It should never be raining .. in your basement.

[Delphinus]

Well .. here's one of those "Wow! Is this ever a bad design!" things that you never think about and don't notice until it happens and then you're wondering .. how could something so fundamentally wrong escape your notice??

So, last night I try to do the usual "I'm just going to check Canreef for a few minutes" before I pack it in for the day. I sit down at the computer, wakey wakey, it starts coming back to life. Just as I see how many emails I've got, it says "A network cable is disconnected." Well stupid computer. Poke at it a bit. Hmm, nope no internet. Reboot. Grind grind grind. Nope, still think there's no internet. Can't connect to my hub. Ok, I'm going downstairs and cycling the power on the cable modem and my network hub.

I go downstairs and... I hear water. Lots of it. I immediately think, oh my God, one of my tanks has failed. Hey wait no. All 3 are still running. But over by my electrical panel for the house (where the cable modem and internet hub is), it is literally raining. Oh no. The filter sock I was washing in the washing machine. The washing machine. Oh no.

Run back upstairs. Yep, I've got several inches of water in the laundry room. Seems somehow the drain hose for the machine fell out of the drain connection and when the rinse cycle was done it just happily pumped itself empty onto the floor.

Thing is, the laundry room is directly above my utility room in the basement. And there's no floor drain in the laundry room.

I wouldn't dream of building a tank room without a floor drain. Why would they put a laundry room in without a floor drain? Why would you put a washing machine over your electrical panel? How is it even code to allow this?? Oh no, washing machines never go wrong. Clearly there's no risk in THIS scenario.

At least with my tanks I'm equipped to deal with floods. Here I am at midnight shop vaccing my hallway carpet, emptying my pantry, mopping up the basement .. getting out the dehumidifiers and the fans... Fun fun.

The underlay is soaked. I'm going to have to go rent a floor fan to pump air under the carpet today, to try and stop the mildew ... I don't yet know how badly damaged the hardwood is in the kitchen (it has definitely sustained damage .. the pieces are waterlogged, I have ripples and warps in the floor everywhere ) .. I'll just have to see how well things dry out and then assess what kind of restoration work I'm going to have to do.

In a way, it's a non-tank related flood, and I feel sort of relieved because it's usually me explaining to my wife what I did wrong with the tanks and why there's now water on the floor. This time it was the washing machine. But in a way, my hobby isn't entirely exonerated, because I was using the washing machine at the time to clean some filter socks.

<sigh> .. what a headache. At least the water didn't drain into my tanks. I'm really surprised actually how close it came to that. I also had a whiteboard next to my panel where I noted things like the date of my last light changes on the tanks, last water changes, date of RO/DI filter replacements ... I've lost all that info because the water spray got onto it and washed it nearly completely clean.

I'm amazed the electrical panel survived getting wet. What a complete horrible disaster this could have been. And to think if I hadn't gone to check Canreef I might have gone to bed without knowing there was something amiss downstairs.

[BCWolfen]

UGH! What a royal pita! Having had several floods myself (all tank related) I completely sympathise. Tyring to dry carpet and underlay is no fun.

The terrible price we pay for our addictions.
This famous fellow on Canreef once said...

"My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!"

[christyf5]

Good grief Tony, you have the worst luck! How the heck does a drain hose "fall" out of the drain? Weird!!!

Good luck with the aftermath

[wetcoast]

A friend had a similar experience in a top floor apartment - put in laundry, went out for an hour or two, came home to finding 3 inches of water in his whole place. Also got to meet his neighbours below him! He is still living out of one room after 4 months, and they are just now starting to put drywall backup and will lay his floors down shortly. All that for a .09 piece of plastic.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Yeah, this royally sucks. Happened to my parents, too, on their fourth floor apartment. Not cool!! Where are the drains??!!

[Delphinus]

I can't imagine what horror it would be to have this happen in an apartment.

I dunno, I'm feeling pretty frustrated right now. I just hope my electronics work again once they dry out - but I guess I shouldn't be surprised if I have to replace those. The hardwood floor is my biggest worry right now. If any of the pieces have to be replaced it is going to be a nightmare, since I assume that in 3 years since the floor was installed, the wood has changed colour and to make new pieces match means the whole thing would have to be sanded and refinished. I guess if it comes to that I'm probably going to have to make an insurance claim.

Indeed, how does a hose "fall out" of a drain? I seem to remember this happened once before at my old house, but it wasn't as big of a deal since the laundry room was in the basement already - the water was contained.

How can builders not be putting floor drains in laundry rooms? It seems so blatantly obvious to me that there should be one. I think I'll be putting one in. Luckily since the utility room is right underneath, it would be a simple matter to just pipe it down to the floor drain that's right there underneath anyhow.

[BCWolfen]

Back in the good ol days, those laundry hoses had a clamp that held them into the drain. Now they just hang in there and thats supposed to hold it. I've clamped mine down as I did not trust it.

[Zylumn]

I'm off to check mine now.?? Hey Tony there is always a bright side to everything that happens. Hope you find yours.
Kevin

[fishoholic]

Good luck with the aftermath That sucks! I'm going to check my washer hose now.....

[kari]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

How can builders not be putting floor drains in laundry rooms? It seems so blatantly obvious to me that there should be one.

Must be those same builders on my house. They installed a floor drain in my laundry room but forgot about the plumbing . Seems to be easier to have it drain into the ceiling below.