Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Nancy Drew knows


There are two bathrooms in our new digs. Mine sprung a leak, and it’s not my problem.

In the old house, eventually I might come across a piece of plywood nailed down, and on investigating find it was to repair a leak that no one knew how to resolve in another way. It became my problem to ascertain the cumulative damage and find the repair people needed.

But, now it’s not my problem.

A while back I found water on the floor. I cleaned it up, and kept an eye on it. It didn’t happen when I used the shower. It didn’t happen when I flushed the toilet. I decided a washcloth I’d hung over the tub to dry had dripped, mopped up the puddle and forgot it.

Sunday we had company. Sunday evening I found a puddle. I cleaned it up and wondered if it came from the shower I took that morning. In the middle of the night the puddle was back, and by yesterday morning soaked the towel I threw over it.

I called management, and Dan and his helper Joe were dispatched.

Dan surveyed the puddle. He flushed the toilet. The puddle did not increase. He filled the tub with water and drained it. The puddle did not increase. He and Joe went outside and “pulled a panel.” No wet insulation. He came back in, mopped up the puddle and told me to be more careful.

The floor was dry all day.

I was home yesterday. My six year old battery went toes up; I had to wait for a jump. That failed. They sent a Jerr-Dan. Right in front of my house, the Jerr-Dan went toes up. Not my problem. Dan and Joe trailing about looking for a water leak helped ameliorate my car frustration. AAA sent a new Jerr-Dan and Dan and Joe left.

I did spend an hour at Goodyear, having my battery replaced. Got home five minutes before the kid, and counting the day a total waste, just hung out for the rest of the night. Bathroom floor was dry, until after a lovely supper of rigatoni in homemade chicken Alfredo. Nicely plated. And, we ran the dishwasher.

Nancy Drew looked at the puddle and puzzled, and realized the common denominator was the dishwasher on the other side of the bathroom wall. It ran on Sunday, after company, and ran last night, after supper.

I went to work today, after the long weekend plus Monday. I stopped at the office on my return and made an appointment to have Dan come tomorrow morning to look at all the towels in the bathtub. I’ll start the dishwasher when he calls to say he’s on the way.



33 comments:

  1. Always hard to track down a leak, water travels in unknown patterns. Sounds like you've solved the source. That is the trickiest part. Well done

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  2. Ahh water leaks they are fun I've had a few in my time too.
    Merle...........

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  3. Glad it is on its way of getting sorted out. The detective did great work!

    betty

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  4. I am glad you tracked it down. And would probably compare you to Hercules Poirot rather than Nancy.
    A plumber once told a friend after she had called him in, that most toilet leaks are the result of less than stellar aim. Which was true at her house. Her husband, who had demanded that she called the plumber, got a frosty reception that night.

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  5. water drips are typically mysteries. We had an occasional drip from an upstairs wall that showed up on the main floor ceiling. Water can take strange paths too. It turned out to be a poorly fitted joint in an air vent that would catch condensation. A real puzzle since weather was involved.

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  6. Those dishwashers! We just had ours completely rebuilt. Our hard, gritty water destroyed the innards.

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  7. good detective work! your maintenance man should have figured it out...

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  8. It is always such a thrill to figure these things out. Especially after a repairman has told you to be more careful, as if it was your fault.

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  9. Hari OM
    WTG "Nancy"! Hope it's just a dropped attachment and nothing more sinister. At least you got help on hand. That's a big plus!!! YAM xx

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  10. Well done - water can be the worst of problems to figure out. Hope you get your dishwasher fixed before you need to do them by hand :)

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    1. No, I'd just move into a new unit. No dishes by hand for me!

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  11. It will be good to get it fixed. I have a dripping outside faucet and our weather is supposed to get frigid next week. I do not like plumbing problems or electrical ones.

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  12. Aha! Detective Joanne saves the day! Well done :)

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  13. Well done Nancy, and you solved it without Bess or Jo to help you! (You know, you should be driving a convertible, too). Nothing like a drip or a leak to drive you nuts. -Jenn

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  14. Water leaks have been the bane of our life since last summer. All have been solved, but all required a great deal of sleuthing and a handy repairman and even a guest plummer! Well done you!

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  15. nice to know it isn't your problem, our middle bathroom makes a filling noise briefly every once in a while and it's a new bathroom and it's our problem, I just wonder why it needs to fill a little bit, where is the loss of water going I have not found out as of yet, I need nancy drew here too

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  16. This reminds me so much of my plumbing post in the spring. Looking forward to knowing if you are right.

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  17. of course it takes a woman. we're in the middle of our own plumbing problem, a leaky hot water heater.

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  18. Nice to be able to think about what is wrong without having the responsibility of fixing it!

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  19. I like to figure out puzzles but not ones that include water on the floor! Hope they get it fixed up quick for you. That is one of the perks of not owning!!

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  20. Well done, Nancy. My dishwasher leaked recently--absolutely soaked the area rug in the kitchen. If the rug hadn't been there to catch the water, I would have had a flood. The heat pump in the Bosch-by-Gosch was rusted out. Fourth repair on this dishwasher and of course it's out of warranty. No more Bosch for me. If it needs one more repair, I shall kick it out the door. Now it's been warned.

    Love,
    Janie

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  21. Oh - a female detective I didn't know! (I googled her). As to the dishwater: good that you found out, Joanne.

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  22. I really hate it when repairmen treat me like I'm a super dummy simply because THEY can't find the problem or are too lazy to fix something.

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  23. Well done, Nancy Drew. I smelled gas once in my daughter's bedroom. Wasn't long after we moved in. I called the gas company. They sent a fella. He said, "Do you run gas?" and I said, "No, which makes the fact that I'm smelling gas a puzzle.". He laughed. Said he didn't smell anything. Shared a look with my (more reasonable) husband. Said if we didn't run gas I couldn't be smelling gas. I asked him to humor me. Pointed out an old pipe that was coming out of the wall in the bedroom of this old house. It was a gas pipe. Part of the city system. Hadn't been turned off properly when the home owner switched to oil, and was leaking gas into my daughter's bedroom. Imagine that.

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  24. I always found goodyear to be slow as a snail. Took them like 3 hours for an oil change

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