed a special tool to turn it off.
I think in addition to the main shutoff at the street, most houses have a shutoff valve within the house that doesn’t require a special tool and you may want to shut off the water there in a big hurry if there is a break.
Conversely, I have a vacation home where I leave the heating on at its lowest setting (that means gas and water keep being used at a very low volume), because otherwise when I get there the first thing I need to do is call gas maintenance. My neighbors who leave for long periods do the same.
One summer in college, my friend and I remodeled my mothers house, including finishing the basement.
My friend asked me if we ever used the water shutoff for the water to the outside faucet. We had never so my friend said we could just bury to shutoff valve behind the drywall.
The winter, I came home one day to several inches of water on the basement. The water pipe to the outside had frozen and cracked.
It had never done that before because the basement had been unfinished before so there was enough heat to keep it from freezing. After we finished the basement then the water pipe got colder.
Fortunately, I remembered where the shutoff valve was, and making a hole with a hammer allowed quick access.
Had that happened after my mom sold the house, it would have been a bigger problem.
That wasn’t the only shortcut my friend took, but fortunately nothing else caused a problem.
I don’t shut off the house, as that valve is quite old. But I do shut off the valves at the toilets and sinks, as the weak link is always those connecting flex hoses. The washing machine has an automatic sensor valve at the source that shuts down if a leak is detected, and our water heater is tankless.
A toilet supply line failing overnite can fill a house with 2 or 3 inches of water everywhere before you get up to pee at 2a. Truth.