No Water

Micky Dolenz

SonasRec wrote: »

Our weather seems to be getting more severe all the time, Micky. Think we're seeing some real climate change. Couple of weeks ago, i had so much water about the place, I was very close to flooding. Now I'm looking for water.

We're just not prepared. I was in the Austrian alps a few days ago with 1 meter of snow & it makes no difference to them. It closes our country down.

Amen to that, I have German friends who came to visit and laughed at us and our bad preparation for the "winter". They say " there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad choice of clothes". I think they have a point.

Hopefully the weather will break soon and we all have frost free pipes.

items

SonasRec wrote: »

Our weather seems to be getting more severe all the time, Micky. Think we're seeing some real climate change. Couple of weeks ago, i had so much water about the place, I was very close to flooding. Now I'm looking for water.

We're just not prepared. I was in the Austrian alps a few days ago with 1 meter of snow & it makes no difference to them. It closes our country down.

That's pretty much how I see it, the powers that be have been chancing their arm for to long, everyone seeing it now.

Few things you can do to prevent this kind of stuff from happening in future, but some work and costs involved. First is looking at heating, not sure if you've oil or gas, if you have oil, best look into updating boiler frost stat (if you have one) and then water mains. Dropped further into ground with exposed or areas where mains terminates properly protected.

sunnyside

Blonde27 wrote: »

Hi All
Came back to my house after a couple of days. However, I went to have a shower (electric) this evening and no water came out. Does this sound like a problem with the tank freezing or a dodgy shower?

Same problem. There is water from the taps but is that just coming from the attic?. I live in an estate. How would I know if the mains water supply is frozen?

items wrote: »

If your showers off mains water supply maybe its being effected by poor mains supply.

No idea if it is or not

items wrote: »

Turn temp on shower to lowest setting, remove shower head,and drop hose down onto shower tray, try running shower that way, might draw some water into motor and have it running. Give that a try running shower max at 30 sec to a min. You can try it a few times but don't go mad. Turning the temp down will save shower from burning out from no water.
.

Tried this but it didn't work. Don't want to mess with it too much because I could make things worse.

Any ideas? Does this sound like a frozen water problem? I don't want to call a plumber unless I have to.

Micky Dolenz

Is your shower not working?

Make and model? and do you have cold water at Kitchen tap?

sunnyside

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Is your shower not working?

Make and model? and do you have cold water at Kitchen tap?

Shower sounds like it's working, power-on light comes on but there's no water coming out. Mira sport, no numbers written on it. Yes have cold water in kitchen.

Micky Dolenz

Mira Sport is mains fed, if you have mains water at sink, very unlikely to be a forzen pipe within the insulated envelope that is your home.

Have you checked filter?

sunnyside

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Mira Sport is mains fed, if you have mains water at sink, very unlikely to be a forzen pipe within the insulated envelope that is your home.

Have you checked filter?

I'm female and not a DIY enthusiast, I wouldn't have the skills for checking a filter.

How do I know that the kitchen water is coming from the mains and not the tank in the attic?

I was away from the house for 2 weeks, then this happens at the exact same time loads of people don't have water so I was hoping it would sort itself.

Does it sound expensive to fix if I have to call a plumber? Hard to say without looking at it I know.

Micky Dolenz

your kitchen sink is always mains feed.

Your mira is more than likely connected in attic, so if it's not insulated there is a chance it maybe frozen. The mains pipes to the tank may be insulated hence they haven't froze.

If it is an ice block, wait. It will free itself. you may have to use Item'e suggestion to free any air.

sunnyside

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

your kitchen sink is always mains feed.

Your mira is more than likely connected in attic, so if it's not insulated there is a chance it maybe frozen. The mains pipes to the tank may be insulated hence they haven't froze.

If it is an ice block, wait. It will free itself. you may have to use Item'e suggestion to free any air.

Thank you for replying to me:) I live alone and can use the shower at gym tomorrow so it's not urgent. It was working perfectly before I went home for Christmas so hopefully it's caused by ice and I won't have to pay to fix it. I also have a broken microwave, will replace that when the danger of slipping on footpaths while carrying large boxes subsides. Days like today I hate home ownership:(

SonasRec

Hey Items & Micky. Just got water back. Thanks for all your help.

Sunnyside, I feel your pain. Hope you get it sorted soon.

km79

hi i have a seperate thread in the regions section but ye seem to be giving good advice so here goes:) i live in rural galway no water since xmas morning assumed pipes were frozen and would thaw neighbours came back 2/3 days later. i rang council after 4th day they said to leave it another day to thaw. the next day everyones water was switched off for what turned out to be 3 days due to poor pressure/overuse. all came back last night but not ours? we have not even had a trickle now for week and half.so couple of queations for anyone who can help
1 is it possible the pipes are still frozen the stopcock is about a foot down tried hot water to no avail?
2 could the mains pipe be burst underground(i checked attic all semms ok) i do not see any evidence on grass or drive of water surfacing
3 tomorrow morning should i get plumber out or council?
thanks

items

km79 wrote: »

hi i have a seperate thread in the regions section but ye seem to be giving good advice so here goes:) i live in rural galway no water since xmas morning assumed pipes were frozen and would thaw neighbours came back 2/3 days later. i rang council after 4th day they said to leave it another day to thaw. the next day everyones water was switched off for what turned out to be 3 days due to poor pressure/overuse. all came back last night but not ours? we have not even had a trickle now for week and half.so couple of queations for anyone who can help
1 is it possible the pipes are still frozen the stopcock is about a foot down tried hot water to no avail?
2 could the mains pipe be burst underground(i checked attic all semms ok) i do not see any evidence on grass or drive of water surfacing
3 tomorrow morning should i get plumber out or council?
thanks

Sorry to hear about your water, it could be still frozen, each house is piped differently, the pour water over the stopcock idea is one in a million, you could have a frost plug, multiple frost plugs anywhere in mains pipework, areas you'll never be able to get to.

Mains could be burst, I've seen it happen after heavy frost. One tip for finding out if so. Locate outside stopcock, kneel down, place ear right over opening in ground, listen out carefully, if you can hear water passing through stopcock but no water in house, mains is burst. Might not be the case, in most cases, house will still have limited supply, burst main but no supply to house means pipe has completely separated, rare but not unheard of.

You have an emergency situation, no water. I'd ring Co Council first, they have their own plumbing team, so its same idea only no cost, hopefully not. Trouble is will Co Council come out? if so how long?

If you cant hold out, best call plumber, talk to next door, see if plumber can temp pipe up new main to yours from next door.

Don't be surprised if water suddenly comes back on, its been happening a lot lately, different thaw out times for each house.

km79

thanks items went outside cant hear anything flowing had checked the other night too heard nothing . im not sure if connecting to neighbour is a realistic option he not right next door he is kind over and behind me with a small ditch in between?

items

km79 wrote: »

thanks items went outside cant hear anything flowing had checked the other night too heard nothing . im not sure if connecting to neighbour is a realistic option he not right next door he is kind over and behind me with a small ditch in between?

You can pick up a roll of plastic pipe, hydro or simple pex pipe. Hydro rolls come in 50, 100, 150 even 200 mtr rolls, same with pex. If distance is further, all you have to do is join them up, 2 or 3 rolls etc any amount. Cost involved though, depends on how stuck you are.

If I were you, ringing Co Council or whoever water comes from is best. They should come out, re tap into main to provide temp supply, its not a big job no reason why they would refuse.

Have you rang them yet?

km79

if i knew for sure mains was only frozen and not burst and going underground into foundations or something like that then id hang in there for another few days. at this stage its more not knowing thats getting to me. ill be giving them a call in the morning again but the last two people i spoke too were of absolutely no help

items

km79 wrote: »

if i knew for sure mains was only frozen and not burst and going underground into foundations or something like that then id hang in there for another few days. at this stage its more not knowing thats getting to me. ill be giving them a call in the morning again but the last two people i spoke too were of absolutely no help

Seems to be the case overall, which is unfortunate. More unfortunate is not a lot you can do only sit and wait. Not having as much problems here, have noticed a fair few in other close by areas, if I was in one of those areas, after this episode I'd re do my mains, soon as mains came into boundary, I'd cut it, dig deeper into ground and bring in new supply, much deeper than one stated in building reg's from memory its 300mm I'd go 600mm even a meter down. Deeper you go, hotter it gets. Having no water is terrible.

sunnyside

My shower problem appears to be ice. Last night around 11 I turned it on again just to check if it would work and it did, then this morning no water again so it has to be ice. Just updating because someone else reading might have the same problem.

km79

council got back to me said as i am on a group scheme its nothing to do with them they only supply the actual water!!! they did suggest it was probably still frozen pipes ! also suggested getting a plumber to open up the stop cock to see if water was making it that far?

items

km79 wrote: »

council got back to me said as i am on a group scheme its nothing to do with them they only supply the actual water!!! they did suggest it was probably still frozen pipes ! also suggested getting a plumber to open up the stop cock to see if water was making it that far?

Best of luck trying to contact group scheme manager, notorious for being difficult to contact. By all means call a plumber over, once plumber type person is there, few things can be done to improve situation. If possible plumber might be able to disconnect pipe work @ house and @ road, if plumber can tap into live main after valve plumber might be able to set up temp supply or use mains to force plug / plugs out of pipe.

One way is to turn of main supply, disconnect @ house side then go under sink, set up a pressure pump to pressurize line back to open end @ road, should free it up. Depends on how much of stopcock is exposed, enough room to disconnect pipe.

Hope you get sorted out.

km79

water back after 3 weeks:D everything seems fine so far . one quick question the toilet cisterns are refilling as normal after flushing but water level in bowl itself remaining quite low???

Micky Dolenz

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Amen to that, I have German friends who came to visit and laughed at us and our bad preparation for the "winter". They say " there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad choice of clothes". I think they have a point.

Man, Germans laugh at us. I hope you pointed out that we may have had a better infrastructure, roads, a great rail system, if we were hung up on trying to get our troops to the front and take over the world. Twice.

noah45

we have no water for 12 days now and no sign of it . There is a shore thing outside our driveway but we cannot open it, I presume thats where stopcock would be, there are 2 holes on top as though a key or something is needed to open.

Can any help as a lot of people seem to be able to gain access to their outside stopcock.

How do you open the lid?:)

kellsum

I have mira shower and the water just stopped coming out of it. I just bought a new washing machine and had to turn of water in taps downstairs to disconnect old machine but thing is now that my new machine is installed I no longer have water in shower.
I have power and have taken off head and let it run but still nothing.
All stop cocks etc have been put back to normal as I have water in all taps with exception of shower.

Can someone help?