anait
03-29-04, 06:25 PM
In response to a friend's email asking 'what's new and exciting', my husband replied:
We had 80 mm of rain on Saturday, 80% of the fields around here are covered in runoff, and several roads in town were under a foot of water in the low spots because the storm sewers were still frozen. There was an emergency command centre in the local Reeve's home to coordinate the steaming equipment and pumps and sandbags that were necessary. Fortunately our house has a very tight basement, we've never had runoff inside. Many people had lots of water in their basements over the weekend.
I started work on the renovations we have had in the planning stages for our upstairs bathroom for about two years now. Last summer we got a nice acrylic deep tub from Home Depot on their scratch/dent sale for $225, no damage that we can see. I bought a tub surround, some drywall, a countertop, a new sink, and new fixtures over the weekend, and a new wider door. The old door was only 24", the new one is 28". I hated the old door and there was no guarantee we would be able to get the new tub into the bathroom without removing it anyway. So on Saturday I ripped the old door out, made it wider, and then about 8 pm started on the plumbing for the new tub/shower fixtures.
I turned the water off at that point, did all my cutting and dry fitting etc, and soldered it all together about 11 pm. When I turned the water on to test at that point, I got nothing at all. Did I break the main valve somehow? I didn't think so. I guess the town water supply had been shutdown or flooded out or something. SO I left the water on and decided to head to bed.
However, after the evening with six family members, the toilets needed flushing before leaving them overnight. Quite ironic that there was all that water outside (still raining buckets) and none inside. So, I had my first adventure in grey-water systems by going outside in my shorts with a large bucket and heading for the downspouts. They are on the other side of the house, so I went down our driveway (covered in ice), and up the neighbour's driveway (covered in ice), through the 4' snowbank (in my shorts), through the 4" of standing water next to the house (in my runners), and started filling the bucket (in the rain and the cold wind). Back down the driveway, up our driveway, into the house. Flush the toilet. Argh. This particular toilet requires at least a double-flush, thanks to...well, I shouldn't embarrass my wife. Back outside, down the driveway, up the driveway, through the snowbank, through the water. Under the downspout. Wait. Back down the driveway, up the driveway, yadda yadda yadda. Each time it's taking a little longer to fill the buckets because NOW the rain is starting to taper off.
I repeated this exercise about 4 times, getting colder and wetter all the time...and hoping that if the town water comes on again while I am freezing outside, that my wife will realize it and tell me so I could come in...and hoping that the town water won't come on while I am outside because then likely my plumbing won't be leakproof and there will be water all over the place inside. Talk about conflicted! (All the while I am standing outside wondering how anait's ADD will affect her recognition of the various water situations that could develop inside the house while I am outside, and whether or not it would occur to her to call me in...she is particularly busy that night with four kids who aren't much interested in going to bed)
So, eventually, all the toilets are flushed and cleared, and the tanks refilled with rainwater. Still no town water, so I get dry and try to get to sleep, hoping that I will hear the taps in the sink come on when the town water pressure returns overnight.
Sure enough, about 5:45 the water starts coming back on - thankfully, anait is a light sleeper and she wakes me up enough to go check the plumbing connections. When I look, there is some water coming out of the tub spout so I look around for a pail, find a 4 litre pail and let the water go in there. What to do next? (WAKE UP! Can't think!) The pail is filling somewhat rapidly, so I call for anait to hold the pail while I go downstairs and shutdown the main valve again. She comes in with the baby on her hip, (who is very surprised and interested with the unusual goings-on); I empty the pail and she holds it while I go downstairs. I get the valve shutoff just as her pail fills up. She empties it then returns to bed.
I come up and stare at the tub outlet, trying to wake up enough to decide what to do. I've got to find a cap I can solder on I guess. I dig around and yes, I have kept one that is still soldered into a little bit of pipe. Now as I am finding two pairs of pliers to separate the cap from the leftover pipe, I am still thinking there is something wrong with my fix...aha! If I just cap the tub outlet, then it will just back up and go out the shower outlet 6' up. I can't cap that. Finally, I am awake enough to think that I should use the new-found pliers to turn the knobless shower control valve to the off-position. So I start turning. It goes around a full turn and no stop. I turn the other way. Still no stop. Obviously there is an off-position somewhere in that turn, but there's no way of knowing where. So I make my best guess, hook on the 4 litre pail over the spout, and decide to turn on the main valve downstairs again (6:10 am).
I am getting smarter though; I get another big pail (a big laundry detergent pail, Costco size) from my greywater escapades and leave it at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. The plan is to turn on the valve, sprint upstairs with the big pail before the 4 litre pail is full, get the big pail in position, then turn off the shower valve using the pliers. Or maybe I have the shower valve in the off position already, if I'm lucky. So I turn on the main valve, run upstairs with the big pail, and when I get into the bathroom, I see that I have the shower valve in the "Full ON" position, so that the tub spout is under more pressure than before and it is now squirting water straight OVER the top of the 4 litre pail! I get the big pail in place, and then turn the valve to the off position. I sit and look at the tub spout for another 10 minutes, trying to get my torch going again to cap it anyway, just to be safe, but the torch is wet and won't stay on, so eventually I give up.
This time I am only half-soaked, so I just go back to bed without trying to find something else to sleep in. About a half-hour later, the baby starts waking up...
Well, at least we were able to have showers before going to church.
We had 80 mm of rain on Saturday, 80% of the fields around here are covered in runoff, and several roads in town were under a foot of water in the low spots because the storm sewers were still frozen. There was an emergency command centre in the local Reeve's home to coordinate the steaming equipment and pumps and sandbags that were necessary. Fortunately our house has a very tight basement, we've never had runoff inside. Many people had lots of water in their basements over the weekend.
I started work on the renovations we have had in the planning stages for our upstairs bathroom for about two years now. Last summer we got a nice acrylic deep tub from Home Depot on their scratch/dent sale for $225, no damage that we can see. I bought a tub surround, some drywall, a countertop, a new sink, and new fixtures over the weekend, and a new wider door. The old door was only 24", the new one is 28". I hated the old door and there was no guarantee we would be able to get the new tub into the bathroom without removing it anyway. So on Saturday I ripped the old door out, made it wider, and then about 8 pm started on the plumbing for the new tub/shower fixtures.
I turned the water off at that point, did all my cutting and dry fitting etc, and soldered it all together about 11 pm. When I turned the water on to test at that point, I got nothing at all. Did I break the main valve somehow? I didn't think so. I guess the town water supply had been shutdown or flooded out or something. SO I left the water on and decided to head to bed.
However, after the evening with six family members, the toilets needed flushing before leaving them overnight. Quite ironic that there was all that water outside (still raining buckets) and none inside. So, I had my first adventure in grey-water systems by going outside in my shorts with a large bucket and heading for the downspouts. They are on the other side of the house, so I went down our driveway (covered in ice), and up the neighbour's driveway (covered in ice), through the 4' snowbank (in my shorts), through the 4" of standing water next to the house (in my runners), and started filling the bucket (in the rain and the cold wind). Back down the driveway, up our driveway, into the house. Flush the toilet. Argh. This particular toilet requires at least a double-flush, thanks to...well, I shouldn't embarrass my wife. Back outside, down the driveway, up the driveway, through the snowbank, through the water. Under the downspout. Wait. Back down the driveway, up the driveway, yadda yadda yadda. Each time it's taking a little longer to fill the buckets because NOW the rain is starting to taper off.
I repeated this exercise about 4 times, getting colder and wetter all the time...and hoping that if the town water comes on again while I am freezing outside, that my wife will realize it and tell me so I could come in...and hoping that the town water won't come on while I am outside because then likely my plumbing won't be leakproof and there will be water all over the place inside. Talk about conflicted! (All the while I am standing outside wondering how anait's ADD will affect her recognition of the various water situations that could develop inside the house while I am outside, and whether or not it would occur to her to call me in...she is particularly busy that night with four kids who aren't much interested in going to bed)
So, eventually, all the toilets are flushed and cleared, and the tanks refilled with rainwater. Still no town water, so I get dry and try to get to sleep, hoping that I will hear the taps in the sink come on when the town water pressure returns overnight.
Sure enough, about 5:45 the water starts coming back on - thankfully, anait is a light sleeper and she wakes me up enough to go check the plumbing connections. When I look, there is some water coming out of the tub spout so I look around for a pail, find a 4 litre pail and let the water go in there. What to do next? (WAKE UP! Can't think!) The pail is filling somewhat rapidly, so I call for anait to hold the pail while I go downstairs and shutdown the main valve again. She comes in with the baby on her hip, (who is very surprised and interested with the unusual goings-on); I empty the pail and she holds it while I go downstairs. I get the valve shutoff just as her pail fills up. She empties it then returns to bed.
I come up and stare at the tub outlet, trying to wake up enough to decide what to do. I've got to find a cap I can solder on I guess. I dig around and yes, I have kept one that is still soldered into a little bit of pipe. Now as I am finding two pairs of pliers to separate the cap from the leftover pipe, I am still thinking there is something wrong with my fix...aha! If I just cap the tub outlet, then it will just back up and go out the shower outlet 6' up. I can't cap that. Finally, I am awake enough to think that I should use the new-found pliers to turn the knobless shower control valve to the off-position. So I start turning. It goes around a full turn and no stop. I turn the other way. Still no stop. Obviously there is an off-position somewhere in that turn, but there's no way of knowing where. So I make my best guess, hook on the 4 litre pail over the spout, and decide to turn on the main valve downstairs again (6:10 am).
I am getting smarter though; I get another big pail (a big laundry detergent pail, Costco size) from my greywater escapades and leave it at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. The plan is to turn on the valve, sprint upstairs with the big pail before the 4 litre pail is full, get the big pail in position, then turn off the shower valve using the pliers. Or maybe I have the shower valve in the off position already, if I'm lucky. So I turn on the main valve, run upstairs with the big pail, and when I get into the bathroom, I see that I have the shower valve in the "Full ON" position, so that the tub spout is under more pressure than before and it is now squirting water straight OVER the top of the 4 litre pail! I get the big pail in place, and then turn the valve to the off position. I sit and look at the tub spout for another 10 minutes, trying to get my torch going again to cap it anyway, just to be safe, but the torch is wet and won't stay on, so eventually I give up.
This time I am only half-soaked, so I just go back to bed without trying to find something else to sleep in. About a half-hour later, the baby starts waking up...
Well, at least we were able to have showers before going to church.