Cold water upstairs, none downstairs.

matc66

Hi,
overnight something has happened and we have little/no coldwater downstairs but normal pressure upstairs.

Presumably pipes have frozen somewhere.

Any advice on what can be done.

Thanks alot.

DustyBin

When you say that you have no water downstairs I presume you mean the Kitchen?
If this is the case then you likely have ice in the pipes coming into the house
If you have your own well then I reckon you should have a look and see if there is anywhere outside the house that the pipe from the well is exposed above ground - if so there will be ice at this spot
Also, some people have a pump and / or filter in their shed - if this is the case with you I'd say you've ice there too
Basically have a look around outside and see if you have any piping exposed - I'm going out to stick a little electric rad in my shed to get things going again for me today

You should also have a look at this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055790136

matc66

Thanks for the reply.
I live in Dublin 7 so water is from mains supply. I seem to have hot water in abundance and as I said cold water upstairs.
We previously had a plumber in for something else and he turned the cold water off in the attic. So I presume our supply starts in the attic.
I'm worried that the hot water supply and cold water upstairs is from a tank and that will run out soon.

eoghan.geraghty

I am guessing your hot water is fine downstairs?
If so I am thinking your mains water pipe coming into the house is partially frozen.
Are you in cabra?
The standard set up is that you and your next door neighbour whose front door is adjacent yours, share a water main which is split between you near the front doors.
Knock in and ask how their mains water is.
If theirs is fine then it's just where it splits to your house.

If you clear the pavement right outside the party wall between you and your neighbour you should see the cast iron lid with uisce on it, this is your shared outlet.
Run a line from this perpendicular from this to the houses and this is the route it takes in, but about 2 feet away from the house it tees into either yours or your neighbours garden and then continues straight in again.

Does this make sense to you?

If so, start clearing the snow and ice from this line to allow the earth temp to rise slightly.

Meanwhile you could be filling the kettle with your very low mains water pressure, boil the water and pour it over your recently cleared line to help further raise ground temp around the incoming water mains.

All this might help raise temp in your partially frozen pipe.

matc66

I rang Dublin city council and got an unhelpful recorded message saying wait until warmer weather. But I waited and spoke to a helpful guy who suggested find the stopcock that is under the metal thing marked "uisce", apparently there is one between every two houses, and pour boiling water over it. Which I duly did and now the water is back. Hey presto.
Thanks for the help.

Note the reply above, that is exactly what I did. There is a fountain of knowledge on boards. Thanks.

DublinWriter

We now have the opposite problem!

Cold drinking water OK downstairs, no hot or cold upstairs and toilet cisterns aren't refilling.

They were working ok for a few minutes this morning - I'm presuming the tank upstairs was full, but it can't refill now.

I'm presuming the pipes in our attic have frozen?

I've opened the attic door to let heat up just in case.

Lex Luthor

DublinWriter wrote: »

We now have the opposite problem!

Cold drinking water OK downstairs, no hot or cold upstairs and toilet cisterns aren't refilling.

They were working ok for a few minutes this morning - I'm presuming the tank upstairs was full, but it can't refill now.

I'm presuming the pipes in our attic have frozen?

I've opened the attic door to let heat up just in case.

DublinWriter, I found the same problem yesterday. My tank was empty when I went to look in the attic and it seems the cold water supply line to my attic tank is frozen somewhere also. I got a long section of garden hose last night and filled my tank from the kitchen sink tap. I'm back in action now and will just keep topping up the tank every few days using this method.

Leave the tap in the kitchen on a slight trickle 24/7 for the time being so this should help keep this line from freezing.

Once your cold tank in the attic fills up, your taps (hot & cold) will start to flow again.

I keep a bucket of water upstairs at all times now to fill the toilet cisterns after flushing so its not taking any water from the tank from each flush and cut down on the amount of flushes.

DublinWriter

Lex Luthor wrote: »

DublinWriter, I found the same problem yesterday. My tank was empty when I went to look in the attic and it seems the cold water supply line to my attic tank is frozen somewhere also.

I'm praying to the patron saint of burst pipes right now that we don't get any problems with cracked pipes once everything thaws.

Like you, I don't think there's a problem with the pipes from the tank, just the pipe to the tank as we had running cold water taps for most of this morning.

Here's hoping.

I think there's a lot to be said for leaving a cold water tap 'dribbling' overnight in this weather even though it's not very environmentally responsible.

Lex Luthor

DublinWriter wrote: »

Like you, I don't think there's a problem with the pipes from the tank, just the pipe to the tank as we had running cold water taps for most of this morning.

I'd say if your tank is empty the problem lies with the water pipe feeding it. You'll know straight away when you fill the tank if the taps flow water again


well if I had known any better I would have left one of the taps upstairs running aswell in the last few days to keep the water flow to my tank constant, but too late now.

That black polypipe stuff that feeds the tank is made of strong stuff by the look of it....I checked mine yesterday and its not frozen over the whole length but it appears in 1 section so hopefully the freeze will spread longtitudely along the pipe rather than expand outwards..!!!:cool:

I jacked up my central heating by 2degrees last night in the hope it would raise the temp of the walls and possibly thaw out the pipe but no joy. Just have to wait until the thaw and no better next time.

The wall this pipe is running up aswell is north facing so it won't get any heat from todays sun.

DublinWriter

Lex Luthor wrote: »

I'd say if your tank is empty the problem lies with the water pipe feeding it. You'll know straight away when you fill the tank if the taps flow water again

Hallelujah! I was just up in the attic and the feed started to trickle, then flow.

Taps back working again and cisterns filling up.

Now to keep an eye on it for the next hour to see that the tank overflow mechanism is still working.

Lex Luthor

DublinWriter wrote: »

Hallelujah! I was just up in the attic and the feed started to trickle, then flow.

Taps back working again and cisterns filling up.

Now to keep an eye on it for the next hour to see that the tank overflow mechanism is still working.

sounds like the ball cock was stuck...result, but like you said, keep an eye on it

kkth0360

I'm having a similar problem - last night we had cold water from the kitchen (mains) tap but no hot, and no water at all upstairs or in the cisterns. I checked the attic tank and it was almost empty so I guessed the pipe feeding the tank had frozen.

I left the attic hatch open and left the heating on all night, checked the tank this morning and it's full again. Good news. The hot water is back and there is water to the shower.

However, still no cold water to the upstairs taps, and the cisterns still aren't filling. When I run the shower on a cold setting it runs cold, so there's definitely cold water available, but any suggestions as to why there's no cold water to the upstairs taps or cisterns? Could it be that some of the pipes leading from the tank are still frozen (it still feels fairly cold in the attic)?

suitseir

Maybe if you have a patio heater, even the table size ones,(if you have one or can borrow one) and put it on the outside one, that might help! I notice that the pipe bringing mains water to my sink is made of that type of heavy duty black plastic which I hope as well is fairly durable.....

Lex Luthor wrote: »

I'd say if your tank is empty the problem lies with the water pipe feeding it. You'll know straight away when you fill the tank if the taps flow water again


well if I had known any better I would have left one of the taps upstairs running aswell in the last few days to keep the water flow to my tank constant, but too late now.

That black polypipe stuff that feeds the tank is made of strong stuff by the look of it....I checked mine yesterday and its not frozen over the whole length but it appears in 1 section so hopefully the freeze will spread longtitudely along the pipe rather than expand outwards..!!!:cool:

I jacked up my central heating by 2degrees last night in the hope it would raise the temp of the walls and possibly thaw out the pipe but no joy. Just have to wait until the thaw and no better next time.

The wall this pipe is running up aswell is north facing so it won't get any heat from todays sun.