07.23.03
Life without water
Yesterday morning I was dealing with emergencies at work when I got a phone call telling me that water was seeping up through the floor in the garage. I had Sara shut off the water to the house at the main Valve. I used my lunch hour to make phone calls and had to call 9 plumbers before I found one available to examine the break the same day. The plumber came out and told us we would have to use a jackhammer to break up the floor and then dig the 3 feet down to the pipe so it could be exposed for a patch… either that or pay him $800 to dig and fix. I made a decision to live without water for a day and take care of it the next morning.
This morning I telecommuted for a set of meetings between 8:00 AM and 9:30 AM while Sara drove down to the rental shop and picked up a jackhammer. I broke up the floor (praying to the gods that I would be able to put it back together afterwards) and helped Sara dig some but mostly worked remotely from my home office. Once we hit the pipe it was easy to see the fracture that caused the leak as well as the tree root that had grown under the pipe and broken it. The afternoon was spent working, calling more plumbers to try and find one who could do the repair same day, arborists for advice on how to prevent the tree root(s) from doing further damage, and Qwest in failed attempts to find out why my DSL kept failing at inopportune moments (the DSL had gone down twice the day before for 45 minute stints and did so again once today while I was typing documents for work).
By the time the new plumber showed up at 5pm I was very sweaty, full of concrete dust and stinky.. and had not had a shower for since the morning of the day before. We were delighted to pay the $160 that it took to get the pipe fixed and our water back. An arborist is due out tomorrow morning to advice us on the tree.
Today I learned how to operate a jackhammer. This weekend I will learn how to pour concrete and hopefully get my garage back. The rest of the weekend will likely be spent digging a trench to cut the root that caused the damage closer to the tree and perhaps do some landscaping at the same time. I will update the blog as the project progresses. Until then, pictures of the work thus far are posted in the gallery.
Mari said,
July 25, 2003 at 9:44 am
Wow! That really blows… Funny thing is, you look so cheerful about jackhammering that hole…
Good luck with the project… Let me know if you need anything!
Leopoldo said,
July 26, 2003 at 2:20 pm
Wow, thank you Mari. The project is going well. I just poured the first set of concrete, a short barrier to discourage the tree root from growing under the pipe again. Once that sets I will put in sand and reconstruct my garage floor. I will have some more pics and a project update posted probably tomorrow.
LEE RUBRIDGE said,
May 31, 2005 at 3:33 pm
HI THAT LOOKS FUN TO USE THE JACKHAMMER WHAT DIDIT FEEL LIKE WHILE USING 1 WOULD LOVE TO KNOW PLEASE AS I OULD LOVE TO HAVE A GO ON 1
MANY THANKS LEE
Leopoldo said,
June 1, 2005 at 12:21 am
Fun… Lots of fun.
lee said,
June 1, 2005 at 2:16 am
when will u be using a jackhammer again and what would u say if i asked if i could have a go.
apart from u did anyone else have a go on it and what r the vibrations like from using 1.
would like to know more about u using the jackhammer if u dont mind me asking
STEVE said,
July 6, 2005 at 4:02 pm
HI LOOKS LIKE U R HAVING WITH WITH THE JACKHAMMER WHAT R THEY LIKE TO USE
AND IF I WAS THERE WOULD U LET ME HAVE A GO IF I ASKED WHAT WOULD U SAY
WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THEY FEEL LIKE AS I HAVE NEVER USED 1 BE4