Lesson Learned

Remember how I said I had a story to tell regarding the water damage I recently repaired on the first floor? 

Though it seems obvious now, initially, when this leak happened, I wasn't sure where the water was coming from only because it coincided with some heavy rain (that we've been without for a year) and I have a known water problem on the roof decks where the safety glass attaches to the parapet (that I'm in the midst of getting sorted out now).

  

Anyway, it took a while to figure out that it was coming from the laundry room on the second floor because everything looked hunky-dory in there, (but in reality water was running down the inside of the wall). 

There was no water on the floor and the hook-ups -which are under the folding table, looked fine. Honestly, I was most concerned that the outflow spout had been knocked out of the drain and that clearly wasn't the case. 

Upon closer inspection, I finally realized that the screw mechanism on the hot water supply line was cracked. The leaking was intermittent, I guess, because sometimes I must have been doing cold water laundry with no demand on this valve. I can only assume this is why I didn't draw a correlation of the leak to the laundry and instead did to the rain. Ok, so how is this crack even possible? 

From shenanigans like this. I can't even tell you how many times I've pulled my appliances out from their spots. I've moved them to adjust the lint hose, vacuum up lint, paint, repair the dryer, and repair the washer. At some point, I obviously put a lot of strain on that hose and it cracked. Bummer, however.....

This most likely never would have happened with a steel hose line even with me yanking. It cracked because it is plastic, yes, that's right, plastic!! What kind of idgit installs a supply line with plastic attachments on a second floor water source, when a steel one would be a much more prudent solution??? Grrrrrr. 

This is the type I have connected to my washer at the moment. They also make a burst free option, which is braided steel covered in rubber, which was not available at my neighborhood hardware when I purchased this. It is recommended that the washer line be replaced every 3 to 5 years -I did not know that! I still intend to swap out what I have now in the near future even though I feel this new one is sufficient for the time being (better safe than sorry).

So the moral of the story is that they make crappy plumbing supplies out of plastic, which don't hold up. Don't skimp on parts, because there is nothing like the heartache of an interior leak.