Water pipes - water frozen

ThomasH

The pipe that is supplying our water into our house from the main road, there is one part that is not buried but lying (sp) on top of the ground due to another issue.

Got home earlier and there is no water in the house. I suspect it's because this part of the pipe is so cold due to the exposer of the cold that the water is frozen.

Any ideas what I can use to rap around the pipes to protect from the cold. I am not in a position right now to bury the pipe.

Thanks for the help.

sunnysoutheast

We had the same problem as the services hole is open in the vain hope that Eircom might turn up one day.

We covered the pipe (22mm rubber) in pipe lagging - you can get this in Woodies/Homebase/Providers in 15mm and 22mm sizes, make sure you get the stuff with the precut groove. We fixed it with duck tape, you should also wrap copper valves etc. - may need to use two sections overlapping for these.

Make sure you wait for the ice to melt before you lag the pipes........:)

SSE

peasant

If you're not metered and don't mind wasting water you could also keep a tap running slightly (obviously choose one that doesn't flood anything).

It needs to be very cold for running water to freeze.

(Had to do that some nights when I had my own well and pump, where the previous owner had left about 1 ft of pipe exposed ...just kept the bath tap on a strong dribble/very thin flow, that did the trick)

Another thing to do is shelter the pipe from cold winds, they freeze quicker when exposed.

northdublin

pipes in my area freeze even though there underground....but only by a few inches. a neighbour told me he used to heat the concrete path with a blow torch to unfreeze the pipes underneath and ive seen another neighbour pouring boiling water into certain areas of his garden acheive the same result.

10-10-20

Even if the pipe is getting damp/wet, it will increase the wind chill-factor, so make sure that you cover it after insulating it!

Sonnenblumen

peasant wrote: »

If you're not metered and don't mind wasting water you could also keep a tap running slightly (obviously choose one that doesn't flood anything).

It needs to be very cold for running water to freeze.

(Had to do that some nights when I had my own well and pump, where the previous owner had left about 1 ft of pipe exposed ...just kept the bath tap on a strong dribble/very thin flow, that did the trick)

Oh what brilliance and tell us, do you have a similar gem of advice for gas pipes?:(

peasant

peasant wrote: »

If you're not metered and don't mind wasting water you could also keep a tap running slightly (obviously choose one that doesn't flood anything).

It needs to be very cold for running water to freeze.

(Had to do that some nights when I had my own well and pump, where the previous owner had left about 1 ft of pipe exposed ...just kept the bath tap on a strong dribble/very thin flow, that did the trick)

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Oh what brilliance and tell us, do you have a similar gem of advice for gas pipes?:(

As a temporary measure while the pipes exposed, that's not bad advice.
Sometimes needs must - even when it's far from ideal.

As for gas pipes - I find that a match is good for finding leaks :rolleyes:

10-10-20

Closing all the doors in the house for a couple of hours and then walking room to room with a candle is usually a good method of isolating from which room the gas leak originates...