The reason why I'm so slow to start a new project.

I looked over my shoulder and saw you standing there in the "I hate doing home improvement projects" line up. Sorry to hear about the leak. Tough break on the laminate as you'll more than likely have to re-do it.

 

Wolfman, don't you have cold water shut-off under the toilet tank?

 

And did you shut it off?
Edit: I should have said ... and you did shut it off?.
Go to the hardware store and find an appropriate "stainless hose clamp" and replace them on both ends of the hose or whatever type of stuff you have.

 

This is why I like living in an apartment. Something needs fixing, I call the management company and they send the maintenance man over. When I bought my projector I knew I'd never be able to install the ceiling hooks for the retracting screen, so I called them, and they sent the maintenance man over. When I move out they'll have the maintenance man patch the holes and charge me for it. No muss, no fuss, leave the fussing to us... errrm, them.

 

Wolfman, i feel your pain. i built the house i sold last spring. it wasnt my first, but it was the first i did nearly entirely on my own. and i did have a few things that did not go smoothly.

and yes plumbing was involved. to save money, i got a factory 2nd one piece fiberglass tub/shower combo, it was less than 25 cents on a dollar since one of the biggest tub manufacturers was in a small town a few miles from my house.

well for the first 5 years everything was fine. then my ex was cleaning the tub fixtures and banged them hard enough or something (not really sure what happened actually) and the cold water valve started to leak. well i did have a crawl space to access the tub and so that wasnt a problem. the only thing was it was against an outside wall so it was irritating in that i had to deal with insulation while working in the area. but replaced the valve and thought all was well.

ok, now what i didnt know was that less than a week later, it started leaking. as for me, im a in and out in less than a few minutes guy when taking a shower, especially when at this time i was having to be at work at 5 am. well my ex took normal showers and started noticing that the floor was wet after taking a shower. she just thought it was her being careless and didnt think nothing of the fact that i had a solid leak proof shower door on the tub enclosure and it was a one piece effectively eliminating most leak areas.

well to make a long story short, i was home one morning making coffee in the kitchen while my ex was bathing my son in the tub and all of a sudden water started leaking onto my head!!

soooo, besides fixing the valve, )the tile in the bathroom survived), i also had to redo the kitchen ceiling too. (a much much harder job than the original install because of the kitchen cabinets!)

p.s. the incident had nothing to do with our breakup.

 

Around 6 years ago I bought a new house in the 'burbs. Very nice, and I was very comfy. However, when homes are spaced 1.5 ft apart (Eave to Eave), a noisy neighbor quickly becomes apparent. Same as a loud party down the block.

Fortunately, those were rare. Though there were always noisy, squealing kids playing on my lawn, and neighborhood dogs invariably used my lawn as a communal toilet. Early 2004, it was time to finally sell, while the market was so good. I just couldn't see having a home, being single.

I'm currently in a high-rise condo, which is mine. I have equity and an asset that appears to be slowly gaining in value. I also have perks that I didn't have with a house, chiefly the heated underground parking with carwash bay. In a climate like this, that is truly a God Send.

The high-rise is all reinforced cement, even the interior partitions. So far, it's extremely quiet. There are strict rules about parties: eg, not in your suite, but the specially-constructed "party room." About the only time I'm aware of noise, especially a raging argument (Another reason I chose to remain single!), is when I'm in the corridor.

So I much prefer my current living conditions. I only have a cat for a pet, so most condo's and apartments don't mind. Like Daniel mentioned, I have the same maintenance situation. If anything goes bonkers, I call Maintenance and somebody else deals with it. I'm just too busy to have to deal with that day-to-day crap.

I have a fairly secluded "hobby" farm that I picked up cheap, it was a repo. Sadly, there are a lot of those farms here in Manitoba. The nearest neighbor is around 1.5km away, so I have absolute privacy and quiet when I want it. I built a new home on the property 2 years ago.

The new home has ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) walls almost a foot thick. Combined with the ICF, that's like having R40 walls. The house is quiet as a tomb. R60 roof, tri-pane windows, super efficient gas furnace and central A/C, etc.

I ran PEX tubing from a central plumbing manifold, a "Manabloc," made by Vanguard Pipe. Since each faucet or commode has an individual shutoff at the Manabloc, in addition to shut-off at the device, it's very easy to isolate one misbehaving gadget without losing water anywhere else.

I did most of the finish work and the plumbing/electrical myself. That saves a lot of money, though it used up all my vacation time and weekends for two years.

One thing I did was put down cement backer board in the bathrooms and upstairs laundry room, since that is the most obvious source of leaks. I sloped the floor and put a very small drain at the lowest point. For most minor leaks, it's the difference between an absolute disaster or just a minor annoyance.

I put thinset on top of the concrete backerboard, and cheap 12x12 tile on top of that. Linoleum is also a good choice too. Due to the risk of water leakage, I would never have carpet, parquet, or laminate, especially in a bathroom.

Another thing I do is shut the water system down, even if I'm away for just an hour or so. It's an easy habit to get into. I have a ball valve at the pressure tank, and those are much easier to operate than the gate valves.

I also turn off the main breaker to the submersible pump. Especially during a lightning storm, it's easy to cook a pump if you don't shut them off.

To summarize, here is what I do to reduce the chance of plumbing leaks to an absolute minimum:

1. When gone, shut off the main valve at the pressure tank and shut off the submersible pump.

2. Keep the master valve at the washing machine off unless I'm actually doing laundry.

3. As mentioned in the other posts, use the "proper" stainless flex to connect commodes, washing machines, sink faucets, etc. They're expensive but prevent most leaks caused by that cheap plastic flex.

Sorry to hear about your plumbing misadventure. I've "been there and done that." The joy of owning a home and all that.

 

jayman... this thread is not for the purpose of telling us how to do it right... after our adventures, we probably have figured that much out...

 

Dave:

Actually, I've made mistakes with renovations and especially with drywalling, and couldn't really figure out what I did wrong. Since I'm not a contractor, I was stuck reading a one page pamphlet and wondering why everything worked perfectly in the pamphlet and was a disaster in my house.

Helpful advice from folks who have learned "the hard way" really saved my a** in those sort of situations.

 

lol...

take it from someone who has tried to do something with those pamphlets. they leave a lot to the imagination

 

Wolf, I feel your pain... I couldn't fix anything in my house if my life depended on it... thank God for the Yellow pages and credit cards... I don't cook either, but make a good reservation.

Bob Andersen