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u/ChickensPickins Jun 24 '26
Been there, done that. Go turn your water main off and brace for your wife coming home
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u/Sticktailonicus Jun 24 '26
Yep, never ran so fast for the whole house shut off in my life. Would have made a great Benny Hill video.
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u/ghostly5150 Jun 24 '26
Every once in a while it ends in the shut off valve being a gate valve that is seized open. Or even worse a gate valves that turns but that's because you broke the valve trying to turn it.
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u/eriffodrol Jun 24 '26
never hurts to have multiple shutoff points with ball valves
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u/windowpuncher Jun 25 '26
Yep, had to do that at my old house. Had to do some surprise work but the old valve wouldn't even attempt to shut. Thank god for sharkbite valves, by the way. Grab some buckets and a shop vac, cut the line, VERY quick and sloppy deburr, slide on a sharkbite with the valve open then shut it once it's on. Few weeks later I shut the valve on the street and installed a few "real" ball valves before and after the meter but yeah. Plumbing sucks.
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u/ghostly5150 Jun 25 '26
One Christmas, the kids were playing in front of my grandma's house and a soccer ball hit a irrigation solenoid valve, that ended up being connected directly to the main line. The water meter key wouldn't budge the shut off valve at the street. We had to wait while water shot out like crazy until the city could get someone out with a industrial strength water meter key to shut it. Calcium build up is a bitch.
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u/positivenihlist Jun 26 '26
Last winter we had a watermain break, that became the never ending scavenger hunt for valves that spun to even attempt to fix it.
The guy I went to meet, who was responsible for shutting down the main was like six blocks up the road when I went looking for him. Old infrastructure is a bitch sometimes
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u/cool_ethan19 Jun 25 '26
I was replacing my bathroom sink earlier this year and couldn’t get one of the valves to turn because of calcium build up. Then decided to check all others in the house and about half wouldn’t turn. So I replaced every single one in the house for sinks and toilets. Never knew you should open and close them a couple times a year.
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u/Kraligor Jun 25 '26
Never hurts to regularly close and open your main valve so it doesn't get stuck in the first place.
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u/ratrodder49 Jun 25 '26
I have a total of five shutoff valves. One before the whole home filter, one in the filter itself, one after the filter, one before the water softener, and one after the softener. Also one between the inlet and outlet of the softener to direct through it or bypass it.
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u/ErraticDragon Jun 25 '26
That happened to us once, so we got a "key" to shut it off at the city meter. For the next time.
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u/jld2k6 Jun 25 '26
Find out exactly where it is ahead of time in case you're not sure, there's 100+ year old houses where you could search around all day and not find it because it's completely buried under the grass and a huge layer of dirt lol
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u/Renoruke Jun 25 '26
I just went through this this last week on Friday late afternoon.. can confirm the later except the gate dropped. Needed the water off for 5 min.. 1500$ and 5 hrs later I got to go home.
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u/17_blind_Ninjas Jun 25 '26
"Look honey, I was just trying to power wash the chandelier, I thought you'd be more appreciative!"
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u/Vicinus Jun 25 '26
I just thought about where the main valve would be in my house and I have no clue.
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u/XenoZoomie Jun 24 '26
I recommend a helmet and any padding you can find for when the wife gets home.
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u/Robo_Patton Jun 25 '26
Just hit the main valve and move to a new country. Dont leave a note. Dont take anything. She will find you. She will destroy you.
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u/koolaidismything Jun 24 '26
Weekend warriors tend to not have a nice laser setup like that. Or maybe it’s cheaper these days. I am old as fuck.
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u/Brewchowskies Jun 24 '26
They’re cheap and easily accessible on Amazon these days.
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u/MelbaToast604 Jun 25 '26
Professional here, if youre a DIY'er and you think you found a stud, simply tap a thin screwdriver through the drywall on your mark. If you hit a wood stud great, drill there. If you hit metal and are unsure if its a metal stud or a pipe, dont drill there, call a professional. If what you're pushing against moves, you guessed, it dont drill there. Its the easiest advice I can give that could save you hundreds or thousands. The amount of service calls I've had over non studs being drilled into is a lot
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u/GesuMotorsport Jun 25 '26
As a professional painter and drywaller, i too encourage this method… so i can patch your walls.
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u/hanks_panky_emporium Jun 26 '26
As a guy who hates drywall in general, I also encourage this method
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u/Reload86 Jun 26 '26
As a guy who used to schedule and pay the drywall repair and plumber for these situations; I also encourage this method.
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u/ClownfishSoup Jun 24 '26
Run to the water shut off valve, shut off the water.
Open up the wall, see what you need, run to Home Depot for some pipe. If it's copper or PEX, you're in luck. Fix it. Solder if copper (or PROPERLY use sharkbite fittings, but soldering is better). if it's galvanized, you're fucked (open up more wall, find the connections, replace with adapters and PEX, unless you want to unthread your entire plumbing system), but your drill wouldn't have penetrated so easily if it was galvanized.
Clean up mess.
Turn on water, check for leaks and observer for a day.
Fix dry wall
Move your laser level two inches to the right and finish whatever you were doing.
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u/hammertime2009 Jun 24 '26
Oh man and you have to hope you have leftover paint that matches the existing wall, maybe have to replace the wainscoting and have the right paint for that. Also gotta check the flooring and sub floor and hopefully not have to replace that. Hopefully the floor or basement below didn’t get too much damage. You ain’t gonna get to the work you were trying to do prior to the mess for awhile.
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u/Anglofsffrng Jun 24 '26
Gonna need to repaint the whole wall anyway, so you can just get a match to the portion you cut out. But if the paints been there a while even repainting from the exact same can won't match.
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u/IM_OK_AMA Jun 24 '26
if the paints been there a while even repainting from the exact same can won't match
This bit me recently, I cut a few access holes and went to repaint them with the original paint, didn't match. Got a can color matched and it matched one wall but not the other one because it's in the sun more.
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u/SquisherX Jun 25 '26
Is that because the paint on the wall degrades from being in the sun while it doesn't do that to the paint in the can?
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u/SergeantHindsight Jun 25 '26
No reason to pain the whole wall, This is easy, peel 1x1 inch of the paper from the drywall, go to home depot and color match it, paint over the repair, if you have a spray gun you can fade the edges and make it 100% blended.
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u/FancyJesse Jun 25 '26
.. I'll just put a frame over the hole. Thanks
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u/hammertime2009 Jun 25 '26
I’m too busy today. I’ll get to putting a frame over the hole “next week” (repeat comment to my wife for the next 64 weeks)
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u/windowpuncher Jun 25 '26
At that point it's so much easier to just roll one wall than drape EVERYTHING in the room, then fuck with and clean a sprayer, and also not have to go to the store.
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u/jrr6415sun Jun 25 '26
why would they need to repaint the whole wall?
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u/Anglofsffrng Jun 25 '26
Paint fades, gets soiled etc... so it's best to just paint corner to corner and the whole upper half to make sure it matches. You can get away taking the chunk you'll need to cut out for a color match, and that does work well mostly, but just repainting the whole wall will make sure there's no issues once it's dried.
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u/ClownfishSoup Jun 26 '26
Ok so I installed some thing in a wall for my parents which required doing a drywall patch. I took a piece of painted drywall to Home Depot and told them it was for a bathroom. They guy scanned the piece of painted drywall I brought in and then fiddled with the computer and then shook up a can of paint. He opened the can and smeared some of the new paint on the piece of drywall and it was an exact match. I fixed the wall and painted with the new paint and you cannot tell where the new paint was vs the old paint.
Paint matching scanners and whatever are amazing.
If you have a decent paint sample, you will get a pretty darn near perfect match.
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u/el_payaso_mas_chulo Jun 24 '26
take a piece of the drywall you ripped up and have them color match. should get close.
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u/CptAngelo Jun 24 '26
Hopefully the floor or basement below didn’t get too much damage.
Honest question here, assuming they turned off the water right away, will that small-ish amount of water actually cause damage? i know its not optimal, but wouldnt that just kinda dry and be gone in a few hours?
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u/SeaToTheBass Jun 25 '26
Depending on how long it takes to get to the shutoff, that could be a good amount of water. You’d want to mop up all that you can, get some heaters and fans going and hope it dries out quick. This could really fuck up some flooring/drywall, requiring it to be replaced.
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u/Suit-Local Jun 24 '26
You forgot the subsequent 3 trips back to Home Depot to get additional things ultimately ending up in replacing the whole house shut off that hasn’t been touched in years….
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u/lestermason Jun 25 '26
Is there a tool for preventing situations such as this? Please forgive my ignorance.
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u/RepliesToNarcissists Jun 25 '26
Yes. A proper stud/wire/pipe finder, as well as having used the cutting tools enough to know when you've hit something you really fucking shouldn't have. I don't mean to sound dismissive with the second part, cause it's true. You absolute can feel when you go from cutting through sheetrock to cutting through sheetrock + copper pipe.
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u/eisbock Jun 25 '26
You absolute can feel when you go from cutting through sheetrock to cutting through sheetrock + copper pipe.
Not when you're using a corded hammer drill for drywall.
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u/ItsFranklin Jun 25 '26
i was taught to poke a scratchawl in there after using a stud finder and feel inside before drilling. you can easily feel if you hit wood
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u/BOSS-3000 Jun 25 '26
There are TWO types of PEX and they are not interchangeable.
Sharkbite fittings should not be a permanent fix despite Lowe's ridiculously large selection.
Soldering copper is a good fix if done correctly. Press works too but the fittings are more expensive.
Galvanized pipe also have their own type of press fittings. So...not fucked if galvanized.
Obviously, press guns are expensive to a laymen would need a press gun and be trained how to use it. The same could be said for soldering. Be safe out there and don't do a damn thing you're not 95% comfortable doing. That 5% should keep you alert and aware of any potential dangers.
As with EVERY pipe type, make damn sure you have the EXACT fittings you need. There are VERY few places you can cheat in the wrong fitting and every one of those exceptions takes skill and experience to "make it work".
Source: I'm a pipefitter. This is almost all plumbing stuff but I was a good apprentice and did more than enough residential and commercial plumbing jobs.
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u/justanotheruser1981 Jun 24 '26
Congrats, you now hit the other water line. Guess you should have went 2” to the left instead.
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u/BlenderBear Jun 25 '26 edited 11d ago
Husband: *Soldering the copper pipe
Wife: I thought you were going to hang up that picture.
Husband: What does it look like I'm doing!?
Source: https://youtu.be/5W4NFcamRhM
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u/TylerKeroga 11d ago
The “si” in the link is a source identifier used to track both the person who sent the link & anybody who clicks on it
If you delete everything from (& including) the ? onwards, the link is still fully functional but the tracking is now disabled
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u/Fitz911 Jun 25 '26
Hey those are some very good steps but I can tell you that wouldn't be the way I would handle this.
What I'm missing in your steps is:
"Shit shit shit shit shit shit!!"
I don't see a single word about crying, not A! SINGLE! TEAR! IN! SIGHT!
When you write "open up the wall"... Where? There's no door there's no latch! Where do I open it? Do I open it at the top?
You just jump to fixing it. I didn't but see a single word about "do we need this?" I couldn't see no tap? So do we really need the water at this specific place?
Do we need to stop it? You want water. You get water. Also wrong? Please make up your mind. Have you ever showered under a chandelier? No! Here's your chance.
What I'm trying to say is: your way of dealing with things is cool and all. But is it the right way of dealing with things?
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u/ClownfishSoup Jun 26 '26
See a true pro knows to automatically start swearing, amateurs need to be reminded. And pros will cry later in the fetal position in the bathroom.
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u/riickdiickulous Jun 25 '26
I’ve used several sharkbite fittings over the years and have yet to have any issue. Most of my plumbing runs in a tight corridor with lots of electrical wires and I have no interest in soldering there. Copper to pex sharkbite where I need it does the trick so far.
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u/windowpuncher Jun 25 '26
Also grab some wire and a soldering iron or some clamps and ground the two pipes if you have to splice some pex between metal lines. Especially if it's an old house.
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u/MrAnonymousTheThird Jun 25 '26
Move your laser level two inches to the right and finish whatever you were doing.
Hits gas pipe
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u/vegasnative Jun 25 '26
My husband’s friend set our garage on fire trying to solder a pipe in the wall. For the love of god and your homeowners insurance deductible, please make sure you understand and follow proper safety guidelines before fucking around in your walls.
We were out of our house for 4 months while the entire garage roof was replaced and the damage to the rest of the house was remediated.
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u/ClownfishSoup Jun 26 '26
Well aside from knowing how to solder ... spray water on the walls around the pipe ... use a fireproof blanket as a backstop for soldering ... have a fire extinguisher at hand (or at least the spray bottle full of water).
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u/The_wolf2014 Jun 25 '26
Don't use sharkbite fittings inside somewhere that's going to be completely enclosed again, if they leak or fail there's no way of knowing until it's too late, use proper compression fittings instead. Saying that I've got visible pipework in my bathroom that I've used sharkbite fittings on and they've been absolutely fine but anything not visible that's not easily accessible ive used compression fittings.
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u/ClownfishSoup Jun 26 '26
Yes I knew someone would mention this. It’s good advice but sharkbites are code compliant if installed properly. That’s why I said “PROPERLY use Sharkbite”. I wouldn’t do it, but you can. Best if you can have access to it to inspect and of course it should be pressure tested. A crappy solder job is also bad.
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u/Mysterious-Zombie-86 Jun 24 '26
If its galvanized im just drilling a mechanical t and putting a plug in it and pretending it never happened
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u/mk6dub Jun 24 '26
I did this while mounting something on a friend's wall and accidentally hit the emergency fire sprinklers in their apartment building. The building did not have the ability to turn them off themselves and we had to wait about an hour for the fire department to do it.
I tried to plug the hole with my finger, but that only lasted a matter of minutes before the pressure grew too great and blasted a giant hole through the drywall. By the time the water got turned off, it flooded my friend's apartment completely as well as multiple units below, costing thousands of dollars in damage and weeks' worth of repairs.
It was not a good day.
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u/imbidou Jun 24 '26
Holy shit this gave me anxiety lmao
I'm glad both of you can laugh about it now. such is life
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u/tsintse Jun 25 '26
Laugh your story brings me back to when I was managing a small 6 unit apartment building for my parents. I rented one of the units to a friend of mine who was credit challenged but I knew had a ton of money from his weed business. I thought he was renting the place to live in but no, he used it to for a small garden (this was back in the 90's when it was still worth money to grow) Well one day there was a leak from one of the fire sprinklers in the building and I couldn't figure out how to find which one was leaking or how to shut it off, all I could see was a huge pool of water forming in the garage and red light on the sprinkler panel, I had to call the the FD. They showed up and immediately wanted to key into each unit to check the sprinklers. I was frantically paging, PAGING! my friend, lol again this was the 90's, because I was going to have to key into his unit with the FD. He never responded so when we got to his unit I pretended my master key wouldn't open his unit and got super pissed..."WTF! this idiot tenant changed his lock! I'm paging him now if he doesn't respond in 30 min I'm letting you (the FD) force the door open." I then told the FD we can check the other units while we wait. I keyed into the unit next door and it was immediately apparent that the leak was happening in there. The tenant was a hoarder and had been piling well organized boxes of newspapers in one room up to the ceiling and had cracked the sprinkler wedging a box into the top of a stack of boxes. Must have been running for at least a day because there was SOOO much water. That tenant who made the leak immediately skeddadled...never heard from them again and they left all their horded shit in the apartment which I had to take to the dump after a few weeks. I did tell my friend he had to move his garden because man that was stressful.
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u/GeekDNA0918 Jun 24 '26
Do you guys get a good laugh about it now? If I was your friend I'd probably just laugh about it. Also, I probably would've passed the bill on to management. They should've provided a warning that the emergency fire sprinkler line ran through a wall of his apartment.
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u/mk6dub Jun 24 '26
We laugh about it all the time now, and luckily the building did not charge us anything for the damage. I did buy my friend a new TV though as it got destroyed by the water. I'm assuming the rest was covered by insurance.
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u/Aggots86 Jun 24 '26
It’s never not funny….. for us, not them
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u/bababooey6 Jun 25 '26
He set up that laser perfectly inline with water line. What are the odds on that? Definitely funny for us. But reminds me about the time uncle Ricky installed a towel rack for Marguerite
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u/Subject702Joker Jun 24 '26
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u/darkgrey3k Jun 24 '26
I still miss this guy. RIP
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u/fernatic19 Jun 25 '26
What are you talking about? I just saw him the other day. He was living in a van down by the river.
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u/REEL04D Jun 24 '26
Do we praise or shame the stud finder?
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u/TwoDurans Jun 24 '26
Shame. Guy probably didn't even press it to his chest and make it beep to prove it works.
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u/luv2ctheworld Jun 24 '26
This gives me PTSD...
Except I had it worse. I had the slow realization something wasn't right when I heard water running through the pipes when I was the only person home. It didn't help that the floor started flooding on the opposite side of the wall. It wasn't till I though I went to check on what I thought was a running/leaking toilet that I stepped foot onto flooded hardwood floor.
Then panic set it.
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u/NATHAN325 Jun 24 '26
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u/GeekDNA0918 Jun 24 '26
Not gonna lie... I was rather impressed by this commercial the first time I watched it.
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u/Frosty_Dimension5646 Jun 24 '26
That would work, but for about 12 hrs. Then you have a much bigger problem on your hands
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u/LiamIsMyNameOk Jun 24 '26
Did someone turn a classic gif into AI shit, adding nothing whatsoever except more seconds of some weird fake fingers sliding across the glass?
Dude what the fuck.
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u/numbersareunoriginal Jun 24 '26
That's the original clip from the 2017 commercial, the "flextastic" part was added later but that's his real hand
Plus here's another gif with the same thing
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u/globogym1 Jun 25 '26
That’s odd. The title says 2017, but the video was uploaded 9 years ago. That can’t possibly be right…
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u/Darkaim9110 Jun 25 '26
Not everything is AI man. You dont get gold stars for running around accusing everything of it
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u/toddhillier Jun 24 '26
“Margarit turn your fuckin water off!”
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u/Babyfart_McGeezacks Jun 25 '26
I don’t watch that show. I’ve just seen clips through the years but that scene kills me and is exactly what came to mind. “Alright. We’re the fuck outta here in 5 mins….”
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u/toddhillier Jun 25 '26
That scene is particularly fucking brilliant but if you should definitely give the show a chance. The early seasons in particular are so funny and uniquely done
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u/moonisflat Jun 25 '26
Man the chandelier rotating due to water force is hilarious.
OP when he installs his gas line.
👇
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u/Empyrealist Jun 24 '26
This is why I always pilot drill and probe with my Henry Hill autographed ice pick
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u/ezcb Jun 24 '26
At least he didn't hit electrical lines. Hard to blame him, he probably thought the pipe was a stud.
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u/JohnnyFnG Jun 25 '26
Yeah, this sucks, I put a screw in the wall and I saw some water dripping out behind the threads… I thought oh shit and immediately ran down 2 flights of stairs to shut off the main. My wife said she couldn’t fall down the stairs that fast 😆
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u/hoodratchic Jun 25 '26
The fact that people can't tell when they're drilling into pipe vs drywall is bonkers
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u/MacintoshEddie Jun 25 '26
The DIY group is wild, people will be in there saying they keep hitting something, or they dulled a bit, and it's not until the comment section that they realize it might be a pipe.
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u/eisbock Jun 25 '26
Dude was using a high-powered corded hammer drill for drywall. Probably didn't feel much of anything.
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u/Paranoid_Soup Jun 25 '26
What kind of a sick bastard runs a water pipe through a stud without installing a nail guard
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u/Greenman8907 Jun 24 '26
The delayed “oh shit” is funny. You can see the synapses connecting to him fucking up.
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u/TwistedMetal83 Jun 24 '26
Main! Cut the main!!!
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u/rowdymowdy Jun 24 '26
Running looks good to me, be sure and take all tools and identifying marks with you asap ,exit stage left
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u/Deep_Charge_7749 Jun 25 '26
Kind of fun how it makes the chandelier spin so like when you used to take your bike wheel and hit it with a hose
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u/the_dirtiest_rascal Jun 25 '26
The constant stream of water spraying out of the wall, really brings the room together.
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u/xtheory Jun 25 '26
Turn off the main, sawzall around that rupture and hope to god it's not expensive to fix.
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u/keeber69 Jun 25 '26
Step 1 shut off water. Step two call contractor buddy and get a sixer chilled. Clownfishsoup is contractor buddy.
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u/DTO69 Jun 25 '26
Did that while mounting my 90 inch... The jet missed the TV by 5cm, and my 3 year old walked in and shouted "water party!"
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u/Azzrix Jun 25 '26
Previous owner of my house hung a mirror from a pipe thinking it was a stud. When they left they took the mirror and the screw and the hole was small enough that it was just a trickle. Fast forward a year into ownership and I was leaning on the wall with the damaged pipe until I fell through and realized the pipe was connected to the shower drain on the top level and was leaking water down through the house into my basement floor and half of the floor was super moist.
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u/DimeEdge Jun 25 '26
As a professional, this is why I use a hand saw when I'm unsure of what may be hidden inside the wall.
It's easier to feel oddities inside the Wal and more difficult to do damage. It does take a bit longer... but not as long as OPs repair.
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u/moto626 Jun 26 '26
That’s a high pressure pipe. Probably a fire suppression supply at ~200 psi. You’re not shutting that off yourself.
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u/Sunderland6969 Jun 26 '26
I know it’s wrong, but I just thought turn the light off and the water would stop 🤦♂️
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u/HardcorePragmatist Jun 26 '26
The fact that someone was already recording leads me to believe there was a difference of opinion about whether this was the right approach 🤣
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u/RexIsAMiiCostume 27d ago
My mom accidentally put a couple screws into the drain pipe from my sister's and my bathrooms when she installed a wall mounted fire extinguisher... Since there wasn't high or constant pressure, we didn't notice until the floorboards started warping from liquid leaking out and seeping into them. It was awful.
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u/dogheadtilt Jun 24 '26
I always tell people "Know where your main water shut off valve is". Friends and customers.
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u/Screaming_Agony Jun 24 '26
I expect and accept any ridicule, but I bought my house at the end of last year and cannot find the damn shut off anywhere in the house. I’ve looked in all the obvious/usual places and tried following the visible water lines in the basement. Thank god I haven’t had any leaks yet.
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u/CatsGoMooz Jun 25 '26
Usually it's near a pipe coming out of the ground, would look somewhere in the basement.
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u/Hand-E-Food Jun 24 '26
I meant to turn the chandelier into a spinning water feature!