How many know how to turn off the water supply?

[b5blue]

 Poor Texans showing water flowing out of walls and ceilings last week. I can see not understanding how to prep for a deep freeze by keeping water running but not knowing to cut the water off at the the main?    I taught my 3 children things like that wile they were still pretty young. I lived through a nasty freeze there in 1976 and coming from Florida was still adjusting to roads used for drainage. When all this snow melts I expect some flooding as the water has no where to drain except roads. 

[RallyeMike]

There are a ton of people who are incapable of simple things like that..... probably much more than 20-30 years ago for sure. Of course, many of the same people are aghast at my ability to operate my iPhone efficiently.

[will]

My wifes' friend asked how to shorten the strings on venetian blinds. They are among us.
You should know where two things are in your house, the breaker panel and the water shutoff. I don't know how deep they run the water lines in the street, maybe they will rethink about burying this stuff below the frost line. 4' never had an issue. Then again, water mains break in new york city every winter.

[Nacho-RT74]

This kind of problems floats on areas where this is unusual to happen, so ppl is not used for this situation. We got similar issues in Spain 1 month ago and even Spain gets snow, most of them is on mountains, small towns but not on big cities.

[c00nhunterjoe]

I have grown men come in that dont know how to put air in their tires so a water main in the house is not surprising.

[Hammer759]

 You would like to think that most people would know how and where to turn off the main power, the water and the gas line if you have to.   People should be able to do this regardless of weather issues .      

[Mike DC]

   

I have grown men come in that dont know how to put air in their tires so a water main in the house is not surprising.

Damn.  That's impressive.  They own a car and they don't know how to use an air hose? 

Didn't they ever have a bicycle as a kid?  Or a football or basketball? 

[LaOtto70Charger]

Parents always did it for them?  Big city in club sports and only ever touched the ball at practice?  Imagine how many have never touched a tape measure. Or a hand saw.  I was surprised to hear fellow Midwesterners say will their pipes aren't insulated like ours.  I can find all kinds of exposed pipes in the basement that would freeze real quick if we lost heat for a couple days.

[tan top]

I have grown men come in that dont know how to put air in their tires so a water main in the house is not surprising.

yes true ! ive even wives / girl friends  on the side of the road changing a flat tire while their  BF / husbads  are playing on their phone , with traffic / trucks  wizzing past at 60 plus..
there are a lot of people out there who dont know basic real world stuff , think even worse with a certain generation !  

kind of the  same as me i dont really know  alot !  much ! about the latest computer stuff or even everything about the old computer stuff  ,  like certain younger  generations do

[XH29N0G]

For those of us who don't naturally know, it is basically a situation where experience matters.  

I did not know where the main water shut off was (by the street) until my neighbor (a plumber) told me 'it should be here' and started sticking a big rod into the ground around some bushes in the front yard.  I now know where that is.  (I knew where the shutoff was inside the house, but that had corroded so it was locked open in the 60 years since the house had been built, AND that needing replacing is why my neighbor was poking around.)

With cars, things change with time.  I've taught kids other than my own (in their 20's) how to change tires. They hadn't done it and never had to learn because they had learned to drop the car off at the service station.  The reason they asked me was because they thought it couldn't be that difficult, but wanted to know. That is a good sign by me.

I don't think it is new.  My dad said his father wasn't mechanical.  I know my dad is more mechanical than I am.  I also know my son is more mechanical than I am.  But I take things apart anyway.  Sometimes they work when I put them back together.  Many times, not.  

But I always say that I'm old enough to see the bigger picture.  And wise enough to give my son the impression that I am doing it so he can learn.  

Unfortunatly, he is smart enough to know that impressions aren't always the way things are.

[oldgold69]

 People are good  at  a certain things. They have their comfort zone and don't stray to far from it. my grandson who is 4 can work an i phone  better than me. People are afraid to try to fix stuff. They always hire someone to fix everything. My dad always said, try and fix it yourself. If you screw it up you will have to pay someone to fix it.  When we start on a new house, We are on an empty lot and we look at the lot and see the house at grade after it's backfilled. We dig the hole and the masons run up the walls. Then the homeowners come and see the walls sticking out of the ground. then they'll say we screwed up the grade. Backfill it with the spoils then looks right . People are just helpless now a days.

[69hemibeep]

Part of the problem is building codes. Down in the sun belt the main entrance line comes out of the ground outside the house so there is about 2ft of exposed pipe outside and they don't use frostless hose bibs either, so even with heat on in the house you can loose pipes in a hard freeze. We seldom get into the twenties but when we do I cover the exterior pipes with blankets to help the house warm them, it doesn't take much.

[4cruzin]

Back in the day, it was more difficult to fix things but now  . .  there is GOOGLE!  Just about everything is online!  I have tore apart just about every appliance in my house so far.  If it breaks, I google it and most times, there is a video to show me how to fix it.  I can certainly do it with someone showing me how!  So far I have tore apart the washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher, the pool heater, the water heater and the furnace.  No excuses anymore with the internet!  

[odcics2]

 So far I have tore apart the washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher, the pool heater, the water heater and the furnace.    

Ah... But did you reassemble them in working order? 

[4cruzin]

 So far I have tore apart the washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher, the pool heater, the water heater and the furnace.    

Ah... But did you reassemble them in working order? 

Actually yes all but the dishwasher . . it worked but the cost of the pump that was leaking and the age of the unit made me go towards replacing it instead of buying the new parts and repairing. 

[Old Moparz]

Back in the day, it was more difficult to fix things but now  . .  there is GOOGLE!  Just about everything is online!  I have tore apart just about every appliance in my house so far.  If it breaks, I google it and most times, there is a video to show me how to fix it.  I can certainly do it with someone showing me how!  So far I have tore apart the washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher, the pool heater, the water heater and the furnace.  No excuses anymore with the internet!  

So true. Google & Youtube have been a huge help with so many things, including changing headlight assemblies on a newer car. My son has a 2009 Suzuki SX4 that had yellowed, faded, headlights that I've been wanting to change. When I started to remove the old ones I hit a roadblock not being able to see, or reach the fasteners. What I thought was maybe a one hour project became several hours & forced me to drag out the droplight to crawl underneath the car.

Had to remove so many things like the grille, bumper cover, fender mouldings & more. It looked like the car had been in an accident. 

[RiverRaider]

Poor Texans showing water flowing out of walls and ceilings last week. I can see not understanding how to prep for a deep freeze by keeping water running but not knowing to cut the water off at the the main?    I taught my 3 children things like that wile they were still pretty young. I lived through a nasty freeze there in 1976 and coming from Florida was still adjusting to roads used for drainage. When all this snow melts I expect some flooding as the water has no where to drain except roads. 

Even if they knew where to shut off the city feed and did, most people are not set up to blow down the system and with no heat in the home the pipes and water heater would have still froze.  But at least the water would have stopped if they knew where the shut off was located.  Many people could not tell you for sure where the electrical disconnect is located either.