Doug's Sounding Board

On Friday afternoon a wet spot was on the floor of the computer room. At first it was thought that one of the dogs had peed in protest since the other one did so earlier in the day. But that night we saw the wet spot grew. Then we saw that the carpet was wet elsewhere and that various paper things on the floor had absorbed a lot of water.

You’re probably wondering why I have movie talk as a category for this. Well A number of laser discs I had waiting to be recorded to DVD were on the floor (including the Star Wars ones) and the jackets of them got pretty wet! I haven’t looked inside yet but they have plastic-lined sleeves so I think they are ok, but this is interfering with the Star Wars project.

The only source for that could be the water heater. So I went outside in the rain to access the water heater closet which is on the same slab as the computer room but divided but some dry wall. In the closet the concrete was wet but that could be from the rain. Then after a few minutes I saw a drip from the temperature and pressure relieve valve. After putting a pot under the outlet fo rthat valve and watching during Nicole’s shower I saw the drip rate increase.

The next morning the concrete was dry but the pot was completely full. Since the pipe from the valve extended in to the pot some got sloshed on to the concrete in the process of dumping it out. From this little bit on the dry slab I could see the water running in the direction of the computer room.

We went to OSH and got a new valve, waited until everyone showered, and then shut off the hot water, turned down the burner on it, and drained some water out of it so it wouldn’t spew hot water out of the side when I pulled the valve off.

I then took off the outlet pipe (easy), and put the pipe wrench on the valve and foun dit was stuck. Then I saw there was putty stuff that was used to seal it in place. I called my parents to ask for advice (since I sisn’t want to bust the whole water heater). My mom answered and she said it sounded like I wanted to talk to my dad, and I agreed, but she was disappointed that she wasn’t getting asked, so I asked her first. I explained it was stuck and had putty stuff and I wasn’t sure how to proceed. She suggested a bigger wrench (I only have a 10 inch pipe wrench).

Then she passed me off to my dad who pretty much suggested the same thing except also suggested cutting away the putty with a utility knife and putting a pipe on the end of the wrench for more leverage. He recommended against whacking the wrench with a hammer to break it free because the wrench is springy and would fly off and cause damage.

The cutting away the putty suggestion reminded me that I have some nice picks for doing that sort of thing and using them the putty came off pretty easily. The valve was still stuck without the putty so I wrapped my hands around the wrench, hunched up, and slowly too kthe weight off my feet. That did it and the valve moved!

I put the teflon tape on the new valve and installed it and then I put some on teh drain pipe and put that in.

Still to do is to change the drainage to it goes to the outside instead of straight down since there is no drain except for the computer room. Also is to find a way to channel water to the outside in case something else fails (like the whole heater tank.