In alt.home.repair on Tue, 31 May 2005 00:27:51 GMT "Stormin Mormon"
posted:

"meirman" wrote in message
.. .

A friend tells me that
there is water on the basement floor including under the bed his son
sleeps in,
CY: I think in most places, it's not legal to have bedrooms in the cellar.

from the hot water heater, which we just replaced 7 years
ago.

He wanted to turn off the cold water input to the HWH and I said that
would pretty much stop the leak, but he figures air will get in
through the leak while water is getting out. And the leak won't stop.
Who is right??
CY: What's the other choice? You only gave us one.

I say the leak will stop. He says it won't.


Then he said he could use a bucket at the drain at the bottom and he
and his son could pour it all down the basement sink. I said that he
could do the first half of the HWH with a garden hose as a siphon.
CY: I think since you mentioned water on the floor, you might be still
talking about water on the floor. I doubt you can get water off the floor
with a bucket.

He
says ok and they'll finish up with the bucket. I'm thinking the water
will stop flowing while he is still siphoning, because the intake
valve will be turned off. And he can quit then and only a few
tablespoons will leak in the next couple days. ???
CY: siphoning is done by putting a tube up and over some kind of obstacle.
The tube is filled with water (typically by suction on the end that is
outside the container). The only way ou can suction water off the floor is
to have a lower place to end the hose.


he
wants to stop the leak tonight. I offeered to go over but so far he
has turned me down.
CY: Well, then, there's not much you can do.

He called 20 minutes later to say I should come over. I'm leaving
now, but I can read answers, if any, on their son's computer.

I would try to find stuff on the web before posting, but I think it
would be hard and this is pretty much a rush question.
CY: Did you try?

No, because I figured he needed an answer soon. And I figured I'd be
going over there soon.

Meirman
CY: Rather than trying to siphon the water off the cellar floor, you might
want to consider draining the water heater through a garden hose. Get the
water off the floor with a shopvac or carpet cleaner extractor.

OK.

Meirman
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