Post here if your boiler has failed or your pipes have frozen!

force eleven

Still no water here. On a group scheme, some people out , others okay. Although the snow has melted, the ground is still quite hard, so I reckon it is going to take some time at this temperature (3c) to warm the ground sufficiently. Pain in the proverbial, how reliant a modern house is on water. No washing, no bathing, no showering, no flushing, no dishwasher, no washing machine etc etc. Just hoping there are no complications once the pipes thaw, at least I have mains valve located inside and ready to turn off if necessary.....

mad DIY

Dublin Corporation say water outages in the south of the city are because they have turned the water pressure down because of leaks and bursts, resulting areas that usually have low pressure not getting any water at all. They have no idea how long the water outages will last but there will be announcement in the next hour or so regarding sending water tankers to affected areas, so they advise to watch their website or the news for more info.

Sponge Bob

force eleven wrote: »

at least I have mains valve located inside and ready to turn off if necessary.....

I would turn them off if the house were empty all day or at night, you can turn them on when around and check lengths of pipe systematically.

dillydaydreams

Does anyone know how long it takes during a thaw for the pipes to thaw out ??? i have been told by the council that is what i have to wait for . all pipe work inside ok it is frozen outside .:mad: 3 children and no water :eek: exhausting

force eleven

dillydaydreams wrote: »

Does anyone know how long it takes during a thaw for the pipes to thaw out ??? i have been told by the council that is what i have to wait for . all pipe work inside ok it is frozen outside .:mad: 3 children and no water :eek: exhausting

I can only sympathise. We have just in the last hour got our water back, I was checking the cold tap in the kitchen and got a little trickle out, which was encouraging, and gradually we got full pressure back and the attci tank began to fill. Having checked out the pipes that I could see at least, everything seems fine. Now, we got frozen on Friday night, Saturday morning, so we are much luckier than most. It shouldn't take too long, but I don't know if your local authority has cut supply or not - if you can find that out, you can deduce if your pipes are still frozen. Hopefully, its only a matter of time for you.

Oliverdog

Same here - temperature is now 42F but no sign of a drip of water yet. It all depends on the temperature of the ground, this can take a long time to thaw even if the air temperature is quite high. I've heard ground here is frozen to over 300mm (12") - not that it affects our frozen supply, which is still solid though not buried at all !
It must be impossible with three little ones - there are only us two but it's still very difficult. Hope you'll be clear soon.

ellieh1

I am still waiting for my mains water to return too. Pipes are frozen since thursday and there is no sign of even a dribble from the tap yet. Am hoping it will come back really soon

bennyc

Forzen mains pipe and then turned on oil after two weeks to find pump had split from ice.

I got the water back by putting a gas heater (the old type that the bottle sits into. super sur?) on the pavement over the cut off valve and using sheets of metal to funnell and direct the heat onto the footpath where the pipe runs. It took about 6 hours and had to move about 5 foot back from the valve to fully get water back.

Bloody pump cost 240 euro but bro in law fitted for me to save on both the electrician and plumber

dillydaydreams

I am at present attempting to unfreeze the stopcock outside with more hot water .we are in the midlands and have been under snow and ice since the 20th of december .we lost supply for five 5days which started on christmas eve and then they eventually fixed a major burst on the 29th now here i am again almost 1 week of no water . i only now realise how much i actually depend on it .3 kids 3 cats 1 dog and to top it all off i am 7 months pregnant and no one in the country who can help !!!!! hopefully normality will reign soon ...Roll on Summer

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=103576889644122032492.00047ce5de0b0ac35f7d0

^^^
Map of areas without water - add your own!

d'Oracle

Cherrycola wrote: »

Seems the older houses with lack of attic insulation have definitely faired better where freezing pipes are concerned.
At least we all know what to do next time, leave those attic doors open!

Good lord, What?

No.
Rather than waiting for another freeze and then reacting by wasting copious amounts of fuel/freezing yourself, Insulate the pipes and tank in your attic.
Its actually quite cheap, easy and teh stuff can be picked up in Woodies.

Beware of air locks!


I've just restored the water supply in My SIL's house, it raised an issue that hasn't been mentioned here.
Over the weekend, another neighbour thawed out the stopcock and the frozen pipe leading into the house, this restored the incoming mains. The cold water (hot was OK) to the bathroom still didn't work, it was assumed that the pipe to there was still frozen, so just waited for it to thaw.

This morning it still hadn't come through, so I had a look, the tank in the attic was full all the pipes up there were clear the attic hatch had been off for a couple of days so th aattic was warm.

What I did was to turn on both the hot and cold (mixer tap) taps on the wash basin and put my hand over the end of the tap, this forced the hot water back up the cold water pipe, clearing an air lock that had occurred.

All is now OK.

G-Money

The local Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council have started rationing water but I came home and checked about half an hour ago and my water was still on, even though it was due to be off until 5pm. From reading their notices my area is one on the list where the water is due to be off.

Is it possible the water is just stored somewhere in my apartment? I only turned the cold tap on in the kitchen for a few seconds to see if it was running then turned it off again. I live in quite a new apartment complex (about 3-4 years old) so I don't know if that affects things.

When they say they are turning the water off. Does that mean there will be no water coming out of either tap?

Turning on or off the mains water, isn't going to to suddenly stop or start the flow where you are because the system has a lot of water in it, pressure will just slowly drop until no water comes out the tap - same when supply is restored, it could be some time after the switch is thrown before the tap starts flowing again.

G-Money

I see, I guess that makes sense, thanks.

I wonder how long these restrictions will be in place. I'm going to cut back on my water consumption anyway I think.

mike65

Waters back after 3 days w00t!

G-Money

My local county council is due to turn the water off in 30 mins. Does that mean I shouldn't put my central heating on? It's gas underfloor heating but I assume it's water that gets pumped into it to warm the place up.

force eleven

mike65 wrote: »

Waters back after 3 days w00t!

Yeah , its great to be able to have a hot shower, and flush the toilet! Amazing how we take those simple things for granted when they are gone....

Irish Steve

Your heating should be OK, it uses water to transfer the heat around the place, but unless you have a leak of some sort, it's unlikely to be using fresh water as such, the water in the heating coils will be retained in the system, and only topped up from the mains unless you do maintenance or there's a leak.

If the boiler is oil or gas fired, there is a thermostat that will cut the boiler out if it gets too warm, so all in all, you should have no problems keeping the system going.

Steve

G-Money

Nice one, cheers.

CrazyRabbit

Never underestimate the usefulness of a wallpaper steamer. Connected it by hose to my mains water pipe and 2 mins later....no more ice blockage.

Woot!!

EDIT:
Forgot to point out that this is potentially dangerous due to steam being forced into a fairly closed system under pressure. Wear gloves/eye protection and leave a gap for some the steam to escape.

ellieh1

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Never underestimate the usefulness of a wallpaper steamer. Connected it by hose to my mains water pipe and 2 mins later....no more ice blockage.

Woot!!

How did you manage that? I have frozen mains and a wallpaper steamer

Lynfo

Hi all, we've been without water since Saturday night (Killucan Westmeath). Neighbours have water so have been able to run a hose from their outside tap to our attic to get us through a few days. I finally located our stopcock today after shovelling inches of ice and poured about 4 kettles worth of hot water down there. Nothing has happened yet, I'm assuming the council have switched off the water again - they've been doing this every night since xmas. Nightmare situation with a 7 month old in the house.

Anyway, hoping for something to happen over the next few days with the thaw, but for future reference, does anybody know if I can insulate the stopcock to prevent this happening again?

minnieq

No water for 3 days, have 3 small kids ages 3,2,1... We have heat and getting drums of water of the MIL..
I'd give my right arm for a shower...

BostonB

Lynfo wrote: »

Hi all, we've been without water since Saturday night (Killucan Westmeath). Neighbours have water so have been able to run a hose from their outside tap to our attic to get us through a few days. I finally located our stopcock today after shovelling inches of ice and poured about 4 kettles worth of hot water down there. Nothing has happened yet, I'm assuming the council have switched off the water again - they've been doing this every night since xmas. Nightmare situation with a 7 month old in the house.

Anyway, hoping for something to happen over the next few days with the thaw, but for future reference, does anybody know if I can insulate the stopcock to prevent this happening again?

If you connect their outside tap, to your own, (if you have one) you won't need to run it to the attic. The ballcock in the tank will cut it off when the tank is full.

Interesting question. Because cold that intense is very unusual, the depth of the water stopcocks and mains to the house and their insulation (I'm guessing) wasn't done with that kinda cold in mind. Assuming that they've all done to the correct standard which expect they haven't. But I wonder will this change the depth and insulation that is required.

Or is this just so unusual that theres no need?

BostonB

BostonB wrote: »

Interesting question. Because cold that intense is very unusual, the depth of the water stopcocks and mains to the house and their insulation (I'm guessing) wasn't done with that kinda cold in mind. Assuming that they've all done to the correct standard which expect they haven't. But I wonder will this change the depth and insulation that is required.

Or is this just so unusual that theres no need?

I think you'll find that those that froze weren't! When I built my place, I met or exceeded the standards and had no freezing problems. But several neighbours did.

Sponge Bob

the standard is 450mm down, if any less then contact Homebond and the county council planning enforcement section who can call in a developer bond to do the job properly if need be.

BostonB

Sponge Bob wrote: »

the standard is 450mm down, if any less then contact Homebond and the county council planning enforcement section who can call in a developer bond to do the job properly if need be.

How is this a Homebond issue? (structural defect)

Sponge Bob

It must enter the house no higher than 450mm below ground level, if it does then Homebond must remedy. Generally if they cock up outside they cock that up too.

iirc Homebond is only valid for the first ten years for subscribers (did the builder pay the insurance).

As for everyone else, don't know....