Turning off the water when leaving home

[Beach Runner]

Our house in GA was built in 1988 with the then-popular polybutylene piping for water. One night luckily I stayed up late and heard a loud noise. I went into the kitchen and water was just pouring down the walls. I drove to the street to cut off the water, and we had the pipe repaired. It happened again in another part of the house a year later, and we started researching it online. We filed a claim for the class action suit to get Shell Oil to pay for it. While waiting for the repair, it happened a third time. Our neighbor is a contractor, and he told us that he always recommends that people turn off their water if they are going to be out of town for any length of time. Shell replaced all of our water pipes with copper. We also put a water shut-off in the hall closet so we don't have to go all the way to the street to turn off the water.

As a result, I always turn off the water when we leave the GA house for over 24 hours. But why haven't I done that at the beach house?

Sometime between Labor Day weekend and last week, a leak in our refrigerator's water supply for the icemaker developed. The refrigerator is on the second floor and is just above the electric panel on the first floor, and the water was leaking into it!!!!! The electrician said we're lucky the house didn't burn down. We had the electrical panel replaced yesterday, and the electrician sealed it so that if this happens again (after we get the refrigerator fixed), the water won't go into the panel again.

From now on, I'm turning off the water in the off-season to avoid a disaster. If you own property at the beach, you might want to consider doing the same. I feel so stupid for not taking the same precautions at the beach that I take at our primary residence.

It also meant that my daughter and friends had to leave Sunday instead of today (it was their fall break) because we had to shut down the power on Sunday to avoid a fire until the electrical panel could be replaced. She is bummed out.

I thank God for us being there for fall break and noticing the problem.

 

[bsmart]

Our house in GA was built in 1988 with the then-popular polybutylene piping for water. One night luckily I stayed up late and heard a loud noise. I went into the kitchen and water was just pouring down the walls. I drove to the street to cut off the water, and we had the pipe repaired. It happened again in another part of the house a year later, and we started researching it online. We filed a claim for the class action suit to get Shell Oil to pay for it. While waiting for the repair, it happened a third time. Our neighbor is a contractor, and he told us that he always recommends that people turn off their water if they are going to be out of town for any length of time. Shell replaced all of our water pipes with copper. We also put a water shut-off in the hall closet so we don't have to go all the way to the street to turn off the water.

As a result, I always turn off the water when we leave the GA house for over 24 hours. But why haven't I done that at the beach house?

Sometime between Labor Day weekend and last week, a leak in our refrigerator's water supply for the icemaker developed. The refrigerator is on the second floor and is just above the electric panel on the first floor, and the water was leaking into it!!!!! The electrician said we're lucky the house didn't burn down. We had the electrical panel replaced yesterday, and the electrician sealed it so that if this happens again (after we get the refrigerator fixed), the water won't go into the panel again.

From now on, I'm turning off the water in the off-season to avoid a disaster. If you own property at the beach, you might want to consider doing the same. I feel so stupid for not taking the same precautions at the beach that I take at our primary residence.

It also meant that my daughter and friends had to leave Sunday instead of today (it was their fall break) because we had to shut down the power on Sunday to avoid a fire until the electrical panel could be replaced. She is bummed out.

I thank God for us being there for fall break and noticing the problem.

I was just reading over this case today.

About 3 years ago the condo I own in Athens had this pipe running from the street meter to the dwelling, and it burst at about 9pm one evening. The president of the condo association wasn't home and Athens-Clarke County Sheriffs department took a good while to get out there. I would have cut it off myself, but the meter had a lock over it. The county adjusted my water bill to not include the break, so if anything else like this ever happens to anyone just tell your water carrier/municipality and they should be willing to do the same.

 

[Beach Runner]

I was just reading over this case today.

About 3 years ago the condo I own in Athens had this pipe running from the street meter to the dwelling, and it burst at about 9pm one evening. The president of the condo association wasn't home and Athens-Clarke County Sheriffs department took a good while to get out there. I would have cut it off myself, but the meter had a lock over it. The county adjusted my water bill to not include the break, so if anything else like this ever happens to anyone just tell your water carrier/municipality and they should be willing to do the same.

I think it cost Shell Oil about $25,000 to replace our pipes. The contractors they hired did such a good job that you can't see any seams from the cuts in the sheet rock (I had 15 holes in the kitchen alone), and they matched the paint exactly. Amazing.

BTW Shell even reimbursed us for the 3 repairs that we paid for ourselves.

 

[steele mama]

My kitchen got flooded very quickly when my washing machine hose busted. That water was shooting up to the ceiling. Skeery sound when you have no idea what is going on. I thot I would turn the water off when I leave home from them on but then I got lazy and my hoses look OK.

 

[Mermaid]

BR, I'd bring this to the attention of your architect. Your house at the beach is absolutely stunning, but it seems poor planning to me that an appliance using water should be anywhere even remotely close to an electrical box.

 

[Beach Runner]

BR, I'd bring this to the attention of your architect. Your house at the beach is absolutely stunning, but it seems poor planning to me that an appliance using water should be anywhere even remotely close to an electrical box.

Not an architectural mistake. Like my husband said, if the electrical panel is on the 1st floor and we've got two floors of water sources above it on all 4 sides of the house, there's no place you can put it where there's no water above it. Water follows the closest wire or beam or whatever, so you might have water leaking on one side of a room that flows to the other side and then down.

We're okay, but thanks for your concern. Because I'm so OCD, we're gonna drive down and turn off the water, though, just like we do here when we leave the house. (Good excuse to go to the beach. LOL.) Our contractor neighbor here in GA has their big house next door and then a place a few miles away at the lake. They spend most of their time as the lake. And even though they're close by and check their mail and house in town every day, he turns off his water.

 

[audie]

i read an article one time about a couple who retired and went to europe for 3 weeks. since they had stopped their mail and papers and unplugged everything they didn't have anyone stop to check on their house. an unexpected cold spell the first week they were gone cracked a pipe or something in their basement and when they returned home their entire basement was full of water and it was several inches deep on the first floor. since i read that several years ago, we always shut the water off when we are going out of town for a trip.

 

[Hop]

hey beach runner...my house has some polybutylene pipes and i know it's a matter of time before i am dealing with this situation myself...how did you go about getting involved with the class action?

 

[Beach Runner]

hey beach runner...my house has some polybutylene pipes and i know it's a matter of time before i am dealing with this situation myself...how did you go about getting involved with the class action?

I think you might be too late, but you still ought to check it out. Unfortunately, all of my links are saved on my old laptop which is being serviced and might be dead (and I never exported them to my new laptop). Just Google polybutylene pipe, and you'll find lots of links. The websites show photos of the pipes covered under the lawsuit, you call the phone number on the site, and someone comes out and verifies that your pipes are covered under the lawsuit. Then they make arrangements for a company to come out and replace all of your pipes.

 

[Beach Runner]

My kitchen got flooded very quickly when my washing machine hose busted. That water was shooting up to the ceiling. Skeery sound when you have no idea what is going on. I thot I would turn the water off when I leave home from them on but then I got lazy and my hoses look OK.

There is a type of water hose for washing machines that is more resistant to breakage. When they come out to fix the refrigerator, we're having them replace those hoses as well as a preventative measure. I think we'll do that at our daughter's place in Atlanta too because the management company said that if the hose breaks on her washer, she's liable for damage to residences below her.