This series of posts originally appeared in the "Yardening in the Mid-Atlantic" thread. For clarity, I have split it off to a separate thread. Since it would be too much of a hassle to have those that commented repost here, I am only moving my initial posts. Any others will be deleted from the other thread.


I just can't win. I woke up this morning to no hot water. I haven't taken a cold shower in years. Fortunately, the tank only started leaking during the night, and it is a 'small' leak. I turned off the water line for the heater, so I won't be wasting money on that.

Now, the ugly part...

I have a home warranty through AHS. I went up to their site to file a claim. They have ONE plumber that they've contracted with. And, they're located in Crofton, which is at least an hour drive. Oh, and they're not open on weekends.

I just got off the phone with FH Furr. They will be out some time today to give an estimate. The bright side is that they carry the correct size tank on the truck.

==== Original Post Date: Aug 26, 2023 12:45 PM

Make sure you're sitting down for this one!

The cost to replace the water heater starts at $3,400.00 ! ! !

It looks like I'm going to be taking cold showers for a few days. Plus, I'll finally get to see how well my laundry detergent works in cold water.

==== Original Post Date: Aug 26, 2023 11:12 AM by Critterologist
Rick, hope the cost is semi-reasonable! We were without a washing machine for over a week, waiting on warranty service... not nearly as inconvenient as being without hot water, although Joyanna did get to experience a laundromat so she'd have all clean clothes for the first days of school.

==== Original Post Date: Aug 26, 2023 6:12 PM by SallyG



==== Original Post Date: Aug 26, 2023 8:35 PM by Critterologist
Ugh on the cold showers, but I usually wash clothes in cold water -- detergent really has gotten better!

Go to Lowes. Even tankless (gas) heaters are only half what you were quoted! Your guy today must be catering to the "fix it immediately, I don't care what it costs" crowd.

==== Original Post Date: Aug 26, 2023 9:24 PM by RickM
Except the indoor tankless models are all electric. Mine is gas. To switch would be very expensive as I would need a new breaker panel for the new circuit.

A 50 gallon tall tank starts around $650.

==== Original Post Date: Aug 26, 2023 10:54 PM by Chantell
I was going to say when mine went in my townhouse (while it was under contract 😢) it was under $500 I believe, and mine was gas as well. I was blessed that my son was able to install it, but literally took him less than an hour. :

==== Original Post Date: Aug 27, 2023 8:42 PM by Critterologist
As long as you have good insulation on your tank, I don't think the tankless versions will save much $ on gas (which I think was the big draw initially). I do think the on-demand ones have improved enough to keep up with the whole family trying to shower in the morning. For me, unless space is an issue, I'd go with a regular tank one. We have a 70 gallon tank and have never run out of hot water, even with guests and all 3 showers going at once.


==== Original Post Date: Aug 28, 2023 6:58 PM by RickM
The saga continues...

I was finally able to talk to a person at the home warranty place. They wanted to assign the call to the plumber out of Crofton. I told her that that was unacceptable and to look for someone in the Rockville area. She came back with 'What about Gaithersburg Plumbing?" I told her that that was perfect as they are literally around the corner from me. (Not really, but no more than 2 miles.)

So, I have a plumber coming tomorrow morning. He'll take pictures and file a report with the warranty people. They will do a cost estimate and return that to the plumber who will give it to me to authorize.

The plumber returns the authorization to the warranty people who will the order the new tank. Once that arrives, the plumber will schedule the actual install.

So far, it looks like cold showers for at least a week.

I got home last night to an E-Mail from the warranty company saying Congratulations! .... but ....

It went on to say that the repairs have been approved, but there were some things not covered. That came to $1,415.00.

I figured I would call the plumber this morning to find out what wasn't approved before I authorized the repairs. They actually called me as I was pulling in to work.

The non-covered items are all related to building code 'gotchas'. Again, as this heater lasted for 21 years, I really can't complain too much. Things that aren't covered are the 'expansion' tank, which is a small storage tank that sits on top of the main tank. Re-working of duct work, installation of new cut-off valves, the utility inspection, and 2 carbon monoxide detectors.

I got a message this afternoon that the parts were all ordered and on their way to the plumber. The plumber is closed until Tuesday, but I expressed the hope that it could be completed by Friday as I was off work all week. They pretty much said doubtful as the tank usually takes a week to arrive. Oh well.

Can anyone recommend a decent CO monitor? Battery powered is best as there are no convenient electrical outlets where they need to go.

Rick, We use First Alert, Costco usually has them for a decent price

Rick, yikes on the need for a new water heater and the cost to do it. At least the old one gave you 20+ years of service which is pretty good in this day and age.

The latest maintenance that I've been doing is getting the irrigation system repaired and functional again. It was installed in 2005 with add-ons in 2007. It uses a pump to pull water from the pond and over the years that is the item that has had issues one way or the other. The latest snafu was the person who was dewinterizing the system wired the pump wrong and blew the motor. The company didn't stand behind replacing it due to their negligence and I gave up on the system itself for years. In the meantime, many water lines got broken as we worked on various projects around the house.

I'm finally getting to this as a priority this year. Found a good reliable company to do the work. First phase was to install a new pump - sticker shock at $3000. That was done in late July. Second (mid August) and third (this past Wednesday) phases were to evaluate and repair the existing zones. Everything is working! Fourth and last phase to add additional zones for the gardens that didn't exist back in 2005 and 2007 is being scheduled. All will be completed just in time to winterize, but at least I'll have a good working system to start gardening season 2024. None of this is cheap

I figured that I would use this week, and no hot water, to check out the gym that's 2 miles from home. They're gone ! ! ! !

They were located near the end of the runway at the airpark. The county decided that they wanted the property back, and evicted the gym citing eminent domain.

While there are a few gyms in the 10-15 mile radius, none of them are located along a route that I would normally use. It would have to be special trip, which means it would really be a waste of money.

FINALLY!, Some semi-good news.

The plumber received the new tank about an hour ago. Unfortunately, they're booked for tomorrow. They have me on a wait list if someone cancels, but I have a firm appointment for Wed, 13-Sep.

Now all I have to do is get off work that day.

The plumber will be here in about an hour!

Now I have to make sure they have a clear path both outside and inside.

I have hot water again, or at least I will in another 20 minutes.

The only thing left is for WSSC to come out and do the inspection, which should be next week.

Yay. Cold showers can be refreshing but there is nothing nicer than a hot one!

True. A cold shower feels great after working in the hot sun, but since I usually get up around 0600a. they were no fun at all.

On to the next task... cleaning.

Yay!!

Remember to step back after cleaning and say 'That's better, yay me!"

Congratulations with the new hot water tank!---You made it, through all the problems.----I am still trying to donate my Volvo. So far no takers; my first choice was Salvation Army and then Fairfax County, could not get hold of a real person, only "not available" message. Is the person not available or is the program of car donation not available????? edit: it is NOT available !

So many things got messed up by Covid, maybe the car donation program isn't running, or isn't properly staffed.

My sister in Florida has had a problem with whole house A/C and struggling along with a room A/C for a month. It was fixed for a day, then broke again.

I am hoping that my old gas water tank will hold. I purchased a tankless water heater in 2005, when my house was almost done with renovation, but they said that I need an additional breaker panel. So the tank is there on the wall but not working---- When I was in Indonesia, every day I took a 'bath'--it meant, scooped cold water from a relatively large pool with water from a faucet, and pour it over myself and also on my head to wash my hair, with about the 90's F / in the 30s C degrees weather. At least the temperature these days, at least where I live has been comparable to the temperature in Jakarta during the time you did not have hot water-and so be grateful that it did not happen in Winter----

@SallyG: It is bad in Florida w/o AC, although when I was living in Jakarta there was no AC available, but there were lots of cross ventilations built on the walls, and also ceiling fans in the homes. My grandmother's big house in a small town in West Java have such good ventilation that it was always cool in the house----and town is near the coast, not even in the mountains---- I used to love to stay in my grandmothers' home, both of them. My father's old home was in Indramayu, I think it is still there--with all those ventilations and a yard enclosed by a tall wall on one side: his mother used to put a banana leaf container of fresh flowers with fine sliced pandanus leaves, including some special perfume on the bed so the bedroom smelled so good. And my mother's mother lived in a different town not too far away, but in a different province in West Java, her house plus the leather factory buildings were distroyed in 1947 during the attempt of the Dutch to re-occupy Indonesia. I loved to stay there too, we had to pump water to get the faucet going, and we, children took baths under that pump----the garden between the factory and the house had lots of huge trees and tamed wild animals that my 2 uncles loved (including tamed monkeys and a big tamed snake that I NEVER touched. But at night I was always lulled to sleep by the sound of frogs-- oh how I loved that, it sounded so peaceful and soothing-She had a big store that sold everything you can imagine, including a single gasoline station that was outside the store. The whole town was basically where all my mother's relatives lived and was completely destroyed. Everyone fled to the capital city of the province and lost everything. When they went back to the village after the war was over, nothing was left, everything overgrown with plants and weed, even nothing was left of the leather factory, all those machinery were gone. I also remembered the rose geraniums and Peacock bushes were-No hot water in either houses for baths. Back then even the hotels did not have hot water-I think the first hotel that had hot water and heated swimming pool, and elevators (no escalators anywhere--I was introduced to escalators in Frankfurt, Germany in 1964!) was Hotel Indonesia in Jakarta was finished in August 1962.

All things considered, today was somewhat productive. I renewed my vehicle registration, updated my license, mowed the front and back, cleaned out the carport gutters in the front.

While I was mowing, a guy stopped by about tree work. He says he'll be in the neighborhood on Monday and can give me a deal on taking out the 'Leaning Tower of Oak' in the back yard. Admittedly, the tree isn't doing well and more than half of it is dead. He mentioned the lean that it had and I told him that it's been that way for 30 years, and shows no sign of falling.

He said if I keep the wood, he an take it to the ground for $2,000. I told him that my definition of 'to the ground' was a minimum fo 15' up. He was fine with that. And then he turned and saw the other large oak nearby that is nearly dead as well. He said he could have the crew cut out the dead wood at no extra charge.

All of the debris created would be ground up and hauled away. I didn't think to ask about leaving the resulting chips. Chances are, he wouldn't be willing to do that as their chipper is truck mounted and shoots the stuff into the back of another truck. (Plus, I don't feel like moving all of those chips, even if they are free.)

The water heater going out really toasted the budget. I had everything saved for property taxes, but that went toward the new heater.

Between the taxes and the trees, its almost $5,000. I suppose I could put it on plastic... again.

I feel your pain, just having a new well and pump, and required irrigation work done ($9,200.) and the wonderful James, my landscaping guy was here all day (for the third but not last time this year) at $1,400. each time! A few years ago I had 14 ancient pines removed, not the stumps!

Ouch!

When I was talking with the tree guy, he mentioned that there were a lot of trees on the lot. And then q told him we've taken out at least 25 over the past 25 years and the one he was looking at wasn't even close to being the oldest.

I was supposed to have a landscaper come in to help with some of the heavy lifting. Since we're supposed to get a lot of rain, I cancelled him. No sense paying him to stand around watching the rain fall.

My uneducated guess says that 2K is a fair price. FWTW
We had a weeping willow that was 'fine' with a huge dead branch on one side- until the day it just fell over. (on lawn, no structures) and you sure don't need an oak falling on structures. I hope he does a great job.

Rick, you might look into taking out a home improvement loan with lower interest rates rather than putting the tree work on plastic, especially if it'll be a few months before paying it off. Taking out trees is expensive! If there are structures to work around, you I'm waiting to hear back from the landscape guy that does our lawn on when he can come for a half day and take down 2 old fruit trees (fence on one side, but as long as they can get it falling away from the fence there are plants but no structures in the way -- and plants are usually pretty resilient). I have other pruning to do, and if it were enough for a full day he would probably be more willing to work me in.

Bartlett (arborists) came in last fall to remove some dead/dying sassafrass trees (no issues other than being old, they're just not long-lived). Given the proximity to the neighbor's fence and other nearby trees, we decided that removal required a skilled touch. They couldn't take them down to the ground regardless due to an old wire fence that literally ran through the trees. They took them off at a variety of heights and made v-shaped cuts in multiple directions across the top of the stump so it kinda sorta looks naturally broken off. I'll see if I can find the photo, which is likely on my phone...