I have the cleanest shoes on earth at this very moment. After stepping on every spare towel in the house not hanging in the bathrooms (you can never have too many towels), my shoes are absolutely spotless. The carpet in my game room is mostly dry and the big fan and open door and window will do the rest; a dry climate is essential, which we enjoy.
It all started three days ago, well actually two because it was c. 2 AM on Wednesday; but in my mind it was Tuesday night.
I was awakened to the "clank" of the mop bucket. If felt like "the witching hour" and it was; when I put on my bathrobe and went to the downstairs bathroom to inspect the nature of the disturbance, the clock said 1:58. *BIG SIGH*
My soon-to-be 26 year-old son was rinsing out the mop and bucket in the bathtub: suds were copious. He said: "Sorry to wake you up, Father. But Mom and that cat have finally combined to create a disaster." He then showed me the laundry room, which was still sticky with mopped up "Tide with Bleach", a whole $23 USD bottle of the stuff had fallen/been knocked off the dryer onto the floor, where the opened cap had allowed its entire contents to spread out clear under the dryer, washing machine and even hot water heater. "I noticed it when I came home and I've cleaned it up the best I can." His hypothesis was that the bottle had somehow been placed so that the cat could knock it off. I opined that the dang thing weighed as much or more than the cat, therefore I doubted that the cat was involved. His sister's laundry was in the dryer. My hypothesis (still) is that the bottle was not put back entirely on the top of the dryer; and being balanced precariously, the motion of the dryer drum gently edged the bottle to the tipping point. Anyway, no more laundry detergent bottles on the top of the dryer!
How does this explain my soaked carpet in my game room?
It is the chain of events, you see. This morning, I decided to get the last of the suds out of the mop. I took the mop to the driveway and started to spray it out with the hose and nifty "snozzle"; you know the kind that shuts off when you release the trigger. The water causes back pressure in the hose. Ah! You begin to put it together. During the winter we had one enormous icicle form on the outside water faucet; somebody had failed to turn it off all the way. And the ice had busted the water pipe where it exits through the brick wall. My nifty "snozzle", creating back pressure, had discovered the busted pipe for me. Fortunately, I had not been at the mop rinsing job for more than c. a minute or two. For some reason I interrupted myself and went over to the faucet and noticed immediately that water was spraying OUT OF THE BRICK HOLE around the pipe. "
!" I raced downstairs, and the carpet was already soaked three-quarters of the way to the door (about seven feet). I proceeded to step on every towel until I was coming up with only slight dampness by the last one; that was nearly a dozen towels, alright. Now the big fan is going, and my room is drafty, which is uncomfortable but a good thing.
I have removed the faucet handle. One of these days, soon!, I will get the plumber out here to replace the pipe.
The thing I don't understand is how it leaks with back pressure but not when the faucet is turned off. Wouldn't the hole be behind the faucet? That would mean that water should be squirting out all the time. So obviously that isn't the case; so why would back pressure cause the squirt? I should think that water emerging from the pipe at all would happen as I said with the faucet off, and certainly with it on and water passing through the pipe. Weirdness….
weighs the pros and cons of using a power drill on the minis workbench.
