Almost a homeowner heart attack

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
Gone West
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iWin
I used the main floor bathroom and as I went to wash my hands there was no water from the hot side. I had the knob turned full open. Uh, oh. I threw open the door to the basement and swore I could hear water running. I didn't see any signs that it was underwater as I ran down.

All was normal.

I went back and open and closed the hot and cold and the shut off valve and eventually got hot water.

Evidently the valve body in the faucet is FUBAR. I had already put a new washer in it but both have a tendency to start running after they're shut off unless you tighten the knob extra hard.

Ain't it funny how you can hear things like how the engine sounds rough over water?
 
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mikea said:
I used the main floor bathroom and as I went to wash my hands there was no water from the hot side. I had the knob turned full open. Uh, oh. I threw open the door to the basement and swore I could hear water running. I didn't see any signs that it was underwater as I ran down.

All was normal.

I went back and open and closed the hot and cold and the shut off valve eventually got hot water.

Evidently the valve body in the faucet is FUBAR. I had already put a new washer in it but both have a tendency to start running after they're shut ff unless you tighten the knob extra hard.

Ain't it funny how you can hear things like how the engine sounds rough over water?
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Welcome to the world of ownership.....it's always something.
 
My mother used to say, "You can always tell a homeower, because they are always coming out of the hardware store."
 
My residences in this order:
  1. Home Sweet Home
  2. Home Airport KGVL
  3. Home Depot
:)
 
No lie... as I calculate which one is closer on my way home today...Home Depot or Lowes. Got to go learn more about motar/cement than I ever cared to learn.
 
ausrere said:
No lie... as I calculate which one is closer on my way home today...Home Depot or Lowes. Got to go learn more about mortar/cement than I ever cared to learn.
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A cop becoming unglued?

:goofy:
 
KennyFlys said:
A cop becoming unglued?

:goofy:
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lol. No, but very frustrated with poor planning from a previous owner.

I have a firepit in my back yard that is dug in 1ft deep into the ground with a rock rim that sits 1 ft above ground (the rock also extends on the walls of the pit all the way to floor). The floor is concrete. With all the rain we've been getting around here lately, I spend HOURS pumping water out of the dang thing. I've covered it to keep water from raining in to it, but it doesn't stop the water from seeping in from the surrounding ground...you can watch it just pour in from the motar joints between the rock. And it doesn't drain out..it just sits. So, I'm off to see if someone can suggest what I should do to stop the water from draining in (short of filling the dang thing with dirt.. which HAS crossed my mind :D But I like having it in the yard).
 
ausrere said:
lol. No, but very frustrated with poor planning from a previous owner.

I have a firepit in my back yard that is dug in 1ft deep into the ground with a rock rim that sits 1 ft above ground (the rock also extends on the walls of the pit all the way to floor). The floor is concrete. With all the rain we've been getting around here lately, I spend HOURS pumping water out of the dang thing. I've covered it to keep water from raining in to it, but it doesn't stop the water from seeping in from the surrounding ground...you can watch it just pour in from the motar joints between the rock. And it doesn't drain out..it just sits. So, I'm off to see if someone can suggest what I should do to stop the water from draining in (short of filling the dang thing with dirt.. which HAS crossed my mind :D But I like having it in the yard).
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Could you compromise? Fill in 1 ft to bring the floor to ground level, and leave the 1ft above ground as the ring? As I recall, that's the way my fire ring back home is. Or, if you really need 2 ft of pit, build up the walls.
 
bluesky74656 said:
Could you compromise? Fill in 1 ft to bring the floor to ground level, and leave the 1ft above ground as the ring? As I recall, that's the way my fire ring back home is. Or, if you really need 2 ft of pit, build up the walls.
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That sounds like about the only way to cure your problem. The floor of the pit needs to be above ground level, at least a couple inches. It was a bad design to start with.
 
Depending on your soil type drilling holes in the concrete might be enough. Not sure why one would want to have a concrete lined fire pit out of doors :confused: I'd have bricked the bottom sans mortar so that water could drain down through.
 
Home Depot was no help. The guy just looked at me with a blank look on his face.

I think filling it in to ground level may be my best bet. I'm no soil expert, so I asked my neighbor what kind of soil this is..he said blackland loams..I'll take his word for it.

I don't know why they put a concrete bottom in it, or why they dug it so deep. At first I thought it was because of the dense trees on the property..maybe a fire code of some sort, but there is a second fire pit in another part of the property that's just a stone ring that sits on the ground, not dug into it. Could be that it might have originally been some sort of pond, but I don't know. It looks like a firepit to me, and they had plenty of wood and ashes in it when I bought the place.

I ordered a dump truck load of sandy loam last week for other projects. I suspect some of it is going in to the pit.
 
Adding dirt to a solid bottomed pit like that will just make a mud factory, the water still has nowhere to go.

I'd suggest getting a concrete drill bit and try drilling some holes for drainage, or, failing that, taking a jackhammer to the bottom and making a hole with it, then add some coarse gravel, then finer gravel on top, and you'll still have a nice fireproof bottom for a fire, but it will drain.

I suspect that this thing wasn't a fire pit, but it might have been a footing for another structure, or a really strange birdbath. It just makes no sense to bury solid concrete in the ground unless you are capping off something (like an old well) or creating a footing for something - but even a footing has provisions for drainage, normally.
 
If there is an area nearby which is lower than the bottom of the pit you can put in a simple drainage system.
 
GaryO said:
If there is an area nearby which is lower than the bottom of the pit you can put in a simple drainage system.
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The yard slopes slightly from the house, down past the firepit and out into the woods. So one side of the pit is sloping away and could probably drain. But wouldn't all the ash cause problems with any drain that's installed?
 
TMetzinger said:
I suspect that this thing wasn't a fire pit, but it might have been a footing for another structure, or a really strange birdbath. It just makes no sense to bury solid concrete in the ground unless you are capping off something (like an old well) or creating a footing for something - but even a footing has provisions for drainage, normally.
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I don't know. There wasn't any structure on the property before the previous owners bought it in 2000. I think they just decided to build an in ground fire pit and didn't think it through first.
 
ausrere said:
The yard slopes slightly from the house, down past the firepit and out into the woods. So one side of the pit is sloping away and could probably drain. But wouldn't all the ash cause problems with any drain that's installed?
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It might. What you should do is start with a simple solution and see if it works.

Is the water table below the bottom of the pit? If yes, try cracking the slab or drilling holes in each corner that will function as a drain. You may get some water ponding in the pit when it rains but it should soon seep into the ground... i.e., the ashes may block the holes and prevent a rapid flow of water, but they should allow water to seep out. That may be enough!

-Skip
 
FLASH! I went to Lowes to get a new valve (Yea, the hot has been off all of this time) when the best help they coudl offer me was to get the one that "looked close" to the one I had, I got another package of washers...and IT WORKED! It looks lite tricky part is the washer has to be grabbed by the base in a little socket to be pulled to the open position. The old one looked pretty worn and had a hole in it, even I had replaced it.

2 Plumbing victories! I installed teflon packing on one of the outside hose bibs and after a few cycles, THAT stopped leaking! I have sprinkler timer on it now and not a drop comes out.

Then I pushed my luck and went to check the bib in the back yard....
 
mikea said:
...

Then I pushed my luck and went to check the bib in the back yard....
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I was testing my two old hose reels using the bib on the back. In the end it turned out I have to throw both out.

Did I mention last year when I had a soaked carpet in the basement and could not figure out where the water came from?

As I was enjoying that the bib was on at full force and didn't leak, I noticed that water was SHOOTING OUT OF THE WALL BENEATH IT! In other words the wall inside the house had to be full of water. :mad:

Guess what I just happened to buy at Lowes yesterday? The $39 Shop-Vac took up 3-4 gallons of water out of the carpet in the two rooms on each side of that wall. I turned the dehumidifier to full blast to dry it out.

I know I'll have to open up the wall to get to the valve. I manged to talk myself down that I can just keep the damned thing off and deal with that disaster later.

I have a third hose bib. I *think* that one doesn't leak....
 
Talk about resurrecting old posts! I had forgotten this one.

Update on my fire pit pool problem. :D

I borrowed a large drill from a friend and drilled several good size holes in to the fire pit's concrete floor. Seems to work. Water still fills it a little when we get heavy rains, but it drains fairly quickly. Still haven't figured out why they put concrete in the bottom of the thing to begin with though. During the drilling, I discovered it's about 1/2 inch thick.

At least I can use it now... when we are able to actually burn things around here that is!
 
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