The Water (redux)

We spent another night at the house (after a great time at The Wassaic Project‘s summer benefit). The next day my partner worked on the floor (which should have been the topic of this post), and we made coffee, did dishes, washed hands… lots of things involving sink water. At some point (unfortunately not immediately) we walked into the (will-be) kitchen downstairs and found a small pond, the water having splurted out of the ceiling/wall (broken pipes).

I knew there were broken pipes, but I had assumed that they were hot water pipes, and those were turned off at the pump. Our new working theory was that these were sink drain pipes; we hadn’t used that sink much (attic “kitchen” sink), so we thought maybe those burst pipes were the drain just for that sink (spoiler alert, we’re stupid and that isn’t how plumbing works).

So. Sergiu stopped working on the floor (spoiler alert, wrong decision), and we started cutting out exploded pipe bits and replacing them with not-exploded pipe bits. Sergiu is an excellent contractor I won’t be recommending him as a welder anytime soon.

In addition to being messy, melty, and slow, Sergiu’s welding was completely ineffective and the pipes just popped loose again and so resulted in more spurting water.

So, after roughly four hours lost, we called it quits. For the record, we (Sergiu) could have finished the damn floor in that time. Instead, not only did we not have a floor, but the walls were still leaking water out of several pipes – exposed and not.*
Huge waste of a day; we headed back to Brooklyn grumpy.

A bit later, someone who knew what they were doing came over and welded pipes:

Additionally, this amazing person actually replaced all the broken copper hot water pipes with fancy, newfangled, plastic pipes – I am told they are easier to work with. So no more leaks (fingers crossed) when we head up next week for our longest stay yet!

Fun fact: the broken pipes were hot water pipes (not sink-only drainpipes**), and the reason they suddenly started leaking (gushing) was because someone (totally me) turned on the hot water handle on the sink. When nothing came out (the hot water is turned off/bypassed), I didn’t shut it – just turned the cold water one on. Because the valve on the hot water side was open, water spilled down into the hot water pipes… and gushed out of all those holes. Sergiu later made the same dumb move in the bathroom.

So, in summary:
Horray for plumbers (or, more accurately, friends who know plumbing); boo to stupid Aly & Sergiu; horray for unbroken pipes; boo to still not having a floor.

*Absolute missed opportunity to add some red food coloring to the water.
**Such things don’t exist.