home insurance nightmare
Jen washed the soap over her legacy. Standing in a cloud of steam, she wondered why she still heard a trickle of water after turning off the shower. When she opened the door to her shower stall, the sound of rushing water got louder! Confused, she looked at the shower head, which she could see more clearly now that the hot water vapor had begun to dissipate. There was no water coming out of the shower. When she stepped out of the shower stall onto the tiled bathroom floor, her foot landed in a puddle of cold water!
The impact of the freezing water sends Jen into a panic. Following the sound, she beheld the nightmare of a waterfall that partially opened the two cabinet doors under the bathroom sink. Her bathroom vanity had two sinks. Quickly, Jen looked at the one her husband was wearing and didn’t see any water coming out of it. She opened the cabinet doors under the sink. Dozens of her cosmetics fell in a mini waterfall on her bathroom floor! She knelt down to see water coming out of a shut-off valve. The small plastic tube that connected the shutoff valve to the opening valve of her sink dangled as the spray water hit it. Jen got up quickly. She turned on the cold water in her sink; no water flowed. Then she turned on the hot water knob and warm water flowed into the sink.
Now, two minutes into a flood emergency, Jen realized she needed to turn off the cold water valve under the sink. Quickly, she knelt down again and turned the valve to the left. But that didn’t stop the cold water spray! She twisted and turned the valve and started crying when this didn’t work. Jen turned the hot water valve to the left until she couldn’t turn it anymore. Then she got up to try the hot water knob on her sink. No hot water! She had confirmed that she did the right thing by turning the cold water valve counterclockwise. Could a valve be installed upside down? Frantically, she turned the cold water valve to the right. She turned and turned, but the water kept coming out. Jen didn’t know what to do, and her tears added to inches of water on the tiled bathroom floor, water that flowed into the carpeted clothes closet and down into her carpeted bedroom.
He grabbed his plastic trash can, emptied the trash into the water, and pushed the can under the leaking water, but that didn’t do much good. The water did not leak. She got sprayed. He tried to push small objects into the shutoff valve, but the force of the water caused these objects to be thrown out. Now, three minutes into an emergency flood, she hadn’t stopped the water! Frozen and scared, Jen throws on a pair of jeans and runs downstairs to turn off the house’s water at the valve in the downstairs hall closet. She turned the valve counterclockwise until she was tight. As she stood up, she saw a cascade of water crash into the ceiling light of her kitchen, located below the master bath. She had spilled so much water that she had worked her way down. She ran upstairs to confirm that she had stopped the leak and as she ran she realized that the water could have spilled during the entire twenty minutes that she took her shower.
When he got to his bathroom, he saw that the water was spurting out of the useless shut-off valve! Jen ran downstairs to turn the main house’s shutoff valve clockwise (could it be installed backwards?). After that, she ran upstairs to see that she still hadn’t stopped the leak! Sobbing, she took her smartphone to call a plumber. They put her on hold, asked her to leave a message for her and, on her fifth try, a receptionist told her she would get a plumber in three days. Jen listened, “Would you use a date in the morning or in the afternoon?” She disconnected and phoned her neighbors. On her second call, she received help. A man next door had a “T” key for water meter. Within three minutes he turned off the water to Jen’s house across the street.
Jen contacted her home insurance agent, who filed a claim and helped her find a reputable plumber. With an approved claim, the agent gave Jen options to hire professionals to mitigate the water damage by locating it, removing it, or drying it out. The tile floor and her cabinets were torn down. Ella Jen was then able to select new cabinets and tile flooring. Jen got a new bathroom and parts for a new kitchen, but she had to pay thousands of dollars in costs beyond what her insurance would pay. She had her plumber replace all the water shutoff valves in her house with the best products; two in each sink and one behind each toilet. She bought a “T” wrench and learned how to use it to turn off the water on the street. #label1writer