Wednesday, December 17, 2008

How's that water shut-off valve working for you? How about that other one?

If you had asked me this oh, say, day before yesterday, I wouldn't have thought about it--after all, I had at least had the forethought to ask my husband where it was and and how to turn it off in case I had to use it in an emergency. Yesterday, we needed to turn it off. Nothing happened.

For reasons that are unnecessary to my point, and also thankfully, not reasons that would be considered an emergency, we needed to have the water off for work in the kitchen. Thankfully, also, my husband was the one that made the discovery that the valve no longer wanted to be useful in any discernible way. When turning the valve failed to yield any results, efforts were made to reach people that might know how to resolve the problem, to no avail. I had company over at the time, and the suggestion was made that we might have to ask the city to turn it off. At that point of the day, city aid would not have been available. My husband went outside and tried to turn off the valve that led to city access. This secondary valve also offered no remedy to the situation. The water was still on. The work in the kitchen still needed to be completed. The clock was still ticking, and it reached that hour where the person here to do the work in the kitchen called it a day on our project. We were effectively stymied, and left with not an emergency, but a rather large and irritating problem in our kitchen, and an appointment to finish what should have been a quick procedure later today.

We literally did not know what to do next. I mean, who do you call, besides the city, to fix a problem of this nature? Fortunately, my husband has a relative who is really savvy when it comes to house maintenance, and is actually in the process of building his own house. And when I say building his own house, I mean literally. So my husband gave him a call. The two of them went downstairs, and after a few minutes the water stopped flowing. Apparently, the valve just hadn't been turned enough, and this relative told me something to the effect that there is an art to knowing just how far to turn a valve like that and knowing when to stop before you broke it, and having passed that point in the past, he knew where it was. I thanked him for sharing his expertise. One valve down.

They then went out to the outside valve in the front yard with--get this--a jackhammer. It was quite a show for the children, who gathered at the front window to watch as the valve was dealt with. It was quick--apparently the valve had not only been concreted over by a previous homeowner, but the cap rusted somewhat as well. Our relative is knowledgeable about how to deal with said cap so we won't have a repeat performance, and it will be dealt with. But now, thankfully, we have the two ways that we should have had in the first place to turn off our water. Hopefully we won't need them--but having them and not needing them sure beats the other way around.

We are very grateful for said family member who took time out to help us deal with our water valve situation--as my husband says, he saved the day. I doubt that he even knows I have a blog, much less that this particular blog is mine, but if he ever recognizes himself in the situation as he peruses the internet, I say thanks. One other positive that came out of this whole experience is that the person who came to do the work in the first place told us about a better, cheaper option for what we are doing, and he will be doing that today instead when he comes back. So, the positives far outweigh the negatives. I am very very very grateful that I/we were not running around trying to turn these valves off while our house was flooding for some reason. I am very grateful that I/we didn't turn it so far that it broke, causing even more problems. There is a lot to be grateful for.... and believe me, I am.

So I ask you again, how's that shut-off valve working for you? How about that other one? Do you know where they are? Do you know how they work? (I actually wouldn't have had a clue as to how to locate the outside one, but I'm wondering if jackhammer tracks would lead me to it this morning if I tried to find it... :) Please find out before you have an emergency, as we were so blessed to do. Just don't turn that valve too far....

11 comments:

seth said...

being raised as a plumber i would make a suggestion. The valve in your basement is probably a "gate" valve, and can be troublesome to shutoff. Your relative is right about knowing how tight to shut this valve off, best case scenario is that it breaks in the off position, worst case is that it breaks in the on position. My suggestion is that the valve be changed to a "ball" valve. These are very reliable and are positive shut off. Just adding my two cents. Good luck with your project.
Seth

The Scavenger said...

Marie, glad things turned out ok for you. I have never really thought about home maintenance as prepardedness but I guess now we know it is. We all need to be better informed as to where things are and how they work, in case of a real emergency. Sounds like this topic could use more thought on all our parts. Great post and thanks for reminding me to let others in the house know where and how things work, if I'm not around to see to them.

Chris

Marie said...

Seth--Before the project was completed today, my husband told me not to use the downstairs valve, but to make sure that only the outside valve coming in from the street was used. He ended up being home in time to turn it off himself, but apparently the downstairs valve is problematic. I told him about the ball valve solution, and we both think that would be a great idea--we even think we know someone who could put one in for us. (Don't want to wear out our welcome with our relative... :) Thanks so much for sharing your expertise and idea!

Chris--See, I thought that I was prepared, and boy, did that valve show me. My husband knows a lot about fixing things around the house, but unfortunately emergencies don't always take things like convenient timing when he's home into account. And then, of course, in this case what should have worked, back-up included, didn't. I really do hope that other people will check their own situations, because we would never have known, since the downstairs valve has always worked in the past.... Hope nothing ever happens to anyone, but it's always good to take steps "in case of" anyway. We were fortunate, and hope others will be too. Thanks for commenting-- it's always appreciated!

Anonymous said...

Asking the city to turn off the water at the street side can be comical. We had a faulty valve at the house that needed to be replaced - so city had to turn off the water. BUT they could not find the turn off!!! Three trucks and five very puzzled guys later, using those 5 foot long probes, they finally found it after an hour. Seems nobody had kept the grass from overgrowing the valve and it was covered with 4 inches of heavily matted grass.

If were not Florida, the grass would have died off in the winter, but as it's not, it just grew. Pays to know where things are.

Bellen

Marie said...

Bellen--Wow, well, I would laugh except that I would have been puzzled as well as to the whereabouts of our outside valve, and you know what they say about glass houses... :) I'm glad it worked out for you, and I'm glad that my husband knew where the thing was despite the fact that it had been cemented over and there is snow on the ground here. Thanks for pointing out that even when you ask for help, someone else might not be able to help immediately--hope that your situation wasn't an emergency. Enjoy your warm(er)weather, and thanks for your comment!

Anonymous said...

Marie, Thank God for your Relative Huh? Here in the boonies we have our well, which adds a myriad of other valves and electronics to the whole array of plumbing. To shut it all off in an emergency we just have to shut the electric to the pump off. One seperate breaker and it is done...and Yes I know and my wife knows where it is

Good luck with your new kitchen stuff.

Carl In Wisconsin

HermitJim said...

I'm glad you took the time to point out to many of us that getting prepared involves more than just food and provisions. Extra faucet handles, light bulbs, switches, strike anywhere matches.and as you pointed out, the location of all cut off valves...gas as well as water.

Better too early than too late. Glad to her it all turned out OK...

Marie said...

Carl--You and your family are some of the people I wouldn't worry about if there were an emergency--from your comments, you are organized, knowledgeable, and on top of everything. We are very grateful for our relative--and our kitchen is now a lot safer and cleaner--everybody's happy... :)

HermitJim--Well, in this case we found out the hard way, but it definitely could have been harder, so absolutely no complaints here. I love your list, some of which I hadn't thought of, but would be a great addition to our emergency supplies--thanks for your input and for adding to my "need to get" list!

Thanks for your comments--they're greatly appreciated!

Marie

gate valves said...

love your blog. great stuff.

gate valves said...

what a great blog. im glad i had a chance to drop by

Marie said...

Gate Valves--Thanks for your kind words!