So this was a fun evening. Had already spent my house work energy for the day by fixing a sink and a couple faucets then I walked into the garage to a mysterious and highly unexpected sound: Splashing water.
That gray line on the meter is how high the standing water is. Little harder to see the running water on the inside, but it is there and there's a lot. The desk/shelf thing was using particle wood surfaces, which soaked up the water like a sponge and started drooping and gathering a larger and larger pool of water, soaking all the screws, nails, fasteners, tools, and assorted junk that builds up over years in the garage.
So we were stumped. Neighbors stumped. City stumped (after somebody got back to me at 8 pm local time on a Saturday). Fire department stumped (water + electricity bad, take no chances)
After a while looking around we found a neighbor a couple houses up emptying a pool. Almost right into a large metal grate next to a large transformer box with all kinds of caution signs next to it. I'm not sure if they thought that was a drainage grate or if they hadn't noticed (their hose wasn't long enough to reach the street) and left the hose in just the right spot for it to run down to the grate and into the plastic tubes leading high voltage underground utility cables up and down the street
Luckily the cables were insulated so the water wasn't electrified. The tubes are supposed to be sealed but I guess either they weren't or one developed an opening that a pool-sized amount of water could rise high enough under the grate to get into. Then from there it ran down under the street, down the access pipe to our house, into our electricity meter box, through the wall to the circuit breaker, and down the wall on both sides.
City guy who came out also had never seen anything like it. He replaced the whole meter as it unsurprisingly wasn't working very well anymore (new smart meter - not smart enough to resist water, I guess!). So aw, had I not reported it maybe I would've gotten a few days of free electricity before they noticed
- Had the laundry machine overflowed again? Ages since last time. But no, wrong side of the garage ...
- Some water leak not previous experienced? No, shouldn't be any pipes that side of the garage, water heater is next to the laundry machine ...
- Is it raining really bad? New roof leak? Rain wasn't forecast ...
That gray line on the meter is how high the standing water is. Little harder to see the running water on the inside, but it is there and there's a lot. The desk/shelf thing was using particle wood surfaces, which soaked up the water like a sponge and started drooping and gathering a larger and larger pool of water, soaking all the screws, nails, fasteners, tools, and assorted junk that builds up over years in the garage.
So we were stumped. Neighbors stumped. City stumped (after somebody got back to me at 8 pm local time on a Saturday). Fire department stumped (water + electricity bad, take no chances)
After a while looking around we found a neighbor a couple houses up emptying a pool. Almost right into a large metal grate next to a large transformer box with all kinds of caution signs next to it. I'm not sure if they thought that was a drainage grate or if they hadn't noticed (their hose wasn't long enough to reach the street) and left the hose in just the right spot for it to run down to the grate and into the plastic tubes leading high voltage underground utility cables up and down the street
Luckily the cables were insulated so the water wasn't electrified. The tubes are supposed to be sealed but I guess either they weren't or one developed an opening that a pool-sized amount of water could rise high enough under the grate to get into. Then from there it ran down under the street, down the access pipe to our house, into our electricity meter box, through the wall to the circuit breaker, and down the wall on both sides.
City guy who came out also had never seen anything like it. He replaced the whole meter as it unsurprisingly wasn't working very well anymore (new smart meter - not smart enough to resist water, I guess!). So aw, had I not reported it maybe I would've gotten a few days of free electricity before they noticed
