My attempt to fix a squeaky floor turned into a weird science project

I was sure the squeak in my bedroom floor was from a loose board, so I grabbed my drill and a box of 2-inch screws. I drilled about fifteen of them in, following a tip I saw online. The squeak got louder, and then my wife yelled from the kitchen that water was dripping from the ceiling light. Turns out, I nailed right into a copper hot water line. The plumber's bill was $350, and he said, 'You hit the one pipe in the whole wall.' Has anyone else had a simple fix go this wrong, and how do you find pipes before you drill?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.abby2d ago

Hold up, you drilled FIFTEEN screws into the floor before you stopped? I got nervous just reading that. I can picture the panic setting in with each new squeak, and then the slow horror of seeing water drip from a light fixture. That plumber's comment is the perfect, painful punchline.

elliot_patel2d ago

Modern life is just guessing where the pipes are.

ryantorres2d ago

Oh man, that's rough! I bought a cheap stud finder that also checks for wires and pipes. It beeps like crazy over anything metal or live, saved me from a similar disaster last year.