I have been changing out shutoff valves because ours are 20 years old and we have calcium-heavy water. The last one I did, on the third floor, didn't seat properly and I dumped a couple minutes worth of water. Most ended up in the vent system, and thus in the basement, with a little seeping around 2 ceiling panels on the second floor ceiling. The ceiling dried mostly fine (I have a couple places where the paint bubbled and several vent/scope holes I drilled to fill and blend, but the ceiling is structurally okay and dried out -- thank ghu we live in a dry climate with minimal mold issues.)
DH asked that we get AC service out to check the HVAC (fair) and it was fine... then 24 hours later, the control board on the furnace went out. Probably because it's old and a capacitor blew, maybe because it got a little water on it (though it work horsed for several days while drying out the water), possibly (but I doubt it) because the provider did something. The service provider has been... less than helpful, bad at answering phones and sexist as fucking hell, so I don't trust this will end anytime soon. If I don't hear back from the service provider by noon today, I'm just going to order the part and install it. (It's a circuit board. It takes a bundle of jumpers, reading the book and following instructions.) The weather, at least, has been cooperative (mostly).
At the same time, there's a structural issue with the balconies on all of our townhouses that have balconies. Ours is less urgent than most, but we do need to have our balcony reinforced.
This is something I recognize, though -- it's the homeowner version of the Suburban Ponzi Scheme. We're all supposed to be setting aside a little of our household budget for repairs, and in theory, that budget should compound and be available to take care of a multiplicity of disasters at once. (Just like our suburban development is supposed to reserve some of the tax funds for future maintenance.) But what happens in reality is that we don't (and cities don't) and it's likely that our major appliances/infrastructure will all fail at about the same time, because they were installed at around the same time and have about the same lifespan. And the system perpetuates because we keep doing that, and we get trapped between paying the interest/having the funds on hand, and necessary service, and we get stuck in a cycle of decay.
Check with your local power and gas companies. There are rebates and tax credits available for efficient appliances. It still doesn't help with the cost right now, but it does help in the long run. IIRC, you have a gas water heater, and if you're in a mobile. If it's inside with a chimney vent and bottom cold air, there's only one model available, and it's not terribly efficient as water heaters go. But if you've got a side vent/outside, you can use almost any water heater, so you can get one that's more efficient. If you've got a handyman, that's the better option, and the Lowes/Home Depot/Menards versions are better options than what a plumber will charge. (The same water heater from the BB is $400; the plumber wanted $1800 with a worse warranty and less reliability per Consumer Reports.) We went through this ourselves 3 years ago with our last house, and it was only made less painful by filing a home insurance claim. (Which if you've got it and haven't filed, do so now, especially if there's any chance that water from the water heater got into the furnace or AC. Which is possible. If water got the AC/furnace, that will be covered.) The insurance didn't cover the water heater replacement cost, but they did cover the remediation and flooring costs (and checked out our HVAC system), which helped. This is what insurance is for.
Also, make sure your installer mounts a new piece of subfloor -- 3/4" plywood with reinforcement -- to the joists under the water heater. Once the fiberboard flooring gets wet, it WILL sag and fail, and a water heater is 450 pounds when full. It MUST be supported. Don't ask me how I learned this. It wasn't fun.
But yeah, it sucks, and sucks hard. I'm so sorry.
Turned on the heat to dry out the excess moisture in the house due to July 23rd flood under the hot water heater.
Furnace started screaming. Shut the breaker (this shit is getting old). I'll call the gas company tomorrow. We have a service contract. Maybe this will be a small problem (small repair $$$ bill).
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