leak from con-edison manhole
Early this am I discovered water leaking from the front of my cellar pouring down thru the electric main also located in the front of the house. I checked outside in the front of the building and there was no melting snow but out in the street located directly in front of my house there was rain and melting snow pouring down thru the open con-edison grate. I called con-edison but they do not seem concerned because I have electric power. My concern is two fold 1) how dangerous is this immediately and 2) how potentially destructive is this to electric main inside. Many years ago I and some of the surrounding houses lost power because of salt and water damage to the lines. Must I wait until I lose power and then get more immediate attention or should I call an electrician? Thanks for your help.
bergenbabe
in Co-Op Related 12 years and 2 months ago
5
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5 replies
BenGazi | 12 years and 2 months ago
call con ed legal.. they wiil come running
northbrooklyn | 12 years and 2 months ago
Same exact problem. Exactly. Called Con Ed and they are going to send someone, eventually. In the meantime, we were able to rig a shovel handle to catch the dripping watter out past the meters and into a bucket. The Con Ed lock thing on the box prevents us from seeing what’s going on inside the box, but it is apsolutely — for us — runnoff issues, as two days later, it’s starting to slow.
kls | 12 years and 2 months ago
I posted earlier today about the same problem… Con Edison has been responsive (they resealed the box on the street last year)’ but sadly this last “fix” didn’t do the job and we’re leaking again. The guy who came suggested it could be coming from another house that has a leak or possibly the street, it was hard to tell. I am going to call 311 per bklynbound’s advice.
tonyjl | 12 years and 2 months ago
This is a different situation from what I recently experienced, but may have ramifications for you. A day after Hurricane Sandy flooded my basement, I noticed a leak outside my front basement door. It was bubbling from the corner where the retaining wall to my lower area met the building next door. Over the course of several months, it grew until about one month ago, the water started coming into my basement thru the foundation, which threatened all the rehab work being done to restore the damage to my finished basement. After several calls to the DEP where they came out and tested with sound and dye, they declared it was gorind water and I would have to deal with it. I pressed the matter and filed a formal complaint thru 311\. That forced the DEP to dig up the street to see if it was in fact a leak from one of the water lines. While it wasn’t in front of my house, they discovered a leak coming from 3 house away. They notified the owner that he had 2 days to fix the leak and lo and behold, once that leak was fixed, my water issue disappeared! After 3 months of rangling back n forth and almost having a water mitigation company dig up my basement and add $10K worth of french drains, my problem has been solved. Call up 311, explain your situation and file a formal complaint. They should be able to forward it to the proper office. The squeaky wheel gets the grease!
elbow | 12 years and 2 months ago
Before we took ownership of our commercial condo in Sohothe main supply had been leaking for years – the copper patina was museum quality and there had also been a minor fire. Well we had a bear of a time with getting Con Ed to take responsibility. They kept saying there was a natural stream in the location, in spite of us presenting them with historic water maps showing no such stream (in fact there was a relatively dry subway tunnel in the street at a level lower than the elevation of our floor). Based on our observation of the duration of leaks, we said that the street vault must be collecting water, which it was. It took over 3 years, but finally they waterproofed their street vault. We were in a contentious relationship with our condo board so we couldn’t engage in self help, but you might want to get someone to do a hydraulic cement application where water is coming in.