Warning: my water heater blew in the middle of a bathroom reno

I was working on a bathroom remodel for a client in Portland last Tuesday. We had the old tub ripped out and were about to start hanging cement board for the tile. Then I hear this loud bang from the garage... the 12 year old water heater finally gave up. Water was pooling all over the concrete floor and seeping toward the wall. I had to drop everything, call a plumber, and tell the homeowner we'd be delayed by at least 2 days. The plumber got there in 4 hours but the damage was done - we had to pull up the subfloor near the garage wall because it got wet. Has anyone else had a utility failure mess up their timeline mid-project?

2 comments

2 Comments

schmidt.willow4d ago

Oh man that is brutal. Same thing happened to me last fall except my hot water heater died while we were demoing a master bath and water leaked through the floor into the kitchen below. We had to rip out the ceiling drywall and everything. Totally threw off the whole schedule by almost a week.

willow6723d ago

Oh man, that's a nightmare! I mean, you're already dealing with demo headaches and then a surprise indoor pool situation. Something similar happened to a friend of mine who was just trying to repaint their living room and the upstairs toilet seal gave out. Water came pouring through the light fixture in the ceiling, which is way scarier than it sounds (trust me, you do NOT want to see that). They ended up having to gut the whole ceiling and find out their wiring was all jacked up too, so a two day paint job turned into a full electrical rewire situation. I swear, houses just like to throw curveballs when you least expect them.