I came home today and made lunch for myself, but found there was a problem. No water. Among other things that meant I couldn't wash the dishes, although there weren't many.
Went out and came back. Still nothing. Although talking to a neighbor indicated that it was just the hot water that wouldn't run. You can heat up cold water other ways, although one hopes this is a short-term solution. Also a pipe had burst, the source of our troubles.
One of the supers eventually came by. It turned out a contractor fixing the leak hadn't reconnected a valve right. The hot water was back on. With some noise and discoloration at first. It was a relief, but felt somewhat awkward. It was like walking in at the moment someone made a breakthrough in primal scream therapy.
Went out and came back. Still nothing. Although talking to a neighbor indicated that it was just the hot water that wouldn't run. You can heat up cold water other ways, although one hopes this is a short-term solution. Also a pipe had burst, the source of our troubles.
One of the supers eventually came by. It turned out a contractor fixing the leak hadn't reconnected a valve right. The hot water was back on. With some noise and discoloration at first. It was a relief, but felt somewhat awkward. It was like walking in at the moment someone made a breakthrough in primal scream therapy.
2 comments:
I don't know if this story is true or not but your water supply problem reminded me of the boyfriend of a friend in Portland who was a plumber licensed in Hawaii (they met when she was on holiday etc.). While he waited for his accreditation in OR he worked for Roto-Rooter and told her his crew had been ordered to always break or damage something when they were called out to a job - so they'd be called back. It sounded weird to me and he wasn't the nicest guy anyway..
Plumbing in old buildings is tricky at best since the original pipes are likely to have weakened over time and new connections end up putting extra stress on the parts that had been coping. When we moved into our last place in Halifax the plumbers were just finishing replacing the pipes to all the tubs. We had a major leak into our bedroom closet one night. Then the spring before we left all the kitchen pipes in the building were replaced. That was a nasty job too considering the fact they had to break through two of our walls to get to our lines. We know what you mean about primal scream therapy.
You would think that over time the work crews that always busted something while they were out on a job would lose business to those who didn't. But who knows? The "magic of the market" isn't a panacea. Maybe they could just underbid everyone else. In any case I hope things worked out for your friend in Portland.
Plumbing, moreso than electrical wiring, is something that's existed in a pretty much consistent form for a very long time. But parts do wear out, of course, and have to be replaced, and the replacements have to match what's already there, unless you tear everything out and start again from square one. Now in North America 100 is old for a building. You don't see many places older than that that aren't historical landmarks. In the UK there must be a lot of mayhem, since you have really old houses.
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