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Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

Last night after 9:20 PM, flushed the toilet and it absolutely flooded the hall bathroom and started running down the hall! Couldn't get the still-new turn-off to even move, let alone turn the water to the toilet tank off! Opened the top, tried grabbing the ball thing and pushing it down, displaced the water dispenser so that it was pouring water right over the tank edge onto the floor! Just about panicked, finally it stopped as I tried to replace things as they were, don't know why.

Angel neighbor couple and their oldest daughter came over when I called to see if they had a shop vac or knew of a quick way to get the 1+ standing water up from the floor, as I had piled ALL of my towels and many hand towels by the door and mounded them up to try to block/absorb water the bathroom under the door, ran out and placed more towels on other side. While Lu and her sweet daughter began wringing the towels out in the bathtub and resoaking them with free-standing water and Gabe ran back for his yard drain snake, I got all my emergency flashlights. I held the lights for him in the yard as he handforced his snake into my outside drainpipe and saw that when he removed the cap from my outside drain line to the sewer in the alley' the whole area had flooded with standing, muddy water.

Why is it my plumbing only goes haywire after 9:00 PM, especially during holidays, weekends and other horribly inconvenient or especially bad times!

Roto Rooter had a guy on the way when Gabe told me the city will come out 24/7 and clean out the drain pipe from the house to the alley as part of our water services, no extra charge. I had always paid through the nose for this type service through Roto Rooter over the years and couldn't believe it. Pete, another neighbor down the street, called to see what was going on, told me the same thing.

Called Roto Rooter, cancelled the call and called the City's
Water Dept. emergency number and almost within the hour my big drain had been cleared of roots by the city workers running their huge electrical snake! They arrived in two huge trucks, practically blocking our whole street.

By the time my neighbors and the workers left, the bathroom was dry, ready for cleaning and disinfecting and Lu and Jessica had gotten all the water up and had placed all the wet towels in my washing machine; the workers had cleaned up, relocked the back gate lock and left. Got out my checkbook, willing to write all of those amazing people who showed up to help me generous checks before they left and no one would take any money! In fact, Gabe told me they had a big box of masks and gloves and hand disinfectant and TP anytime I needed them to just ask and he'd be over with whatever, and asked if I had enough food, fresh produce, milk, medicines, etc. (He's a wonderful chef.) Said anytime I need anything, just call, we are neighbors and we always help each other! I was tearing up, thanking and rethanking them while trying to stay 6 ft. away!

Even though the toilets were all flushing normally last night, I was just too scared to trust the just-cleared yard drain and shower drain before bed to shower or wash the towels last night so, yuck, yuck, yuck, washed myself as best I could and waited until early this morning to do both when the shower and the washing machine drains both worked just fine, thank God. Oh that shower felt extra good. Towels, etc., all washed and dried now. Now time to wash my sheets, nightie things, etc., I slept in without my usual shower before bed. But was so tired and, excuse the pun, drained, I slept like a log. Got up and disinfected everything we all touched last night before I even had my coffee.

Just can't believe all the things that went wrong last night and today are back to normal again and am not owing a huge credit card bill for the after-hours plumbing! Needless to say, will be buying a few dinners and gifts for my precious neighbors and their 3 kids and lauding our Water Department workers on Twitter!

You are a very lucky lady to have wonderful neighbors to help you. My flood was caused by Home Depot delivery men "trying" to install a new washing machine and broke the cold water pipe using excessive force to turn the cold water valve off. Two non english speaking men that fled in their truck while water was shooting out of this pipe like a yellowstone park geyser. In my panic I couldn't remember where the main shut off valve was, I ran to my nx door neighbor to ask for his help, he had a back injury but he did get another neighbor while I came back and used every towel, bed linen, blankets, clothing I could use sop up 3 inches of water in 4 rooms. Thankfully this happened at 12 noon, after the main valve was turned off I called my homeowners insurance who had a water mitigator team over in 2 hours. I was wringing out towels and bed linen in my bathtub, I had no washer or dryer both were disconnected because I had also bought a dryer when I bought the washer. No neighbor offered to help, these ppl keep to them selves. I had the water mitigator team here for one week with dehumidifiers and hot air circulating fans, linoleum, floors, walls were removed that day, $10,000. worth of water damage caused by two men that did not know what they were doing they fled without even offering to turn off the main valve. One and half weeks to replace walls, floors and repair broken water pipe. They just finished yesterday. 4 rooms, laundry room, utility room, walkin-in closet and master bathroom, 2 and 3 inches of water was in these rooms before the water mitigator got to my house. The mitigator supervisor took every item I used to sop up the water to a public laundry mat and had them all washed and dried for me. That was the only act of kindness I received and I was grateful for this mans help. 5 weeks with strangers in my house was most stressful with this virus going around.

Now, to get my house back in order