I was amazed to see what kind of damage a fire hydrant could do to a house, when broken. It was like spraying hundreds of garden hoses on the roof of a house and watching the water cascade off like a powerful waterfall. I was simply amazed and still can't believe the damage I witnessed as the fire hydrant covered the entire house with water.
I might be getting a little carried away here but as a building contractor, I have seen the water damage a small leak, over a few years, concentrated on just one single part of the home can have. This fire hydrant broke in between two houses and was approximately 30 feet away from each home and was covering one of them with a blanket of water, while the other one looked like it was raining on the roof.
How can one home receive so much damage and the one next to it, located the same distance receive very little. I won't ever be able to figure that one out.
There was a small car in the driveway and it was getting pummeled by water. There's no way that this car couldn't have been damaged on the inside, with the amount of water that was flowing over it. Now the damage to the home was a different story. It almost looked like a little Barbie house with a fake car in the driveway and someone spraying water directly over the home.
There was no way that anyone could come in and out of the home without getting physically hurt from the large amounts of water that were flying in every direction. Looking back at the water damage I've repaired over the years and watching this fire hydrant terrorized this house and everything in it, makes me a firm believer in the power of water.
The fire hydrant was broken because a car ran into it. Most fire hydrants have a ring that is known as a breakaway ring, just in case someone was to run into it with a vehicle. The ring can be replaced a lot easier than the pipes beneath it, if they were to become damaged. Whoever came up with this design has saved an ungodly amount of money over the years from accidents like this.
Hard to imagine the damage the fire hydrant can do to a home.
Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more home stair building and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.
Stud Spacing And Wall Framing
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