I'll second the don't call the insurance company vote, but add...at this time. First you've got to figure out how extensive the damage is. Once a claim is on the books there's no removing it...even if you never collect. The second thing to remember is that insurers and water claims can get dicey quickly. While water damage is a covered loss in your description, water damage over time is specifically excluded. An example might help...You discover a leaking elbow under your kitchen sink and some minor wood damge to the cabinet bottom. Your insurer will gladly pay for that claim less your deductible. Or you could choose to fix it yourself and leave the insurer out of it (figuring your rates would increase more than you'd ever collect). Same scenario...only this time you ignore the damage, clean up the visible water, place a small bowl under the sink to catch the drips, and decide to deal with it "later". Time passes, leaks generally don't fix themselves, and now not only the cabinet has damage, but your tile floor is starting to pop. The first thing the claims adjuster does is poke around the cabinet bottom looking for black, punky wood. As soon as he finds it, he denies the claim as "damage over time". Right or wrong, the insurer will see the second scenario as some one looking for a new kitchen floor when a $100 plumber visit would have sufficed. I don't mean to allude that you are acting out scenario 2. I'm only trying to illustrate how insurers deal with non-flood water claims.

lazypup's in the ballpark but I think his long discourse on cavitation is more tailored to an extreme version you'd see in a hot water system. Cavitation occurs at a microscopic level. It happens at points in the pump volute and on the impeller where low pressure occurs (the trailing edge of the impeller is the best example). If the suction head required by the pump to operate is greater than what's available due to suction line throttling or friction losses, the low pressure becomes low enough to cause water to vaporize. It's technically "steam" but not like you think b/c it can happen even at room temperature. This can be exacerbated by pumping a hot fluid b/c it has a higher vapor pressure (i.e. it 'boils' easier). Your pump can be sitting there pumping water pretty much normally and still be cavitating. Lazypup's description makes it sound like you suddenly get a pump full of steam, but that's not the case. The bubbles that are formed by cavitation immediately collapse back on themselves and that's what causes the pump's parts to erode, since the bubbles occur at surfaces in the pump. It sounds like you're pumping marbles. Lazypup's description sounds more like a pump that's air binding. For hot water, it can be an extreme version of cavitation. But what he describes sounds more to me like a situation where the pump is depending on the pumped fluid for some of its lubrication/cooling. If the fluid isn't there, then the pump can quickly overheat.

Hey All - Holy cow! Sorry... I'm not usually so dismissive - in fact I'm surprised I "ignored" everyone's comments as it appeared I did (although I did read and appreciate them, honestly - I just must have gotten distracted and either fallen asleep at my laptop which is sadly common (Queen of TMI) or else run off in a hurry! Easy to do with 3 kids underfoot. It probably sounds like I'm just making excuses...). What I failed to mention is that I'm in freak-out mode over here with yes leaking pipes, and this is in fact a coincidence. Our bathroom's above our dining room (well sits above part of the kitchen and part of the dining room) and the beautiful old unpainted wood above the swinging dining room door (leading to kitchen) is dripping onto the floor slowly. It's causing the wood above the door to expand and now the door won't close without rubbing. I'm worried about the beautiful wood and the moisture underneath (don't want rotting). I wouldn't be as concerned if it were painted - though would still be concerned of course. So I've seen 4 plumbers and the most reputable of them have said - after examining closely (we even have a big hole in our bathroom floor from previous owner leaving it that way after a plumbing repair, so that's helped them see more - including the fact that that ring under the toilet is dry) - that it's time to replace it all. There's some question as to whether the drain pipes are necessary and a lot of testing has been done by them to evaluate what's going on. But because our tub and sink drain so terribly anyway and things look shoddy (lots of evidence of past repairs), we've been advised to put new stuff in. They can also start with the supply lines and see what they see when the get up in the walls to do that and possibly just do that. What's funny is that I asked him to do your flushing thing Bus Driver and he went up there to do a few things including that - and I heard the toilet flush even - but now I can't remember what he said (blush)! I get way spacey when I feel overwhelmed... I apologize for acting so ungrateful and inconsiderate. Damn. The cost of plumbing alone (various bids and options depending on what we want to do) isn't as bad as I thought it was - not that it's going to be easy - but the demo and patching is where I have no idea what to expect price-wise (am waiting to hear back from people - just left messages). And if we rip out our lovely old floors :( it'll cost a fortune. Hoping to just find close-enough matching hexagonal tile and patch in...but I digress. Ha - great - meanwhile a lil' sprog has just come down from bed so I'm signing off YET AGAIN to get him down but will come back later. Thanks. and sorry again for my rudeness.

As a mostly lurker, one-time poster, I also have a question regarding this sound-proofing issue: Is it worth ripping up the poly sheet and incurring the displeasure of my contractor in order to wrap a pvc waste-stack drain that's located in an exterior wall in the breakfast area? The installation sub had said he would wrap the accessible waste drains, but when I visited the site after being informed that the insulation installation was complete, I saw that none of the pvc waste drains had been wrapped. While I can still get to the pvc pipes in the ceiling to wrap them with carpet padding (got the idea from a previous poster), the waste stack is already under stapled-down poly. The stack is located in the center of the stud cavity, with R-21 fiberglass butting up against each side of the drain, but the drain itself is bare. The drain services two 2nd-floor bathrooms. Are the sound-reducing benefits of wrapping this drain in inexpensive carpet padding worth it? Thank you.