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Ok… basic background to our issue: My husband and I bought our first house last month. It is a townhouse. There is a monthly HOA fee that is supposed to cover water, sweage, trash removal, snow removal, and exterior maintenance (roof, siding, plumbing, etc.).

Ok, today, my husband and I were both gone by 9:45am. I got home at 1:45pm and went to wash my hands at the kitchen sink and lo and behold, no water came out. I thought they had unjustly cut off our water or something at first. I went to both bathrooms and tried turning on the sinks. Finally, the water came on, but it was full of air so it was spitting. I left all 3 faucets running to get the air out of the lines. When I went to turn them off about 5 minutes later, the water as BROWN. It looked like watered down soda. The only HOA contact whose number I had handy is the HOA secretary. I called and she informed me that she needed to replace a shut off valve in one of the houses that she rents out and took it upon herself to cut off the water to the ENTIRE neighborhood without calling anyone, passing out flyers, sending e-mails, or notifying anyone in any way. She said to keep running the water and said it would eventually clear out. So I ran the water for over an hour and it was still muddy. Two and a half hours later, the plumber who had shut the water off earlier today, came by my house. He went to see if the neighbors were having problems. He came back and said we’re the only ones with brown water. It was coming out brown on both hot and cold water. Well, it has now been running for SEVEN hours, and it’s still brown! We checked with other people on our street and they’re all having similar issues and getting the run around from the HOA lady.

My father in law told us to hook up a clean garden hose to the hot water tank and drain it out into our yard. We did and now it’s mostly clear, but it is slightly tinged with yellow color and little specks of sediment.

What else can we do to get our water clean???? We can’t take showers, brush our teeth, or even get a drink of clean water. =(

I just bought a used top freezer fridge and it is in my garage. I don’t have a water supply in the garage or any plumbing to hook it up to. The fridge is running and trying to get cold.

I put some water in the freezer and it froze. So I am building up an ice supply in the freezer. But the fridge portion is not getting gold at all.

Do I keep putting more ice into the freezer up top hoping it will get cold in the bottom portion (fridge) or do I need a water supply? if I need a water supply, how can I get it one without having to call a plumber and install all this stuff?

Is there something you can hook up to your garden hose or something like an adapter for it to work?

I received a letter from the water company alerting me that my water consumption has gone up 300% since the last reading and my bill is 0.00. My water bill is usually under .00. I checked all the toilets for leaks and that is not a problem. I have no water draining in my house and the faucets outside are all off. My neighbor put in a shed last fall and drove over the sprinkle system. In the spring, I had a sprinkle company come out and check the system when I turned it on this spring and he said it was all OK. So, the large bill came when the sprinkle system went on. It usually is a bit higher but not 0.00. (lived here 15 years). No neighbor hood pools that were filled with my garden hose. I have turned off the sprinkle system and am afraid to turn it back on. Help, what should I do and where could this leak be? I do have a water softener…..any suggestions?
I have really nice neighbors and live in a good neighborhood. I don’t think anyone is stealing. I do have an area in the lawn that is soggy and not drying up like the rest of the lawn.
I did the dye test in the toilets: instilled a few gtts of food color in the tanks and non of it seeped into the toilets after 1 or 2 hours. So, toilets are all OK. I will call a plumber out! thanks for all these suggestions! I was clue-less as to the next steps to take.

My sewer line clogs every 2-3 weeks. The clog is about 8 feet from the cleanout and I can clear the clog by running my garden hose to the clog and blasting it free. It’s always at the same spot and can’t be very deep. I suspect there is a coupling at the site since there is 3" pipe coming from the house. It may transition to 4" at the point of the clog. I have also had it rotorooted and there are some roots at the site. The tree was removed 6 months ago and the stump ground so I’m hoping the root problem will stop soon. Would it be reasonable to dig up the site myself and then have a plumber make the repair? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Getting real old going out and clearing the pipe, usually first thing in the morning but hate to have the entire sewer line replaced when the problem seems to be so localized. House about 30 years old.

Next to my kitchen countertops is a light switch with three switches. I just noticed water slowly dripping down the wall from the switch. It is hardly noticeable on the white wall until I look at the ground and saw a puddle about a foot in diameter. I now have a towel their to aborbs the puddles. I opened the switch and saw water in there. The sink and dishwasher is 3 feet to the right of the switch and their is garden hose attachment directly outside (it is turned off). What would cause water to drip through my wall and out of my lightswitch? Do I need to call a plumber?

I threw noodle soup yesterday in the toilet. Believe me, I now know just how stupid that was. It got clogged right away when my roommate went to use the bathroom. Anyway, we got some of the stuff out, but not enough. The water trickles down, 5 bottles of Drano later, so there is no sitting water in the toilet, but it still does not work. Any suggestions as to what I can do? I live in an apartment, so I don’t have a garden hose or anything like that.
Oh, yeah, my landlord is also very cheap, so I dread going to him for anything.
yeah, i’ve been trying to use the plunger. doesn’t work. i gave in and called a plumber.

I have experience with sinks, installing, cleaning out traps, etc… but I’m not sure about this. for over a year, our kitchen sink sporatically drains slowly, sometimes drains fine, sometimes very slow. now a 2nd floor bathroom sink is suddenly draining very slowly all the time. I took apart the traps and inspected them, no clogs in the trap or anywhere from drain to trap, so the problem must be after the trap, when removing the 2nd floor sink trap, the sewage smell was overwhelming. I’ve also tried forcing water down the drain after the trap using a garden hose (a trick I learned from a plumber) and drano and snaking with a hand powered snake, no help. Also we have one particular toilet that tends to flush (drain) slowly and sometimes gets clogged, if it’s any help. We have other toilets and sinks that drain perfectly fine. I’m not sure if this is an air lock/pressure thing but I’m looking for any advice to try before resorting to calling a plumber. Thank

Went outside to the outside plumbing fixure cause the toilet and bathtub were clogged, all the water from the laundry,toilet, etc went into the bathtub so I snaked it with a long garden hose and it worked cleared it out, however now the plumbing cracked just outside the house to where it tee’s up out the ground, i dug around it so the plumber can fix it tomorrow, but do you think it could have cracked awhile back and i not even know it or me snaking it caused a build up of pressure and it cracked? thanks
If the crack was already there for awhile until I noticed it, would I have noticed it earlier? the smell of sewage? flooded area? Or could it all have gone under the house?

We just had our expansion tank replaced, then the plumber thought it was the temp and he turned it down so now we have cold showers and a wet basement to boot! The pressure keeps going up, and we get a spurt which almost always blows the hose off (we have attached a garden hose to keep the water from getting all over the floor).. and the rest of the time it’s a slow trickle. We have had the plumber out a bunch of times, but the problem starts right back up again. He did bleed the expansion tank which helped for a day or two, if that…. the pressure relief valve was replaced not that long ago. It always builds up to above 30psi.. can anybody help me?