Remember the New Water Heater?

My wife and I got home from work at about 5:30 last night. We were scurrying around opening mail, and fixing something to eat before going to chime and choir practice at the church. My wife opened the Culligan Bill and said, "$60? When did they deliver salt?" I didn't know so I went to the basement to see if there had been salt delivered. I looked in the container and it was filled with salt... that's the end of that [I thought].

As I was walking away I noticed my feet were wet, "Shit... where's that coming from?" [Recall that we've recently had a failed sump pump, clogged drain and a new water heater.] I started looking for the source of the water. It seemed to come from the direction of the new water heater... , "Crap..." Then I saw it - a little stream of water shooting out from where one of the copper pipes was soldered. I had no idea how long it had been leaking - but judging from the water it had been a couple of days at least.

A quick call to the plumber resulted in a plumber showing up within 30 minutes [I was impressed] - he fixed the leak and said they guarantee their work and there would be no charge. He indicated that it is uncommon for this to happen, but on occasion a soldered joint fails. That didn't comfort me since all I saw was a big puddle of water (again)!!

I am thankful that the Culligan Bill was $60 because it sent me to the basement. Who knows how long it would have been before we discovered the leak?

Now my question is this - can I send him a bill for the time and energy I spent mopping up water - again? Probably not... at least I knew right where the mop and bucket were...