Swimming Pool in the Kitchen

[Jester]

So I walked into the kitchen a moment ago to get a new Gatorade, and was wondering why I was hearing running water, since no one was in the kitchen.

And then I saw it.

The sink was full of water, with a big watering pot (the kind for plants) in the middle of the sink, and water was overflowing, on to the counter and the floor.

Well then.

Turning off the water, I quickly leaped into action...by knocking on my roommate's door.

MR. FIX-IT: "What's up?"
JESTER: "You have a problem in the kitchen."
MR. FIX-IT: "What is it?"
JESTER: "This is one of those situations where a picture really is worth a thousand words."
MR. FIX-IT, upon entering the kitchen and seeing the problem: "Oh, great."

Of course, I know it was Mr. Fix-It, since it wasn't me, Mr. Anti-Social was asleep, as he always is in the middle of the afternoon, and Mr. Fix-It is the only one with plants that would need watering, and thus a watering pot.

Luckily for me, it had been over 30 minutes since I had eaten.

[MoonCat]

This is when a shop-vac comes in handy.


When I was a kid we had a washing machine that emptied into the tub via a long hose. Whoever did the wash had to remember to slip that hose into the tub before starting the washer. One day my mother went to do the wash and forgot about the hose.

The bathroom was right across from the kitchen door, which led to the hallway and the stairs. By the time someone realized the hose wasn't in its proper place, we had quite a gusher running out of the bathroom, into the hallway and down the stairs.

We called it "The Salmon Run."

[Jester]

I am sure a Shop-Vac would have been necessary if we hadn't caught it when we did. As it was, a mop should have done the trick.

And, as a professional handyman, Mr. Fix-It would be far more likely to possess, or at least have access to, a Shop-Vac than I would.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

If you don't have a ShopVac or access to one, a Rug Doctor carpet machine works just as well.

Found that out years ago when we had carpet in our laundry room. Our washing machine decided to malfunction and water was running from underneath the machine and soaking into the carpet!!!

Luckily my work hadn't closed yet, so one quick phone call to the MOD to hold a machine, a 3 minute car ride up the road and I was home in less than 10 minutes with a Rug Doctor sucking up water out of the carpet.

Needless to say, that carpet was removed not too long after that (we had an issue with the flooring underneath where it was sagging at the back door) and from then on, we've had tile flooring.

Carpet's good in some rooms, not so good in others.

[Chromatix]

I keep my washing machine in the bathroom. There is no actual bath, just a shower. The shower is enclosed only by a curtain - the whole floor drains into one place. Therefore, if the machine ever malfunctions (or the hose falls out of the standpipe), I don't have to worry about flooding.

The kitchen sink is also protected by virtue of one side not being pluggable. If the other side were left running, the overflow would first be to the non-pluggable side.

Being several floors above ground level in a well-drained district, natural flooding would be impossible unless a Waterworld-level event occurs.

That leaves the dishwasher as the most plausible source of flood damage in my flat. It is decades old (I'm actually unsure of the exact age, but it could be nearly as old as the building, so about 25-30 years) and is not installed on a self-draining floor, but is at least permanently plumbed in at both ends. If something broke, there would be water all over the kitchen floor, with the potential to spread throughout the flat and eventually out of the front door. But since I rarely use it, hopefully it won't break.

[PepperElf]

and if you don't have a shop vac or if the spill is big enough that a mop would take a long time... Grab a broom and a dustpan.

Yep, you can sweep water up. I know cos that's what we did in the Navy.

It came in handy when I was visiting home and my older nephew dropped a bottle of cooking oil that broke. He was trying to clean the giant spill up with a sponge and it was just spreading it more than sucking it up. So I grabbed a broom and dustpan. I got the main spill cleared away in no time.

[telecom_goddess]

Quoth Chromatix

That leaves the dishwasher as the most plausible source of flood damage in my flat.

Not necessarily. I had a valve pop off on the pipe that provides water to the toilet. Never saw such a high pressure water valve in my life Flooded out the bathroom and hallway and dining room in no time flat.

[Chromatix]

In my case, the toilet is *also* in that bathroom. Even if the pipe detaches from the cistern, it won't flood anything that can't handle it.

[Merriweather]

Quoth MoonCat

This is when a shop-vac comes in handy.


When I was a kid we had a washing machine that emptied into the tub via a long hose. Whoever did the wash had to remember to slip that hose into the tub before starting the washer. One day my mother went to do the wash and forgot about the hose.

The bathroom was right across from the kitchen door, which led to the hallway and the stairs. By the time someone realized the hose wasn't in its proper place, we had quite a gusher running out of the bathroom, into the hallway and down the stairs.

We called it "The Salmon Run."

We had something similar once, washer was in the kitchen, had hookup to fill, but no dtrain, had to run a hose over to the (deep) kitchen sink and hook it on the edge. Obviously, it needed an empty sink to avoid splatter & broken dishes, so after leaving that place, it took me a year or two to get out of the habit of always doing dishes before doing laundry.

[Jay 2K Winger]

We had to get a shop-vac for our basement when we had some kind of leak down there. (I forget if it was the water heater or what.) Dad and I would suck up the water until the vac was full, then I'd haul it up the steps from the door to the steps up to the backyard, dump it out there, and we'd keep going until the leak had been contained.

We had to use it again when some flooding happened down there after a particularly torrential series of rainstorms.