Last night I tried working on my project list which included swapping a bathroom faucet. I’ve done 3 others in our house and in all the others I’ve ended up replacing the shutoff valves under the sinks. The original valves are about 25 years old and the hard water here gums them up and causes them to have a slow leak when turned off and back on.

So I get the new valves replaced and want to make sure they don’t leak where they connect to the lines coming out of the wall. I figure it will be easier to tighten them down without the lines from the faucet attached if needed so they were not connected to the faucet yet. I went to the basement and turned the water back on to the house. I go to the upstairs bathroom (2 story house with basement) and see a geyser. One of the valves was open and water was shooting up to the ceiling. I ended up having to rip out flooring in the bathroom last night. I thought I got on the water quickly with towels but I went to the main floor and found water dripping out of my kitchen light fixture.

As you can imagine I was less than pleased with myself. Thankfully my brother works for a restoration company and was able to get me some equipment to dry it out. Feel free to call me an idiot or share your screw up story.

I wish I could say I haven't done done that, but I can't. When I did it, it watered an incandescent bulb and blew it out. In the dark, I reached up to change the bulb and nearly electrocuted myself on the exposed filament. When I came to, my should was dislocated and it was still pitch dark.

All because I turned the water on without shutting the valve first. I'm happy to report that the lesson was so well taught and received that it has never happened again.

When I pulled my stunt, I was busting out a bathtub on the 2nd floor with a sledge. I knocked the toilet water feed pipe off clean at the feed pipe. Amazing how fast you can get down 2 flights of stairs with a geyser running.

I did similar several years ago with a shower valve.

I was gutting the master shower to prep for a remodel, where the old fiberglass shower enclosure was going to be replaced with nicer tile. Got everything ripped out down to the studs, slab, and bare drainpipe, leaving the existing plumbing. Went through and insulated between the studs with Rockwool for better sound deadening and heat retention. Then figured I'd go ahead and replace the shower valve while I had everything exposed and the handle hardware removed anyway.

Went out and shut off the water to the house. Then took out the old valve, and installed the new valve. Everything looked good, so I went out and turned the water back on. Came back in to see water spraying in the newly gutted shower.

Dammit. The new shower valve was in the open position when I installed it, and without a handle as an obvious indicator, I didn't even think to check.

Luckily, I was able to turn the valve off quickly, so it only ran for the time it took me to walk back inside after turning the water back on to the house. And the tile guy wasn't showing up for another couple days, so I had time to pull some of the insulation and then dry the wet studs and slab with box fans. And I had enough leftover Rockwool to replace the handful of batts that I had soaked.

So no harm in the long run, just a bit of extra work, and a sheepish feeling.

You are an idiot.
Welcome to the club.

I do not attempt this stuff. When my plumber comes out I ask about the latest mistake made by a homeowner. Number one is failure to turn off the water.

I did not do this, but when we moved into our house (about 24 years ago) the ice maker in fridge/freezer appliance never worked properly. Sometimes it would make ice, most often it would not. I looked at it, changed the filter and everything seemed fine. We gave up. When we remodeled the kitchen a few years later we discovered the water line for that ice maker was tapped into a hot water line! Doh!

Personally I've been fortunate. The only mistake I've made was when I changed out our Moen 1225 shower cartridges and after putting everything back together had one shower with cold on the left and hot on the right. Luckily that was an easy fix.

My old man was a D-I-Y kind of guy. He often said while doing any project: "If it aint one damn thing, its another".

You are not a dumbass.
You are a homeowner...

If I had a nickel for every T-shirt in life I have acquired, I could afford to pay for all the shit the universe throws in my doorstep.

Burma Shave

(or something...)

quote:

So I get the new valves replaced…

What did you replace the new valves with?

Did you wonder why water was coming down from the ceiling?

One Sunday morning before church, my wife and I were in the kitchen and a heard loud thunk followed by a whooshing noise coming from the laundry room. We look in the laundry room and I stand there looking up with my mouth wide open thinking, “That doesn’t look right.” Then, I start trying to figure out where all that water pooring iff the 10’ ceiling is coming from. I’m thinking it can’t be for the washer because that’s in the wall. Can’t be the master bath because that should be under the slab. Maybe the bathroom in the bonus room above the garage, but the stairway to the room is in between. Then I think what should have been my first thought, “Oh shit! I should turn the water off!”

The water was coming from the obvious place, the water heater next to the washing machine. The threaded part of the expansion tank that was mount on top of the water heater had corroded and let loose, the expansion tank took off like rocket and bounced off the ceiling. The water was shooting straight up from the water heater and bouncing off the ceiling. Fortunately, we were home and able to get things dried up before any damage happened.

It’s the price we all pay for having a bona fide man card.

I think we all feel your pain and have been there. Now you have an excuse to upgrade your bathroom.LOL

Not inside but working in the yard digging a hole for a new shrub I discovered the three water pipes buried about 10 inches down that feed the irrigation system.

Had no clue they were there, just a nick with a shovel and you get a 15 ft geyser, had to scramble and find a tool to turn off the water main to the house at the street since the builder didn't put any kind of cut off in that feed.

This is exactly why I don’t screw with plumbing anymore and have a good worth-his-weight-in-gold plumber.

2009, I did replace the kitchen in my condo and was relocating the hot and cold water lines for the sink and was doing soldered copper.

I was soldering the end of a 3 foot length of copper pipe, and was successful in making the joint, but my dumbass forgot that copper is an excellent conductor of things like HEAT and I grabbed the opposite end of the pipe and felt like this guy:

Here's another story. Not mine, but a plumber I know. Years ago, he started working for his father, who owned a decent sized plumbing company. Being the owner's son, he was put in charge when rather young of a job in Park City, UT, in the middle of winter. They were replacing all the main shut-off valves in a six unit building. Also, it was the middle of winter, and there was three feet of snow in the park strip from plowing. This will matter in a sec...

There was one master valve, and then each unit had another valve inside. They closed the master, and then commenced cutting out each valve inside to replace it. Apparently, there was one unit that was plumbed such that the main valve was bypassed, or the feed was from a different main. I can't remember that detail. When he cut that one, it created a 1" full-bore flow inside the utility room. These properties were built on slab. Small mercies.

Now he's scrambling around, trying to figure out what to do. Find a shovel, and start searching frantically under three feet of snow, looking for the city meter man-hole cover. Unsuccessfully.

After about an hour of this, all six units are filled to their thresholds, with water pouring out of the front doors into the lawn. He said his father showed up, walked into a unit with water over his ankles, didn't say a word, but just walked out, got in the truck, and drove away. Worse than if his father had gotten angry. Your father not saying a word when you know he should is the worst.

Took them hours to find a skid-steer, clear the snow, and then shut the water off at the main buried meter. All over a small job, a few valve replacements.

In 2020 I got stuck at home for a week with "covid". I had symptoms but tested negative, they made me take it off anyway. During that mandated time off, our above-ground well pump in the basement started leaking. It wasn't anything catastrophic, just a slow drip around the shaft seal, but it needed addressed and my forced covid vacation seemed like the perfect time to do it.

I procured the appropriate seal kit online and proceeded to shut off the power to the pump. I shut the feed line to the rest of the house off, and then opened all the faucets to drain the pressure. What I didn't consider at the time was that the pressure tank is on the pump side of the shutoff. It should have been a clue when the water stopped flowing very quickly, but I'm clearly an idiot.

It's an old pump. I took the housing bolts all the way out, and it was still stuck together. So I smacked it to crack it open and immediately all 30 gallons of pressurized water in the tank started shooting out all over the place. I got about half of it into a thankfully handy trash bag, and the rest mopped up with towels or soaked into the dirt portion of the basement floor. Thankfully there was no damage to the nearby water heater or furnace, but that was little thanks to me. The rest of that project turned into a 4 day debacle with the pump coming apart and going back together about 7 separate times before finally getting fixed, but the first time was where my idiocy shone brightest!

quote:

Originally posted by Ozarkwoods:
I think we all feel your pain and have been there. Now you have an excuse to upgrade your bathroom.LOL

I just upgraded 4 years ago and didn’t want to do it again that soon! My wife was very pleased when she got home from her trip and saw our bathroom torn up

Events like this (and the fear of them) are the reason my house has a huge number of cut-off valves. When I replumbed, I didn't buy cut-off valves... I bought peace of mind.

quote:

Originally posted by whanson_wi:
Events like this (and the fear of them) are the reason my house has a huge number of cut-off valves. When I replumbed, I didn't buy cut-off valves... I bought peace of mind.

Plumbing manifolds are a cool option. Kinda like a breaker box for water.