After several consecutive days of a rapid drop in temperature in the NYC Metro area, a NYC homeowner experiences an unexpected water main break causing damages to his home.
Early Saturday morning Harris Water Main & Sewer Contractors receives a call from a frantic homeowner who had experienced a sudden water leak on his 1” lead water main. As the homeowner was in a frantic state, he was insistent that someone asses the current conditions and make and find an immediate resolution. Harris Water was onsite within 1 hour of the phone.
Upon arriving onsite it had become apparent that the homeowner’s 75 year old lead water main had burst at some point in-between the foundation wall, and the city water main connection located in the roadway. The water started to flow back into the homeowner’s basement at a rapid pace and was becoming increasingly worst as each hour went by.
At this point the homeowner was desperate for the water to be shut off as quickly as possible before he incurred thousands of dollars in damage to his newly finished basement apartment.
The Harris Water field crew arrived onsite within 1 hour and began pumping the water out of the basement while the office staff was working on obtaining an emergency permit number to begin excavating the roadway for the new water main installation.
The field crew began setting up all of the required safety requirements while the emergency permit number was posted on the jobsite as required by the NYC DOT. The crew was able to dig, locate the city 3\4” tap connection and shut the water off within one hour of being onsite. This particular water main installation was a “short water” (city water main located on the same side of the street as the house) which required minimal material, labor and time for the new 1” copper water main to be installed. The total distance in-between the city water main and the water meter on the inside of the house was 22’, the onsite crew had the new main installed in a total of 4 hours.
The homeowner was extremely pleased as she received minimal damage to her basement and had a new copper water main installed all before sundown.
