We've always heard about the "unexpected expenses" that pop up when you're a homeowner, and today we got to experience a major one...Tuesday night we hooked up our washing machine. Threw on a load of wash and sat down to watch a movie. About a half hour later we heard water gushing from our bathroom. Tony ran to the bathroom, saw that the toilet was overflowing and flooding the bathroom with *ahem* let's just say unsanitary water. He shut off the water, and we looked at each other in shock. We turned off the washing machine (which turned out to be the cause of the problem.) We shop-vac'd out the water, only to realize that the other bathroom was flooded too, and some of the water had overflowed onto the carpet in our bedroom. Oh. My. gawd. (Today Tony ripped out the entire patch of carpet, and the floor mat underneath.) After both bathrooms were shop-vac'd (I've made it a verb) Tony decided to check the bathtub and shower to see that they were both filled a few inches with the *unsanitary water*.
Wednesday morning we had a plumber come and diagnose what the heck happened. Turns out that roots from the big tree in our front yard had grown over some pipes and cracked them in three places. When we turned on the washing machine the water pressure became too much and the water had to escape somewhere, thus overflowing our bathrooms. We got an estimate for what it would cost - the price was equal to a very nice vacation. : ( We had a few other plumbers out and got the same basic price quote. *Sigh* The plumber who originally diagnosed the problem came by early this evening to talk to Tony. He ended up cutting us a pretty nice deal (him and Tony really hit it off yesterday, and he mentioned that he likes firemen...lucky for us) The price is still a lot more than we were expecting to spend so early on in our home ownership, but not as bad as we were expecting. The job should be finished by Monday.
Please keep your fingers and toes crossed that nothing else goes wrong for us!
11 comments:
Oh Heather, I am so sorry! My first thought when I read about everything backing up was tree roots, that happened to my house when I was in college. Do you guys have a home warranty?
We do have a home warranty, but it only covers the damage done. I think we should get the carpet in our bedroom replaced - we'll see.
My first thought was roots since stevo had to just fix this same problem at the house in fresno. Flush upstairs, water all over the place downstairs. Not fun. Sorry you had to deal with this so soon. This was your initiation into home ownership.
omg! The same thing happened to us in January! The plumber guy put a tiny pipe camera through the pipe (the one from our house to the street) and we were able to see exactly what was going on. Ugh. I'm sorry that you're going through this now. Fortunately it doesn't take long to fix.
Yikes!! that sounds horrible, and scary! glad you got the "root" of the problem :) and it is getting fixed. Sorry you had to spend such a chunk right up front!
On the plus side your a home owner and not a renter with a bad landlord. Home owners insurance does cover things like this. Sorry you had to deal with the yukie water and were able to keep Leila and the dogs away as you cleaned up. They seem to love to get in the middle of adventures like this. Hugs, gma
OMG something similar happened to us when we 1st moved into our house. After we got our washer the water backed up into our tub. Come to find out our main sewer line couldn't handle the pressure and was clogged. We didn't have a clean out so the plumber had to use the main sewer hole (which thankfully is in the street right in front of our house) to clean it all out.
Oh my! What a mess. I hope everything else from here on out in your new home will be perfect!
Oh no! Would your home owners insurance not cover it?
Nope, homeowners didn't cover it - they only cover the damaged done. We should be able to get carpet replaced, though
im so sorry you had to go through this so soon after getting into your house! im glad it is all resolved now though!!
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