Grumble, plumbing, grumble...

[millster]

To this point, I've been rather reserved about posting personal problems on this site, but the incident of an hour or so ago has brought me to a point I need to vent a bit.I have just spent the past hour sucking water out of my carpet with my steam cleaner (hoping to avoid any future mold problems) after what can only be described as a spectacular occurance.I awoke to the sound of running water. Having recently replaced the flush valve of the toilet in my master bathroom I figured I must not have seated the flapper well enough and proceded to the bathroom to repair it. I stopped when I realized that the sound was not coming from that bathroom at all, but rather from the front of the house. It sounded as though the shower was running. OK, this is strange.What met my eyes next shocked me. The handle of a shut-off valve was laying in a gathering pool in my front bedroom, having been blown there by the jet of water now shooting from the hole it formerly occupied in the adjacent bathroom. Not good! Luckily, it is not too much of a chore to get my water shut off. I was able to get it stopped with only damage to a rug in my bathroom and the carpet covering half of the 12x10 front bedroom. I had a couple of computers in the room, but they seem to have come out with nothing more than water splashed on the fronts and a little soaking their bottoms. By some miracle, nothing else in the room appears to have been damaged. Oh joy!

[ColonelPanic]

Oh man, that stinks! Hope you can get everything cleaned and fixed up. Thankfully, no casualties - the computers live! Hope you get all that mess straightened out!

[Raven]

That sucks. The shut off probably doesn't get used often and was corroded and that's why it failed. When you replace it don't use a shut off with a hose type handle. Get a ball valve with a lever. The on position is with the lever in line with the pipe and off is with the lever perpendicular. These are far more durable and dependable when used infrequently and about the same price.

[millster]

Thanks guys. Things are drying well. Looks like I lost my computer speakers, possibly one computer though it's not a critical one.The shutoff that failed was on the toilet. It was one of those cheap, plastic ones and by appearances, had cracked from the inside. The stress of the water pressure just finally got the best of it. My replacement options are limited given the type of plumbing in this house. It's all Flex-PVC. Nice to work with because it's not rigid, but fittings are expensive and hard to find (not to mention ugly!).Oh well, it'll be off to Home Depot as soon as I manage to wake up a bit.

[NUBlackshirts]

On the PC, you might want to try taking as many internal components out as possible (video card, sound card, RAM, etc). Then take a hair dryer to it to try to dry it out as much as possible. You may be able to save it this way. It's worth a shot anyway.