Something to Think About When Leaving on That Extended Trip

Gang:
We just got back last night from a 3 week escape in the Bighorn. Before leaving the house, I routinely closed all of the interior doors to minimize damage in case of fire, something I got from being in the Navy. We came home to a musty smelling house, and the pocket doors to our small (6' X 8') laundry room were stuck. When we pried the doors open we were greeted by a steambath, with water droplets on the ceiling and all wall surfaces, mildew spots all over, blistering paint, and just a little water on the floor. The suspect for all this was obviously the square electric hot water heater. Removing the lid, I found a steel re-enforced outlet hose had a very small leak with mainly steam escaping. To make matters worse, our back door to the yard had to be forced open to get air flow into the area, and now I can't close it (the wood has swollen).
This could have been a lot worse with a MAJOR pipe leak. Many years ago we had this happen in a bathroom sink connector pipe and came home to flooded floors and carpeting. I guess the bottom line is that I will now SHUT OFF THE WATER SUPPLY BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR AN EXTENDED TIME.

I know of so many people over the years who came back to water damage. We once came back to a leaky hot water heater, some of the 40 gallons leaked, thank God our water was off. We have a rule, over night stay away from the house, water is shut off.

Good luck on your dry out.

Doug S

If we are going to be gone overnight, or longer...we shut water off to the house and all unnecessary breakers.

My sister in-law left her house one time and got about 2 miles away and realized she had forgotten something. Her husband turned the van around, made a comment or too, and returned to the house. When she went in, she found that a toilet supply line in the bathroom had sprung a leak. The water had not yet gotten out of the bathroom, so it had just happened! When I heard that story, that's when I started shutting the water down.

Shutting off any electrical circuits that you can, greatly eliminates the possibility of something shorting out and causing a fire.

Travel Safe!

Friends of ours left for NM 4 weeks ago for a week. When they got back they found their water heater had burst at the inlet side. The water heater was located inside the house on the first floor. Their house is on a slab so the only place the water had to go was through out the first floor. Whoever built the house left no drain to the outside. Thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Yes, their insurance is taking care of it and we are doing the job for them. They are getting new floors, sheetrock, trim, piant etc, but it sure wasn't worth what they are going through.
We have never turned off the water at our house-but that is going to change starting now.
BTW, the water heater was only 3 three years.

We always shut off our water supply, dump the ice maker(in case of power failure), and turn off the recirculating pump for the hot water system. If we leave going to be gone when we don't need heat we also turn off the gas supply.

I have heard too many horror stories like this.

Since reading about others who have had their RV flooded from a water line that let go, I now turn off the Water supply.

I Bought a 1/4 turn Ball Valve to make this a little easier. Just takes doing the task several times to get in the habit. Turn off the water and come back to lock the RV's door. Sure, it's probably over Kill, but but it's peace of mind for me.

Marv