Annelies wrote:Now this isn't a real MacGyver story, just a stupid funny story, but in the old forum we had some really cool MacGyver solutions/stories, so while I was busy I thought, hey why not make it a topic again....
I think I told this story on the old thread in the old forum, but I'll repeat it here to christen the new thread.
A few years ago, a new roof was put on my condo building, but they must have left an opening. I live on the upper floor, and one night there was a very heavy, windy rainstorm. Suddenly, rain started pouring into my apartment, into the utility closet that holds my furnace and hot water heater. The closet has a small drain in the floor to help prevent a flood in case the water heater leaks, but the rainwater was pouring in all over the gas furnace and water heater and could have put out the flames before it reached the drain. It was late at night on a holiday (of course) - I think it was nearly midnight on New Year's Eve - so there was no way to get help. I had to think of something.
I took several plastic garbage bags, cut off the bottoms, and duct-taped them together to form a long plastic "tube." I needed to hold the one end open, so I took a wire coat hanger and bent it out to make a circle, and I taped the opening of the tube to the hanger. Then I taped the hanger to the water heater so that it would hold the opening wide enough to capture all the flowing water. Then I gently guided the plastic tube around the water heater to the front, to the drain, so that all the collected rain water would flow harmlessly down the tube and into the drain.
It wasn't pretty, but it worked, and I was able to prevent a flood until the roofers could come back after the holiday and repair the leak in the roof.
When the roofer finally came, I explained how I had to MacGyver the solution in an emergency, and he said, "MacGyver - I loved that show!"
Kate