Tuesday, January 17, 2006

holy water

amen. So we have a sump pump that has been quite busy this rainy season. The saturated earth is only getting hit with more rain. The circuit breaker on this essential piece of equipment flipped so I went to the fuse box to reset the breaker. When I flipped the switch, a drop of water squeezed out from between the breaker modules.

WATER .... IN THE BREAKER BOX!

The basement walls are dry and there's no visible way that the water could get in. Taking off the cover wearing thick rubber shoes I see that there's a 4mm puddle at the bottom of the steel box with submerged wires. I drill a few holes in the metal box so the water can drain and leave the cover off. As it turns out, the water is traveling from *inside* the main cable that enters the house. It's hard to work out how the water has done this but it has. The wire properly goes lower than the entry point on the house like a big J shape to thwart water from traveling along the outside. This tells me that the inside is full, like a straw.

I'm up for most home repair challenges but this cable is all business and I'm not touching it. Time to hire a pro. Given where this is happening, this might be a task for the power company as the water must be starting from the power meter.

Yikes

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