Argh. Water.

[Vector]

Despite the fact that there was a heater running, which sufficed all last winter, the recent cold snap here caused the pipes (well, pipe, all but one water line had been removed) to burst in the basement of the home I'm working on.

I think it was the ~10F temperatures combined with the 40+ mph winds that just sucked any heat whatsoever out of the basement.

I'm not sure when it happened, I was doing call-outs for the exterior yesterday and didn't make it to the site. Today I walked in and heard the sound of splashing water. About 3" of water standing in the basement and a fountain coming out of the pipe just after the meter. Looked at first like the actual incoming line had ruptured too, but that was just spray from a seperate crack, so I was able to turn the torrent off.

It was actually a solder joint that popped apart. On inspection, it looks like it was a cold solder joint anyhow. I guess something would have burst, but a 3/4" line wide open dumps a lot more water than a crack along a tube. Wonder how many years that joint had been waiting to let go.

At least the drains work well, the basement was empty (if wet) in about 15 minutes or so. So I don't have any lovely pictures of stuff floating around in the basement to show you all.

Wonder how big my water bill is going to be next month...

[Rich]

That sucks.. water in general does more damage than about any other home disaster. Fire - it's not so much the fire as the water used to put it out :)

[Vector]

Well, not much to damage in this case, but all the insulation, etc that has filtered its way down to the basement over the course of the demolition will be glued to the damn slab now. Ick.

[Rich]

haha..