Talkin' to Noah 'bout the Flood
Posted: September 2nd, 2007, 11:48 am
We had a flood in our house. It was a subtle flood. Water began seeping up from our hardwood laminate floors. Then the carpets started to go 'squish-squish' when you walked on them. It was a creeping nightmare. It had to be a leak in the plumbing we decided.
After examining all the pipes and finding minimal leaks and trying to trace the path of the water, we decided it was time to call in an expert. I said to Doreen, "I'll bet an experienced plumber could take one look at it and go straight to the problem."
She reminded me of my little quip about plumbers: "There are only two things you need to know to be a plumber--shit flows down and payday's Friday."
The plumber was very bright and personable. It took him all of two minutes to locate where the water was coming from. I had searched every drain and spigot for two days trying to find that leak and he found it in two minutes. This is where the value of expertise becomes apparent.
It turned out that the leak was not in the plumbing at all, but in the air-conditioner. All these gallons of water that we had been mopping up for several days were coming from condensation because the drain to the overflow pan was clogged. It took the plumber another two minutes to run a coat hanger through the tube and fix it. The check was written for 125 bucks. Four minutes of work. It was worth it. We weren't paying him for what he did or how long it took him to do it. We were paying him for what he knew.
The other lesson from this experience is that sometimes trouble can come out of thin air. It is amazing how much water our air-conditioner sucks out of the air. In our house, it's something on the order of a gallon per hour judging from how much water we were having to mop up.
Yes, it was feeling like New Orleans around here for a few days. Made me want to put my clarinet together and play the blues. Tune about floods coming from thin air. I guess that's why trumpets have spit valves.
After examining all the pipes and finding minimal leaks and trying to trace the path of the water, we decided it was time to call in an expert. I said to Doreen, "I'll bet an experienced plumber could take one look at it and go straight to the problem."
She reminded me of my little quip about plumbers: "There are only two things you need to know to be a plumber--shit flows down and payday's Friday."
The plumber was very bright and personable. It took him all of two minutes to locate where the water was coming from. I had searched every drain and spigot for two days trying to find that leak and he found it in two minutes. This is where the value of expertise becomes apparent.
It turned out that the leak was not in the plumbing at all, but in the air-conditioner. All these gallons of water that we had been mopping up for several days were coming from condensation because the drain to the overflow pan was clogged. It took the plumber another two minutes to run a coat hanger through the tube and fix it. The check was written for 125 bucks. Four minutes of work. It was worth it. We weren't paying him for what he did or how long it took him to do it. We were paying him for what he knew.
The other lesson from this experience is that sometimes trouble can come out of thin air. It is amazing how much water our air-conditioner sucks out of the air. In our house, it's something on the order of a gallon per hour judging from how much water we were having to mop up.
Yes, it was feeling like New Orleans around here for a few days. Made me want to put my clarinet together and play the blues. Tune about floods coming from thin air. I guess that's why trumpets have spit valves.
