Plumbing fail, again

Our hot water heater has decided to give up the ghost.  It has ceased to be.  It is an ex-hot water heater.  It is pushing up the daisies and gone to meet its maker, so to speak.  As you can imagine, this does put a bit of a damper of any plans to take a warm shower, as anything that comes out of the shower head now feels like pure glacier runoff.

Although this time, at least it is not sewage backing up into the tub.  Still, it tends to be a bit of an inconvenience.

I did not even notice anything was wrong until yesterday morning, when I tried to take a shower.  Suddenly there was no hot water and no pressure.  So I threw on some clothes and went to the other side of the basement to inspect the hot water heater.  Lo and behold, it was leaking.  Someone (turns out it was our superintendent) had put an old litterbox under it to catch the water.  And they had shut off the water and gas lines leading to the heater.  So I called the super and was eventually able to find out that yes, he knew about the problem and that someone was supposed to come over and see what size tank was needed so they could replace it.  I was hoping that the new tank would be in before I got home from work yesterday, but alas it was not.

When I got home I went downstairs to check on the tank, and the water had filled the container and begun to overflow onto the basement floor.  So I grabbed a nearby container and formed a one-man bucket brigade, filling the container and then dumping it in the washing machine.  I called the super again, and I understood him to say that they would be over first thing in the morning.

So this morning I waited for them to arrive.  And waited.  And waited some more.  I called work to let them know I might be a little late.  Then I waited some more, until close to 9:30, when I finally gave up and headed to work.  I finally got someone at the plumber’s office and they said that they would definitely be doing it before the end of the day today.  I sure hope so, as I would love to take a real shower instead of a washcloth one.

-Geoff