Early morning (isn't it always) plumbing emergency

[Morticia]

Putting on my shoes this morning, still half asleep and hubs pops open the door and says, 'As soon as you can come out, I have to go fix a shower.'
The water would not turn off. The handle for the water no longer worked. It turned, but it did nothing. Guests had already gone out for the day (7 AM) so hubs went and turned the water off in the basement for that room. (Always good to know where those cut-off valves are...says the one who doesn't know.

)
While I was talking with other guests hubs is going by with 'parts'. Got it all fixed. Bad washer.

 

[Copperhead]

It's always something! Yesterday evening the AC that controls the common area and our kitchen went out. 81 degrees in those areas this afternoon. Repairman here now on 'emergency call rates' since it is after normal business hours. AC is a necessity, not an option here!

 

[Redbirds]

We've been opened two weeks... and wouldn't you know, we had our first emergency the night before the FIRST guests checked in!
On Thursday night the air conditioner that serves the second floor (where all 4 guest rooms are) froze up and stopped working. It got up to 86 degrees, and 7 guests were checking into the rooms the next day at 4 p.m.
HVAC guy made it out by 1 p.m. on Friday, added refrigerant, and cranked it up. It worked all night and we gave out some oscillating fans (to go along with the ceiling fans in the rooms) to help circulate air.
By Saturday it was nice and cool throughout the house. The guests were in town for a family reunion so they weren't around much during the day.

 

[Morticia]

It's always something! Yesterday evening the AC that controls the common area and our kitchen went out. 81 degrees in those areas this afternoon. Repairman here now on 'emergency call rates' since it is after normal business hours. AC is a necessity, not an option here!.

AC is a necessity, not an option here!

That's like heat here! Right now I have all the windows open and there is a lovely breeze coming in even tho the thermometer is reading 80 outside.

 

[Sanctuary]

It's 90-something outside and I have no AC in any of my rooms. Let me tell you about HOT!!! We have no insulation here, so HOT outside is even more HOT inside.
And my salon AC (a salon is a living room on a yacht) is being fickle. It has amnesia and can't remember to come back on with the thermostat calls for cooling. I can reset it manually, but that's a nuisance to have to keep doing that, especially in the middle of the night (twice last night). Works well otherwise...I could almost hang meat in here - set the thermostat at 55 so it will never be satisfied and never quit. Good thing we don't have an electric bill here!
I know exactly what it is - it need a new triac and fortunately I keep a handful of those around. I just went to the generator room and located one. Later, after sundown, I'll go down there and break open the control box and replace the triac.
As for my rooms....I blew a hole in a solenoid valve, and now that I've repaired that, the HVAC guy is coming Monday with a tank of R-22 to recharge.
The fortunate part of all of this is that I've taken a few weeks off from guests so I could remodel the aft deck, build a new wet bar from scratch (and put many coats of varnish on it), move a davit (the crane on the roof), and replace the washer/dryer. The place is a MESS!!! Even I don't recognize it!
Just taking a break here...back to work!

 

[GeorgiaGirl]

It's always something! Yesterday evening the AC that controls the common area and our kitchen went out. 81 degrees in those areas this afternoon. Repairman here now on 'emergency call rates' since it is after normal business hours. AC is a necessity, not an option here!.

AC is a necessity, not an option here!

That's like heat here! Right now I have all the windows open and there is a lovely breeze coming in even tho the thermometer is reading 80 outside.
.

[/quote]
That's like heat here! Right now I have all the windows open and there is a lovely breeze coming in even tho the thermometer is reading 80 outside.
[/quote]
Quit bragging....

I haven't had my windows open since early Spring!

 

[Morticia]

It's always something! Yesterday evening the AC that controls the common area and our kitchen went out. 81 degrees in those areas this afternoon. Repairman here now on 'emergency call rates' since it is after normal business hours. AC is a necessity, not an option here!.

AC is a necessity, not an option here!

That's like heat here! Right now I have all the windows open and there is a lovely breeze coming in even tho the thermometer is reading 80 outside.
.

That's like heat here! Right now I have all the windows open and there is a lovely breeze coming in even tho the thermometer is reading 80 outside.
[/quote]
Quit bragging....

I haven't had my windows open since early Spring!
.

[/QUOTE]

That's like heat here! Right now I have all the windows open and there is a lovely breeze coming in even tho the thermometer is reading 80 outside.

Quit bragging....

I haven't had my windows open since early Spring!

I seem to recall you were cold when you were here.

 

[gillumhouse]

We have shut-off valves everywhere! As each bathroom required a plumber we had valves installed on each line. We can shut off the hot or the cold at tub, sink, toilet, or shower in each bathroom - plus we have an extra shut-off to cut everything in the new bathroom with one valve, That is in my storage room (what is left of it).

 

[Morticia]

And just met up with guests outside who said there was no water pressure this morning. May have been at the same time but we'll check agian tomorrow morning. Everything worked fine just now.

 

[Samster]

We've been opened two weeks... and wouldn't you know, we had our first emergency the night before the FIRST guests checked in!
On Thursday night the air conditioner that serves the second floor (where all 4 guest rooms are) froze up and stopped working. It got up to 86 degrees, and 7 guests were checking into the rooms the next day at 4 p.m.
HVAC guy made it out by 1 p.m. on Friday, added refrigerant, and cranked it up. It worked all night and we gave out some oscillating fans (to go along with the ceiling fans in the rooms) to help circulate air.
By Saturday it was nice and cool throughout the house. The guests were in town for a family reunion so they weren't around much during the day..

Welcome to Innspiring! Thanks for sharing your story. We had a full house coming in right when we first opened as well & our heat went out in our second house. Over $500 later & found out that the whole thing had been wired incorrectly (at that time, we'd only owned the house for 6 months and we had been using mostly A/C). There's always something!

 

[Sanctuary]

Yes, it's always something...you got off easy with just $500 invested. I wish I could say the same. It took me over $8,000 and 2 years of frustration with one of my three AC systems to realize the HVAC company was clueless and didn't have the competency to wire it correctly. Many times I offered the wiring diagrams and my offerings were rejected each time with the typical unspoken response that they don't need a blonde Gringo telling them how to wire stuff. It's a Latino pride thing (Miami); women have no place in their profession. Women don't tell men how to do manly things. The diagrams I offered, which predated the tech themselves, were the key no one wanted to admit. They had never seen anything like the systems I had, yet didn't want my advice.
I fired them and fixed it myself. What a monkey off my back!!! Now, I'm entertaining the idea of getting certified in refrigeration (it's easy!) so I can buy R22. I don't need incompetent people charging me $98/hour to not listen to me and to charge me 1,000% mark up in parts. No kidding...they wanted to charge me $325 for a valve I found on my own for $30! I told them they were either raping their customers or needed to find a better source for parts. Last words...
Stepping off my soapbox now...Sorry...just venting. That still pizzes me off due to the amount of money I have invested in such a stupid, simple matter.

 

[Copperhead]

Well all is back - cool again $645 later. It took over 2 hours to cool the area (common areas) down once the service guy finished. Well luckly our guests were out much of the day and all was cool when they returned.
We are hoping to get a couple more years out of this unit then looking at a HVAC system for the entire home.

 

[Samster]

Yes, it's always something...you got off easy with just $500 invested. I wish I could say the same. It took me over $8,000 and 2 years of frustration with one of my three AC systems to realize the HVAC company was clueless and didn't have the competency to wire it correctly. Many times I offered the wiring diagrams and my offerings were rejected each time with the typical unspoken response that they don't need a blonde Gringo telling them how to wire stuff. It's a Latino pride thing (Miami); women have no place in their profession. Women don't tell men how to do manly things. The diagrams I offered, which predated the tech themselves, were the key no one wanted to admit. They had never seen anything like the systems I had, yet didn't want my advice.
I fired them and fixed it myself. What a monkey off my back!!! Now, I'm entertaining the idea of getting certified in refrigeration (it's easy!) so I can buy R22. I don't need incompetent people charging me $98/hour to not listen to me and to charge me 1,000% mark up in parts. No kidding...they wanted to charge me $325 for a valve I found on my own for $30! I told them they were either raping their customers or needed to find a better source for parts. Last words...
Stepping off my soapbox now...Sorry...just venting. That still pizzes me off due to the amount of money I have invested in such a stupid, simple matter..

I hear you! Living in the South, I deal with a macho thing all the time. Women are supposed to be delicate little flowers that don't know about this kind of stuff. Fortunately, my HVAC guy is not that way, BUT since March we have had all 3 A/C units (both houses) break down for some reason or another. So, we've spent about $2K on them. We already totally replaced our upstairs A/C unit last year. I just want them to work with no probelms for awhile!!

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Glad you have it back and operational. Gotta have it.