Small Water Leak Turns Into Plumbing Nightmare
This isn't a story about a family that had a small water
leak and they called the plumber to fix it, the next day. This story is
about a family who had a small water leak and chose not to fix it for 15
years. Hard to imagine, but things like this happen every day.
The small water leak that I am talking about wasn't something that every
homeowner would even notice. The water was leaking behind the bathtub
fixture valve, only when someone was taking a shower. This type of water
leak isn't something that most people even know about, but destroys
hundreds if not thousands of homes each year.
Since they didn't notice any of the damage, why would it be a concern? I
understand their way of thinking, even though it gets thousands of
homeowners in trouble in each year. If you don't know about water
damage, why would it even concern you? That makes a lot of sense to me
and everyone else that I know.
The next part of this story is going to be hard to believe and if I was
you, I wouldn't believe it either. It was about 11 o'clock in the
evening when the husband was taking a shower and the entire bathtub
collapsed that he was standing in. The water damage had rotted out the
wood subfloor that the bathtub was sitting on and eventually collapsed,
along with the bathtub and the man standing inside of it.
When the bathtub collapsed, the man taking a shower reached for the only
thing that he could grab onto, which was the bathtub water supply valve
and it broke also. Water was going everywhere and they weren't prepared
for this type of home emergency.
There weren't any computers in the home or telephone books. As a matter
of fact, only one person in the house had a cellular phone and the only
car at the residence. Since their closest neighbor was more than 1 miles
away, they chose to just let the water run, because no one in the house
knew how to shut the water off.
They finally got a hold of a plumber, but the damage was unbelievable.
If you don't want something like this to happen to you, I suggest that
you create an emergency home contractors list and make sure that someone
has a phone that works in the house.