Plumbing Problems

by John Hawkins | April 7, 2006 3:31 pm

It’s been a little dry here, so I go outside to water my plants. I head into the backyard, where a faucet, a hose, and this new-to-me, but cheap and 2nd hand hose wheel. The hose wheel has been a little tough to operate, it seems to tangle the hose a lot, but that’s Ok — or so I thought.

So, I turn on the water, and start to pull it out. It goes about 10 ft. and gets stuck. So, I pull and it comes free. Then, I go another 5 ft. and the hose gets stuck again. So I pull and….Oh. My. Gawd.

Apparently, the wheel got completely locked up and I must not know my own strength, because I pulled the hose so hard that the faucet SNAPPED OFF which caused water to START SHOOTING OUT OF IT.

That was a bad thing.

So, I go over to it and the pipe is sheared off in two places and the main water vein into my place is pumping out water.

Then I go to cut the water off and then I walk into the house and no water, but I go outside and it’s still going. I couldn’t figure out what was happening.

The problem? I turned it THE WRONG WAY, but because the main line was busted, no water was coming in. Doh!

After the water was turned off, I call a plumber, had one here in 5 minutes (is that luck or what?) and now he’s working on the pipe. I suspect I won’t feel so lucky when he hands me the bill.

Sigh.

*** Update #1 ***: Because of where the break was, the plumber had a really easy time getting to it, so he’s already done. Total bill? $80. Cheaper than I expected.