Another “fun” day of living in hillbilly land happened a couple of days ago. Thought I would share. I am sure many of you have experienced fun days of your own through the years.
We were awakened at 6 AM by a call from Daughter. Oh no, was the first thought. Hope it is not something bad with Son IL since he is on night shift. Nope, wasn’t that. Hope one of their family is not sick. Nope, wasn’t that.
It was her telling us the Fire Department had just left. It had rained all night and was still raining. In that rain, three FD vehicles and 10 personnel had arrived on their short cul-de-sac street in all of their gear in the wet yard and mud before going into their home.
The house had filled with smoke and the alarms had one off at about 5 AM while Daughter and grandkids were asleep before SonIL got off his shift at 6 AM and headed home. Scared the kids and mom as well. The FD checked the nearly new package unit heat pump we had installed when they completed their addition and remodel this time last year. They found the exterior circuit breakers were hotter than they should be and pulled the disconnects. The HVAC unit (good name brand) and new ductwork had been repaired twice under warranty as the installation had been improper by an inexperienced crew. So our first thought was, “not again.” But no evidence of related problems or fire was found anywhere they looked. The smell was plastic and electrical, but had dissipated. The FD gave the all clear and left the scene not long after SonIL arrived from work.
SonIL was worn out from a night of DUI’s, domestics, shoplifting, etc. He needed sleep. So ole dad headed to the scene with his morning coffee. But before SonIL went to bed and I arrived, he decided to check the crawl space; the area that the FD apparently forgot to check. There is a bit of new wiring there from the addition as well as a sump pump that had been installed by the original builder. SonIL quickly determines he most likely found the problem. It seemed to be near the old sump pump from the smell in the space. He also remembered the pump making some loud noises two weeks before, however, it had reverted to normal and was working.
Even after I arrived it is continuing to do its thing about every 15 minutes from the pooling from the heavy rains. Water makes its way in around the footer downhill to the spot because the original builder had made the opening of the package HVAC too low to the ground. We have attempted numerous fixes, but nothing has worked to completely stop the problem, which is typically minor. Until that “fun” day.
The family is on a contract with a really good HVAC provider that also has plumbing and electrical services. SonIL called them and gave me as the contact person. He then went to bed after I arrived to try to get some sleep since he had another work night ahead of him. They were two officers short on his unit and shift as it was. Calling in for a day off was not going to happen.
The first on the scene less than two hours later were the electricians. One headed under the house while the other checked the breaker panel. They talked on their phones and the one under the house sent photos of what he found. We were in luck because that guy is also good at plumbing and discovered the issue as the sump pump along with how the smoke and electrical burn smell got into the house. All new wiring checked out good and to code. However, he noticed the elbow on the dryer exhaust pipe to the exterior had fallen off the pipe leading inside the house onto the ground. The laundry room is right next to the return air duct in the hall. So, every time the HVAC had come on since it fell (within the past year), the system was creating a vacuum into the house for crawl space air. A bad thing had led to a good thing of finding a major issue that could have led to far worse outcome.
Funny how those things work out sometimes. It is as if a somebody is watching out for all of us during our “fun” days. But I digress. 😉
The existing sump pump had been wired to an existing non-GFI circuit to another part of the house. That is a problem. Had it been on a GFI, it would have likely tripped the breaker when SonIL first heard the noises previously. The pump was extremely hot to touch and it appeared to have burn marks where the wiring connected. Bingo. The electrician noted there was no check valve on the pump. Problem. That should always be there. There was no weep hole on the intake pipe. That’s another problem. Will not go into the whys here, just know you need them so yours will not do what this one did. All of that contributed to the pump burning its motor partially, probably 50%, which explains how it was continuing to pump a small amount of ground water.
So, a call is made after my approval to the plumbing department and they sent a pro out within an hour. He checks it out, confirms the need, shows the damaged and problem areas, determines the options, goes back to get the one I selected and returns right after lunch. Less than an hour later he was done. The electricians planned to return once that was completed. The office called me and said it would be an hour before they arrived. Daughter left work early and had arrived to take over while her husband slept. I headed back to the house to clean up and eat a sandwich before returning to answer questions of the electricians.
That’s when the truly funny stuff happened.
While at home I received another phone call. SonIL had awakened before the arrival of the electricians. I had left word with Daughter that the heat pump was not working and that it was getting cool in the house. So she sent him out to check the circuit breakers and it turned out the disconnects had not been reinserted. Since we knew the source of the problem was not the heat pump, he reinserted. Literally within seconds, the entire house lost power!
Panic ensued. He called me and asked what happened and what he should do. I told him that the first thing was to check with neighbors to see if they had power. The second thing was to not panic, the electricians would be there soon if it was something within the home.
Daughter checked with neighbors – they were all out of power. At this point SonIL thought he has caused a power outage in the entire neighborhood!
😂
Meanwhile I checked the power company’s outage map and there was an outage for 1300 customers in that immediate vicinity. SonIL is suspecting that, nah, he could not have caused that. Daughter calls a fire fighter friend and she tells her there had been a car accident, the FD was on the scene, and that it caused the outage. She lets me know, but SonIL is on the other side of the property and unaware. The electricians, who had been delayed by another 30 minutes getting there, pulled up into the driveway.
I caught them and told them what happened, that seconds after SonIL had reinserted the disconnects in the breaker the power went off for the whole area. They agree to play along. SonIL comes from around the house minutes later and they asked him, “What in the world did you do?! Don’t you know not to reinsert those disconnects until we have cleared the fault?!” Panic returned to SonIL’s face again. He began melting down.
😂
We all burst out laughing and let him up, told him the truth. He was a good sport, but very relieved. It was probably good all of his cop and personal arsenal were locked up. I suspect the electricians will get pulled over one day when in town where works. Paybacks are hell, ask the Supreme Leader.
The rest of the repair went well. New circuit pulled with GFI breaker in the box as well as receptacle under the house. Problem solved. Another “fun” day in paradise.
Among many other things, this shows the virtue of building to code…..because it can take someone forever to figure out code violations years later.