Wet and Wild

Photo from Alliance for Water Efficiency

One of the most common damages we have in the spring is caused by sprinklers and children's innate ability to forget to turn things off.  A few stories popped up I thought I'd share;

Story 1: Cutting corners and new homes 

In a small town in Idaho a gentleman had just bought a house in the spring and was excited to get the water up and running to make sure his green yard stayed that way.  The house was new and hadn't, to his knowledge, had the water turned on.  Cutting corners was apparently what the landscaper did best because as soon as he turned it on he noticed a few lines that were leaking.  Being responsible he quickly turned it off and attempted to fix the lines.  Thinking he had done so, he turned the water back on and left to run for a couple of hours every other day for some time.   And there in-lies his mistake because his basement slowly filled with water from the flooding of a sprinkler that wasn't correctly adjusted.  This of course led to mold growing.  

Note to self: CHECK ALL SPRINKLERS!!! And if you don't know what you are doing find someone who does, mold remediation and repairs can be much more expensive and annoying to deal with than getting it done right

Story 2: Cheaters Never Win

The second story is of a woman who decided to cheat the system a little. In theory, pending nothing would go wrong, the idea made sense.  Rig the cities irrigation system to water your yard... stealing? Yes? Immoral? Probably! Apparently karma thought so because her system failed horribly and irrigated not only the yard but also her crawl space.  Unfortunately for her, the insurance didn't see fit to pay for the damages incurred and her out of pocket expenses for the emergency services and structural damages took care of her fun fund for a while.  

Note to Self: cheating the system can cause more trouble than it is worth and usually karma or bad luck shows it’s pretty little face to retaliate in one form or another.

Story 3: Kids will be Kids

Spring and then summer mean two things, heat and children are home from school.  Those cute little faces and seemingly innocent cool off sessions in the sprinkler or water hose can turn into a home owner’s worst nightmare.  One case of the "let’s go play in the sprinkler" and then   head in for snacks or drinks and "forget" to turn off the hose can flood your lawn, and eventually make it into your basement or crawl space or even the first level of your home.  

Note to Self: please teach your kids that their allowance can go away in a heartbeat if they don't take responsibility and make sure the water is indeed off.  Innocent doesn't change the damage or the cost of repairs!

Spring and summer are the best times to get out there but make sure you learn from those mistakes!