...that 'S' word & lawn art

[james kent]

All that snow makes me wonder how Gerry is making out this year in Maine?
Roy, Sounds like you're finally headed in the right direction.
Hey! where would we be without a little excitement, EH?

[Doug Mager]

Hey! where would we be without a little excitement, EH?

YABBUT, who NEEDS that kind of excitement at this time of the year and under those conditions? Are any/some of your neighbours experiencing this same issue Roy??

[Carol Ann in TO]

Hey! where would we be without a little excitement, EH?

Without this particular excitement, we would be somewhere nicer than we currently are!

[Roy in TO]

Are any/some of your neighbours experiencing this same issue Roy??

Yes sir,
My next door neighbour came over to the group huddled around the running stream to say his water pressure has been real low the last couple of days. He wanted to talk to me about it the last couple of days but had not seen me around. I was probably down at Home Depot buying the sump pump and/or sucking up water or trying to move anything that was at risk of water damage elsewhere when he came looking.

I appears that the water they could not shut off is the line to his house. Both shut offs are in the sidewalk in front of my driveway. The water is still running through the catch basin at midnight. Sort of worries me that I still can't see it surfacing from under the snow on the patio.

[Roy in TO]

City crews arrived Friday morning to shut off the water and still could not. They broke up the sidewalk and got most the water pooling and running down the street into the sewer system.
My basement floor is starting to dry up!!!

They would not dig down to the valves because of the proximity of gas lines and ordered in the super sucker to suck out the water and dirt. ETA was 3:30 PM unless something bigger came along. Something must have because they never showed up. So the water will run till Monday when we get put back into the que.

OTOH, The weather man is callling for 4-5" of snow before they return. Which means I should be able to test out my big new "10 year old" snowblower and increase the likelyhood of selling my smaller 3 year old snowblower. The bonus of all of this is that since they have closed off one lane of the street in front of my house, the plows can't leave a windrow that I have to clear

[james kent]

You are saying that they quit at 5 and left a job unfinished? My boss would have had me shot. What's the guy next door doing for water for the weekend? Will the store take back the sump pump or are you on the hook for that too? AND will the city fix your basement? NOT!

The city ploughs here go ONCE around the Crescent in each direction and leave the snow 6' from the curb. If I clean it back to the curb then the neighbour across the way uses it rather than do his own. If I don't we're down to a single lane. We used to be on a bus route and were one of the first to be cleared. Now we are lucky if they come within 72 hours.

[james kent]

BTW Roy
The subdivision here was built back in the early 1960's. They have already dug up the pipes across the street three times in the last 2 years and also at several other spots in the neighbourhood, so I can expect them again anytime. Whatever material they used back then seems to be slowly breaking down. They're constantly working somewhere's in this part of the city.

[Roy in TO]

They were gone around lunch time. I presume that by diverting the water flow onto the street they met city policy of "Staff will isolate or close the effected watermain to stop the flow of water." <span style="font-family:Verdana">They stopped the water from coming into my house, which might be considered as "isolating" the problem. A call to our councillor's office does not look promising for the city to pay, but they agreed that us having to pay dumping fees for water damaged materials was unreasonable. It was very likely that they could arrange for a waiver or refund on dump fee's. Any decisions will be based on the work crew report once the problem has been fixed. In essence their response was run it through my insurance and let the insurance deal with the city. My broker informed me that this would raise our preferred rates for having no claims. In my mind I will either have to pay now or pay later in one way or another.

I really don't want to rush into making a decision till I know the facts and the extent of the damage. Some of it may not become apparent till spring when the snow melts.

I'm not sure about my neighbour. They could not turn his supply off. He had very low pressure the other day. Hope to chat with him today. I would not feel right returning a used pump especially since Home Depot also has a rental department. I'm on the hook for a few things no matter how one looks at it. </span>

[james kent]

BUMMER!

[Roy in TO]

The city came Sunday 10 AM and sucked out a big hole, then a bigger hole and finally fixed the problem. Filled the hole with 2 truckloads of sand and another couple of feet of quick set no sink concrete. I expect the final ashphalt patch will come tomorrow. So now that that is done, I can pull out the snowblower and tackle some of this snow we've had come in the last day.

Once that is done, the SB goes back into the yard to act as Lawn Art ...

That is until the Colorado low we are expecting at the end of the week hits. The weather channel says a Hudsons Bay low might hit in between. Anybody ever heard of a Hudson's Bay low before?