Warning, Has this happened to you?

[sprayandclean]

Let me start by telling any who dont know me that while I learn about life and this business daily, I'm no newbie. I've been operating power washers for 30 years give or take, been washing houses full time for 10 years.

Like most of us, I have 'shoemaker's children' problem; ie. I get around to wasing my own house last. Last weekend I pullled the rig around to the side yard, mixed up the soap, and started in the front, You know, front porch detail, get the hardest part done first, and the wind was coming from that side. Anyway it was a glorious day, blue sky, warm but crisp fall day, I got the front and right side done and decided it was time for a break and abeverage. (For those who can find 'Old Dominion Lager' I highly reccomend it).

After I sat on the back porch admiring the view and finishing my 'beverage', figured break time was over time to finish up the job. When I went into the house I noticed the lights were out. Hmmmm? Better go done to the basement and see whats up. Out here in the country no power equals no water. Well I was a little surprised to find the main breaker thrown, frankly I've never seen a main thrown and not one of the 'littl' breakers...Hmmm?

I flipped the 200 amp main back and BOOOM!!!

Big noise, big flash!!! ...Hmmm?

A little backround, my house is only 3 years old, was built by a great builder, and was wired by a combination fireman/electrician, both of whom I trust because they do great work and really give a sh_t!


To make a long story and dark evening/night short, it seems that hot soapy water funneled in a crack in the vinyl siding and was directed into the breaker box where the water followed the main line into the main breaker, thats IN to the main. It had happened before judging by the oxidation on the breaker frame.

I have a friend who is an electrical contractor, he said he'd never seen any thing like this happening before. His wife really likes the nice job I did washing their house. (Electricians are hard to find on saturday night.)

Has anyone ever run into this before?

If you havnt I hope you never do. That electricity stuff concerns me when I'm squirtin water all around, I dont want to get fried. It would have been real embarassing if I had put the lights out in a 'customer's' house.

Good Luck,
Bates McLain

 

[Mike Hughes]

Bates,

Wow.....thats pretty wild. Never heard of such a thing. Probably just a fluke......I wouldnt worry too much about it happening again in the future.

Just thank God it was your own house and not a customers......

And thankfully, no fire resulted!

 

[Jon]

Bates,

What bothers me is the following comment from you:

"A little backround, my house is only 3 years old, was built by a great builder, and was wired by a combination fireman/electrician, both of whom I trust because they do great work and really give a sh_t!"

In a nutshell why would you have a great builder build you a home and then not hire an licensed insured electrical contractor?

Great fireman/electrician would make me wonder which if either of those jobs he is more experienced and qualified to do.

Sorry but that is how I see this story here, oh and the siding, I am sure that is a quick fix, but since we don't have siding out here I am not able to picture what it looks like or what it is really.

Your lucky your home did not burn down.

 

[AuctionDude]

Brings Back Memories!

Back in the late 70s I was a contract cleaner,
I was washing the home of a customer (Mobile Home) Had just
finished soaping up wall under carport had 1 man brushing the
wall and I was soaping up the bottom side of the awning, then
it happened!

Zap spark / zap/Spark.. :burn: ..smoke.........Oh Crap! Sparks &
smoke were coming out of the wall behind the breaker box, my
helper dropped the brush & ran, and I about had the big one,
he suggested we pack up & leave as their was no one home
and "we could say we never were there".

Dummy me figured we better call the fire department, so there
we were standing in front of this mobile home in a 5 Star Park
( first time we were ever allowed to wash in there) and here
come 3 Fire Trucks with sirens blaring & horns blowing!

The Fire Dept confirmed that there was a small electrical fire
that had put itself out before they arrived....we had every
person living in the park whispering about what did these
guys do/ Easy Clean Mobile Wash heh.. Hope they have
insurance!

I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I got the customers
work phone # from a neighbor and called the customer
who promptly drove home, to my surprise the customer
was a reporter for the local newspaper (The Now defunct
Sacramento Union) The guy was very cool he looked things
over listened to my description of what happened, he asked
if we could finish the wash job, we finished washing, he paid
us and tipped us, and told us he felt bad for us, to make up for
it he did a feature article on our company!

Who said there was no God?

Mark
www.pressurewasherzone.com

P.S. I forgot I had registered using "Auction Dude" last night while trying to auction an item could not post my auction with my user name "Account Suspended" so I tried using the alias "Auction Dude' still can not post my auction!

Dan HELP!

 

[GutterUP]

Any tips from the Masters?

I'm a cautious guy by nature, and I've tried to prevent power connections, phone and cable connections from direct spray, but are there other precautions that we can take and still get the green off the siding right next to the box? I guess a little hand brushing would do it? Are there other methods you use?

 

[Dan S]

Another fine reason why i hate doing houses

 

[sprayandclean]

Jon,
I wasn't clear; The Lincensed Electrician is also a professional fireman. He works for a city fire department , 4 days on 4 days off, does the electrician work on the off time.

I have never seen such nice work, all the wires are neat as a pin, straight, even radius'ed curves.

The water came in a void in the caulking around the main line from the meter base.

Bates

 

[Jon]

Bates,

Thanks for making it clear.

Now I am not concerned anymore about things in your home that could short out and cause a fire.

 

[Richard R.]

I'm really glad to see others talk about this issue. This is an issue that I've always wondered about and have not seen much talk about on the network. I don't mind saying that this is a problem that really concerns me when I'm washing homes. Every time I get to that part of the cleaning procedure, I cringe and every time I do, I automatically think, why didn't I research this on the network before I came here today, to see what others say about it.
The other day, I was doing a paint prep on a very large and old home. When I got to the back, it was the same thing. I soaped it, let it dwell a short while and started my rinse. This time I had a friend with me that was interested in getting into business with me. We were both standing there talking when all of a sudden
we heard a big sputtering pop. The worse thing of it all, I had pretty well finished soaping and rinsing the area. It was a first for me.
I'm glad to report, so far I haven't heard any more about it and I don't think there was any damage done "this Time."
I sure hope if there is any electrical experts out there, they will give us some encouragement, safety tips, or let us know the best way to avoid this problem in the future. I'm always afraid the electricity is going to jump to my spray stream and shock or electricute me.
Bates, Thanks for a Great post.

Richard R.