Had a burst pipe and minor flooding overnight drying out trains

This is a good example of the level of wetness I have. So question is am I ok just drying them with the space heater or do you think I need to go over each loco and car and reclean lube etc?

Dennis, I would wipe down the pieces so they don't get water Spots.

Mikey

Good call Mikey, I'll do that.

Dennis, that is one of our worst nightmares......water in the basement. Good news is you were home and caught it quickly before it could of been worse. I think that anything that looks as if the water got to it should be taken apart and checked to see the degree of damage. Also instead of a space heater what about a hair dryer set on a low heat setting or just the air setting. It would be time consuming but may dry them out better. After drying I would lubricate the engines. Also check the circuit boards too to make sure they are free of moisture...........Paul

Get a dehumidifier in that room and set it to the lowest percentage. Also have a fan in there circulating the air.

I was thinking about the dehumidifier, agreed, will get one asap.  Even the ones that were not wet or damp, were clammy, that is why I unwrapped everything and have it stacked everywhere lol.  Mind you, I want to get the trains in a safe state so I can focus on the room and get that carpet and padding out as quickly as possible.

It's bad and it's a pain, but man I really do feel lucky as Heck!!

I can tell this will lead to a basement remodel though which might not be all bad lol.

Not that I've been through this at this level, but I'd 2nd the dehumidifier (maybe even 2, depending on how big your basement is), and at least a wipe-down of all visible surfaces so nothing in the water (meaning impurities like minerals, etc - I realize it was the cold water pipe) might leave permanent marks.

Good luck.  As you say, it would have been worse had you not been home for it.

-Dave

Dehumidifier is a must Dennis, fans too. I would inspect everything before running. Open the shells on the locos to allow any moisture to dry. Looks like a good opportunity to expand your layout....

Glad the damage was minor. I always tell people the frozen pipe is not the problem, its when it defrosts that the fun starts.

Bob

I can't give you advice what to do BUT I can tell you not to use your stove oven, microwave or clothes dryer to dry them out. Good luck, hope you escape major damage.

jim pastorius posted:

I can't give you advice what to do BUT I can tell you not to use your stove oven, microwave or clothes dryer to dry them out. Good luck, hope you escape major damage.

Why not?

George

This is making me rethink my basement layout...

They have battery powered water alarms at the big box stores, about $12 if i remember.  It has two metal contacts on the bottom.  Set it on the floor.  If they conduct then the audible alarm goes off.  Usually they are pretty loud.  I would set one layer of paper towel or toilet paper under it.   No help if you are not home.

Yeah, the burst spot is 18" over on the other side of the wall, but you know, city water pressure spraying out of a ruptured pipe, that 18" was nothing.  It looked like Niagera Falls when I went down to see why water pressure was low in the morning. It got the daughter's American girls stuff (they have a bunch too), my sheepskin rug, books, legos (no problem), and then the trains on the other side.  kind of crazy the path the water took to get to the boxes too lol.  Probably 150-200 train items either wet or in boxes that got partially wet.  The entire carpet is soaked, it went all the way into the laundry room were the floor drain was. 

I always planned to ensure the bottom shelf was always like a foot off the floor in the event of a back up type flood event,.  I didn't really think of this situation honestly.  Live and Learn.  Nothing priceless down there, just a big mess lol.  That said, when I start counting the number of trains and what it would likely cost to replace, that's a bit nerve wracking but hey what do you do. As it is I just have a mountain of cleaning to do.

The real lucky part for me was up till last week I had a bunch of boxes of trains on the floor, like 20 plus AF locos, Brass, All my JEP stuff, my O Marklin was on the floor a while back.  Luckily, I had started a major re-org last week and all that stuff was up off the floor under a different section of the layout.  I think I'll be all right, no water spotting on anything, looks like the space heater dryed  the locos and the marklin ho.  I will plan to take all those locos through a service session, but jeeze, that's where being guilty of having too much stuff overwhelms you!

Dennis Holler posted:

I can tell this will lead to a basement remodel though which might not be all bad lol.

Are your water pipes steel or copper? If steel, in your remodeling plans I would seriously consider replacing as much of the steel pipe as possible with copper.  In either case, cover as much exposed pipe as you can with pipe insulation, both hot & cold. It's good cheap insurance.

copper, no steel anywhere.

Here is the burst section I cut out 

At least it's clean water. Much less of an issue with mold. Just make sure everything dries out. Dehumidifier is a must mostly to get any moister out of the walls and floor.

I had the sump back up in a power outage. I'm getting a generator this Spring.

George

Agreed, looks like the trains at least are drying out ok. The dolls and baseball cards, not so much lol

For the locomotives, I'd be removing the shells and drying them before the corrosion sets in.  Most electronics is NOT happy with water.  Even with fresh water, that's a problem.  For the rolling stock, one way to deal with them is a space heater and open the boxcar doors, etc. 

Find the source of the cold air too and seal that with foam.

aussteve posted:

They have battery powered water alarms at the big box stores, about $12 if i remember.  It has two metal contacts on the bottom.  Set it on the floor.  If they conduct then the audible alarm goes off.  Usually they are pretty loud.  I would set one layer of paper towel or toilet paper under it.   No help if you are not home.

Yep, I have a boatload of these all over the house in strategic places. Simple design and work well. Saved me once in the utility room when the water heater went.

But...as you say, if you are not at home no dice.

Also turn the water on in your basement. I let my basement faucet run at a trickle (both hot and cold watter) the last two days when it was -20°. No pipe problems. My basement is heated but is uninsulated (bare brick walls). It got down to 55° (rest of the house was 72°). I was taking pipe temperatures with a laser thermometer and the lowest reading I saw was 43° on the cold water pipe to the basement sink.

I only ran the basement faucet because it's the only faucet in my house that runs near an exterior wall. When it gets below 0 you're best off opening and letting run any faucet in you house that is near an outside wall. Prevents pipes bursting. 

We do that sometimes, honestly wouldn’t have helped here I don’t think since this leg was 25 feet off to the North side wall basically where the outdoor spigot goes out the wall, I wouldn’t get any flow over where it froze unfortunately. You are right I agree still a good practice, we actually do that quite a bit. I’m going to put isolation valves on both of those outdoor legs so i can isolate them and then empty the outer line. I think that will work anyway. 

looks like you lucked out Dennis. Glad there is no major damage. I agree with what has been said. Slow drying would be my thought on the wood stuff. You won't have to worry much about the old stuff, we like them rusty anyway......but the electronic stuff would be a concern. And on the plus side we got to see more of that hoard of yours....

Start using  a wet/dry shop vac on that carpet.  Best bet is either trash the carpet altogether or at least lift roll it up to one side, and the padding if applicable.  The use you fans to blow air past the concrete until its dry.  dry out the underside of the padding at the same time.  When that is done, roll the padding back and use fans to dry out the top of the padding, bottom of the carpet.  now roll that carpet back, pick it all up from another corner and start again.  Plan on a day each evolution with some fans blowing.

Again, best bet is to ditch the carpet all together.Water will hide in/under for a long long time if not taken care of.

Go through those cardboard boxes as soon as you can.  Mildew sets in fast.

Good luck

Actually I’ve been a little wrong in my diagnosis. It looks like it it actually froze in two spots and the blow out was between. So I do have a wall crack issue to deal with I think. I’m guessing as bothfrozen spots “grew” the water between pressure spiked and that caused the copper to fail. Interesting really.  You can see that ice in the first picture. That is at the elbow coming from center house and the third is a few feet away where it goes out for the fawcet. That’s my theory anyway lol

All of my outside faucets have a shutoff inside the insulated and heated part of the basement.  They're also frost-free fixtures that drain about 18" of water when they're shutoff so that there's no water standing in the pipe.  That's if they're installed properly, which is always a wild card.

Hey Dennis. Can sympathize too as the home I'm buying suffered a major 'interior flood' last winter when the power went off for a day and then two pipes burst and flooded the whole place! It was vacant and not discovered for a week or more. The owner had a $500+ water bill.

I am remodeling it with upgrades and always turn off and bleed the pressure whenever I have to be gone for any length of time. Even in good weather...

jhz563 posted:

Start using  a wet/dry shop vac on that carpet.  Best bet is either trash the carpet altogether or at least lift roll it up to one side, and the padding if applicable.  The use you fans to blow air past the concrete until its dry.  dry out the underside of the padding at the same time.  When that is done, roll the padding back and use fans to dry out the top of the padding, bottom of the carpet.  now roll that carpet back, pick it all up from another corner and start again.  Plan on a day each evolution with some fans blowing.

Again, best bet is to ditch the carpet all together.Water will hide in/under for a long long time if not taken care of.

 

Go through those cardboard boxes as soon as you can.  Mildew sets in fast.

 

Good luck

My thoughts too.  I’ve had to dry it out exactly as you described twice before in smaller areas. It’s a pain but it works I’m leaning toward removing the existing carpet this time.

Wow interesting topic. We have had 3 minor water leaks in the basement in the last 22 years, thankfully not major. But it is an ongoing concern. Especially since the house is plumbed with that rotten poly B plastic pipe. Our insurance company sent out a remote water sensor that we have set up right near the water heater. It sends a signal to the iPhone if water is detected. So even when we are not home we would get a message and be able to call our housesitter to go over and shut off the water and see how bad things are.

Since we are away for the winter I also had the plumber install a master water shutoff valve right at the water meter, so all water is off except for a small 1/4" line to the humidifier on the furnace. In our dry climate at home the humidifier is a must in the winter months.

Rod

Dennis- if you are replacing the hose bib anyway- I recommend a frost free type as GRJ mentioned.

What would be ideal is a solenoid isolation valve on the supply line to the house that is activated by those water detectors.... you have me thinking...

RSJB18 posted:

Dennis- if you are replacing the hose bib anyway- I recommend a frost free type as GRJ mentioned.

Yes I was unaware such things existed, but I will be buting a couple for sure. 

Thanks for all the words of encouragement and suggestions they are all good and maybe someone else can benefit from this and prevent a similar problem.

In addition to what others have suggested, you might also want to consider wrapping some of your pipes with electric heating cables, especially if they're near an outside wall, such as the one below. They come in different lengths and are thermostatically controlled to come on at a set temperature.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/EasyH...e-Heat-Cable/1065635

To dry your trains, a hair dryer works good.

now I wouldn't do this for just anyone...but seeing it's you...send all those damp trains to me and I'll dry them for you. I might keep a few of the rusty nasty ones  for my time and trouble.....

I'm surprised the outside lines did not have valves to shut them off. My 62 year old house does. I shut the lines off every November 1st and turn them back on in April. 

Dennis, definitely get a dehumidifier, best investment I made in the train room....I feel your pain, I had a nasty roof leak 2 days before Christmas, some trains got wet....dried them up with microfiber towels and a hair dryer...had the family helping me assembly line style. Took a couple hours, but got them all dried up......we were fortunate like you as we were home and caught it early on enough not to have a total disaster.....the dehumidifier will help pull the moisture out of the air....with as much water intrusion you had, I bet the air down there is plenty juicy......Pat

Dennis I would also think about storeing the trains in plastic tubs at least those in contact with the floor or putting the boxes up on pressure treated 2x4 or 4x4. I have all of mine in plastic flip top type tubs or the boxes on top of the tubs. No boxes in contact with the floor.