The Flood And Laundromat Adventures

Early last week I casually threw a load of wash in our laundry room which is in a closet in one of the  bathrooms. Then I went about some other activities in the house. Later is seemed weird that I thought I heard running water in the laundry room/bathroom. When I walked into there was in fact water running out of the washer all over the floor.



I immediately turned off the front loader washer but it was a little late as the tub was full and water was pouring out the front door. I pressed on the door wondering if it might just not be shut all the way. This unlatched the door, the door flew open and all the water in the washer began rushing all over the floor while clothes spilled out the door.

Panicked I began shoving clothes in as quickly as possible and slammed the door shut. It continued to leak water out the front and now the entire bathroom was flooded with water. What a mess. I began grabbing towels to throw down and then wringing them out in the shower as fast as I could. I figured there must be a shop vac in the garage somewhere at this house so I ran to the garage and found one under some boxes on one side. Grabbed it, ran in and started vacuuming. After a couple of minutes I looked back and realized that water had been spraying out of a vent on the back and now the sink cupboards were soaked with water too. Great. I could hear myself breathing as if I was running a race. My anxiety levels rose and shoulders got sore from repeatedly wringing out full size bath towels for a good hour or more and continuing to try to minimize the damage to the tile and floors.

After vacuuming most of the water off the floor while holding a towel over the spewing exhaust hole in the back, I then mopped everything up again with another pile of dry towels, I was soaked from the ankles down with laundry water and everywhere else from sweat. My stress levels began to go down and I decided to try to drain the water out of the washer by turning it back on and putting it on the final cycle of the washer which should drain and spin all the water out. That process took a little while so I went and collapsed in a chair in the living room for a few minutes. At the same time I made a few calls to local friends and family who might be able to advise me about what to do. Of course no one was available.

Once that washer stopped I gave it a few extra minutes and then went in and opened the door to the washer. A washer full of water gushed out again all over me and the floors while I scrambled again to get all the clothes back in the washer and slam the door shut. Then I started the clean up process all over again.

I grabbed three fans from around the house and positioned them in every direction in the bathroom after I had vacuumed and mopped up all the water again. Then I began the process of wringing out all the towels and took all the wet stuff to the back patio to hang up to dry. Of course just about that time it began to rain so I had to wait a couple of hours until the rain had passed to get things out on the line.

Exhausted now I sat in the living room and talked to my family who were all at my parents house for a couple of hours. At about bedtime I had the thought that perhaps the flood has leaked under through the wall and into the bedroom next door. Panicked again I ran in and pulled the bed from the wall to find water on the floor, hardwood floors wet and storage under the bed wet.

I ran to grab more towels and try to save the hardwoods which would be the most disastrous damage of all. Yikes. Agh. I left the fans running for the next couple of days and it looks like the hardwood will be okay although under the bed against the wall is a little messed up.

The washer continued to leak small amounts of water for the next two days. So I kept a towel at the base, which I wrung out frequently. I couldn't get a repairman to come until Wednesday. He pulled the door right open when he walked in the room and I cringed fearing a wall of water would pour out but the water had drained out for the most part. I got my clothes out and hung them out to dry -- so that I could take them to the laundromat to get the finally cleaned.

The repairman's very quick evaluation was that the washer was dead. Just for laughs he looked up the cost of repairing a 15-ish year old washer. The repairs would be $1800. The cost of a new top of the line washing machine? About $1200. What a crack up. We won't get the top of the line washer but I'm sure we can get something for less than that. So the dead washing is just here waiting to be replaced.

Saturday I took a huge mountain of laundry to the laundromat. Half of that was dirty towels from the disaster zone. It was a pretty quick process and boy was it nice to have clean clothes. But I still don't have a washer so I may be headed to the laundromat again sometime soon. It's amazing how you take things for granted like a functioning washing machine.

So that has been my big adventure of late. I'll have a few more posts coming up soon. So much to share with you. Hope all you dear reader friends are doing well!