When our house was built in 1914 there was no bathroom on the main level. At some point during the many updates someone converted what may have been a pantry or some kind of 'sick' room into a bathroom with shower, sink and toilet. The bathroom shares a wall with the boot room (which is basically the outside with walls because they never insulated the it) which normally isn't a problem unless it gets very, very cold (ie, January in Iowa). When they installed the water lines for the bathroom apparently no considered Iowa winters as they put the pipes in the wall that, on the other side, can be a frozen tundra. Nor did they consider putting any sort of insulation around the pipes or even in the wall to prevent the pipes from bursting. We insulated the wall a few years ago but when the temperature really drops the pipes still freeze so we have resorted to space heaters in the boot room to warm it enough for the ice to melt (talk about energy efficiency...) So far we have been lucky not to have burst any pipes...
When I came home this evening I turned the space heaters on in the boot room as I have had to do for the last three days and turned the knob on in the shower. I started watching Project Runway (I just bought season 4 and so far it is so 'fierce'!) and about thirty minutes later I hear the water running. Usually I have gone to the bathroom and just shut the water off, leaving the space heaters going to keep things liquidy. But tonight, as I pull back the shower curtain I notice that the water is not flowing from the shower head but instead from the knob of the shower- and not just flowing- pouring. Of course I stand there dumbfounded for a few moments looking from the shower head to the knob and back again as I start turning the knob while becoming more and more confused and panicked as nothing happens and the knob just keeps turning 'round and 'round. Something finally clicks and I think "I have to turn the water off!" and I run downstairs where I, once again, stared dumbfounded in front of the breaker box and the list of which breakers do what. Finally I figure out the right breaker and shut off the water- only to notice that the floor below the shower area is wet. I'm terrified that we have finally burst a pipe and I call Art, who tells me "Oh, it's mostly leaking from the pipe that drains the shower."
"Shouldn't we get that fixed?", I ask.
"Eh, it's not a big deal, we'll fix it in the spring when we re-do the bathroom. It's been leaking for awhile so it's nothing to really worry about."
I think this sounds made up, but I have no knowledge of plumbing to backup my suspicions so I prefer to believe his lie.
So just when I thought the worst had happened, it turned out to be a big deal: the valve on the knob froze and broke, not the pipe. We won't be able to have running water until Art fixes it but we have plenty of gallon jugs (left over from past ice storms) and we'll have to abide by the old Canadian rule "If it's yellow, let it mellow." Crisis averted!
1 comment:
My plumber hubby would be impressed that you even realized the water COULD be turned off. You would not believe the number of calls he gets (mainly from women) from people staring at gushing water from broken pipes not realizing that one can actually shut off the water and minimize the damage. Every so often his service calls are JUST driving over to people's homes to turn the water off. Ugh...what a messs...enjoy bathing in the sink for a while.
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