Should've kept the video games in the basement.

[Shammy]

Well tonight my brothers and I decided to do some lawn work in the backyard. You know, to help get the house ready to put on the market. Anyway, it's about 8:45 so we really can't see what we're doing anymore. My older brother tells my younger brother to go inside and get the basement outside light turned on. However, after 15 minutes he hasn't done this yet and my brother and I call it quits.

So we walk inside and Brian (lil bro) is just standing there. "Surprise, surprise," Mike (big bro) says. All of the sudden, my mom walks up from the basement flipping out and holding a flashlight.

Apparently in the two weeks since any of us have been down in our basement, the water heater has sprung a leak (from the actual tank, meaning the thing is corroded and needs replacing), and more than half the basement carpet is saturated and growing mold.

My little brother turned to my mom after we called an emergency plumber, and told her, "Well, people said things with the divorce would get worse before they would get better." I turned to him and said, "If you and Mike hadn't brought all the video games up to the main floor you would've caught this thirty minutes after it started." >_>

My mom laughed much more at my remark than at Brian's.

Anywho: Now I'm waking up early tomorrow so I can be here when the emergency plumber fellow shows up to get his fix on in our basement.

[Akanari]

My Aunt's entire carpeted, very nice basement has flooded twice in a year. She's not very mobile so only uses the basement for entertainment and only notices the leaks days after they've already started. She's spent a ridiculous amount of money getting things fixed all the time. Poor lady. That's why we got her some of these.

LeakFrog!!

Also: LeakFrog on Woot

Flooded basements suck.

[GAAZ]

Here in America we have a thing plumbers can put on the main water valve called a "Water Cop" or something. I dunno if they conform to foreign country standards. Let alone if Shammy is in a foreign land.

Anywho, the main purpose is that if there is a surge in water pressure either up or down it shuts off ALL the water to the house.

This does two things...Stops a flood from getting worse and alarms everyone in the house that something funky just went down and your pipes should be checked.

The unfortunate thing is you have learned about this AFTER the fact.

[Shammy]

Well the bright side is that these are two things that will likely be of major assistance to our family in the future. I'm not foreign, though I wouldn't mind being able to make that claim one day: I'm up in Alpharetta (now Milton).

I had never heard of the water cop, but I'm glad to know about it now, as with the wonderful little frogs. I guess I'd have to see how loud they are because, like I said, we weren't even in the basement for about two weeks so the leak just sort of grew and grew.

In any case, it's much better to at least come away from the situation with something more than, "Well, water heaters don't last forever" and "Keep a tab on every inch of your home", good ideas though they may be.

[Shammy]

For the record, we've now had a carpenter (I think? Not quite sure what he was, he vacuumed up our carpet and tore it out) and a plumber come by. Apparently both are coming back along with an insurance adjuster, or whatever sort of insurance fellow comes by to check on things.

The plumber judged from looking at the water heater that the amount of pressure was the issue. Apparently our water pressure regulator got died and, as a result, pushed 120 psi into our water heater. Now we're looking into whether damage caused by a water pressure regulator will be covered by the homeowner's policy.

[Silver Adept]

Oog. Sucks that there was that much damage, but good that it appears there waswn't anything major that got flooded, right? And hopefully it won't happen again.

[Tobias]

Our water heater sprung a leak.

I was playing Guitar Hero that night, so I was able to spot the leak instantly.

Anywho, We had that problem a lot when we first moved to where we live now - one time, water was spraying out of the steps to the backyard (since it was all part of the ground). Needless to say, I did a lot of cleaning, but not nearly as much as Ming or Mom. Although, i had one rainstorm where i went wading out into my backyard.

That's right. Wading into the backyard.

[Shammy]

After talking with the insurance folks, plumbers, and carpet removers, here's where we stand:

-Water pressure regulator failed
-Water pressure caused water heater to burst
-Water heater bursting caused basement to flood

Now we've got the carpet removed because it was ruined and moldy. The replacement of the carpet will be done for us, and we'll be covered for damages; replacement of the water pressure regulator and water heater will not be covered. So here's what our deductible looks like:

$1000 deductible
-$300 paid to Chris the carpet guy

=$700 deductible
-$250 for 2.5 hours helping Chris the carpet guy

=$450 deductible
-$675 for water heater (My dad is arguing that we should be reimbursed for the water heater parts since it was damaged as a result of the pressure regulator failing).

=-$225 deductible

And that's before we get into the itemized list of damages including the xbox, gamecube, etc.

Then once we've covered our $1000 deductible, everything else is paid. So we'll be getting the new carpet put in for us free of charge.

Still need to be paid to plumbers $655 for regulator parts and labor + $470 for heater labor = $1125 in this scenario, but we'll get help on that from the damages we itemize.