frozen water pipes

biffoman

last night i noticed the water was dribbling from the tap.i filled as many containers up with water as i could for fear of the taps freezing up alltogether.i live in rahoon.anyone else got frozen pipes.any tips of what to do?

gaeilgegrinds

Same prob here...filled bath, has icicles in it! Our bath is way away from the main house so is a wee bit colder! Any advice please?

biko

Leave your attic door open and turn the heating up for a few hours.
The heat from downstairs will thaw the pipes hopefully.

biffoman

ISNT IT THE MAINS COMMING INTO THE HOUSE?

Bobeagleburger

biffoman wrote: »

ISNT IT THE MAINS COMMING INTO THE HOUSE?

That's what I presumed too.

The pipes in the ground outside the house are frozen?

haines35

Most water freeze at the stopcock(due to it being brass),if you can locate that pour copious amounts of boiling water on it,shoud free it,also if you have an outside tap beside the kitchen sink its probably mains fed,this can cause the freezing also.

biko

The mains is in the ground so probably not frozen.
Try the attic door open and heat on.

haines35

It will freeze at kitchen sink first,
before the feed goes up to the attic.

biffoman

cheers people im going to try both the open attic +the boiling water trick.

dnme

biffoman wrote: »

cheers people im going to try both the open attic +the boiling water trick.

any luck? same problem here

niceirishfella

Magnus wrote: »

The mains is in the ground so probably not frozen.
Try the attic door open and heat on.

Waste of time.
This would only work if the opening to the attic was directly under the water tanks and pipes.

Das Kitty

Tried dousing the stopcock this morning, going to give it one last go as I don't think we're going to see a thaw at all before the middle of next week. Going to go at it with a sponge and boiling water. There's no sound of moving water out there at all so hopefully it is the stopcock and I'm not risking my pregnant ass for nothing on the ice.

It doesn't feel too cold outside but the watering can out the back is pretty much frozen solid and it wasn't before all this fun began.

EDIT -

Well it's not the stopcock as the neighbour has their water so it's somewhere between there and the house

This is not fun, hopefully the baby will stay inside for another week or so.

dnme

I located out stopcock out on the road, its deep, pipes terminate about a foof and a half down, would not be able to get at it and I fear chucking water down there would just make the problem worse.

Das Kitty

Don't worry it will drain away, otherwise it would fill up everytime it rains. Worth a shot dnme. Hope you have better luck than me.

Just started snowing here now. Never thought I'd feel sad seeing it snow!

Frankie Lee

I have the same trouble with frozen pipes somewhere between the mains and the house. I'm pretty certain our stopcock is free so the only other place we have brass is a t-piece out the back of the house under a couple of feet of concrete. I've tried a long shot of using a kerosene heater under a turf cover to try thaw it out. Otherwise I will be up **** creek with frozen pipes eventually bursting.

biffoman

dnme wrote: »

any luck? same problem here

no luck.the attic door has being open a good few hrs now +i poured warm water over the outside tap including the stopcock.

Frankie Lee

biffoman wrote: »

no luck.the attic door has being open a good few hrs now +i poured warm water over the outside tap including the stopcock.

Try a serious amount of boiling boiling, getting a slow drip here now so fingers crossed.

biffoman

im doing just that frank.heres hoping one of us gets back on supply at least.

The weather man said the ground across the country is frozen to a foot deep.

biko

niceirishfella wrote: »

Waste of time.
This would only work if the opening to the attic was directly under the water tanks and pipes.

I know what you mean but it worked for this guy

DublinWriter wrote: »

A lot of people are now experiencing problems with frozen pipes in their attics.

A simple way to prevent this is to leave your attic door open!

It happened to us this morning. A couple of hours with the heating full on soon fixed the problem.

This will also reduce the chances of pipes bursting and eventually flooding.

galah

great...how long will that take to thaw?

Without water since Tuesday night, and strongly suspecting the mains to be frozen or some other problem - water came and went very unpredictably...(didnt have water around new years, then back for last weekend, and now it's gone again...)

dnme

I live in garage apt at the back of a main house. The folks in the main house have water so the problem lies in the underground pipe that travels from the house to my apt.

I have no stopcock coming into the apt that is accessable. Also no valve under kitchen sink. I reckon the pipe in the ground is frozen.

Edit: Also have no car, as fuel system needs to be rebuilt so its in pieces, and I live 2 miles outside Athenry so I'm starting to feel a little vulnerable right now.

Das Kitty

Current forecasts are saying Monday will be the first day to stay above zero in the daylight. Supposed to be better again Tuesday and Wednesday. We're relying on the ground temp getting up a bit to thaw the pipe going up to the house. Hopefully the deeper soil will irradiate some heat though. Sick of bathing in the sink!

Chris_533976

According to BBC weather at - http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/10209 theres a pile of snow coming on Tue.

Sponge Bob

Das Kitty wrote: »

. Hopefully the deeper soil will irradiate some heat though. Sick of bathing in the sink!

If you think you know where the pipe is buried then scrape ALL snow and white ice off in the morning, dark ground absorbs sunlight where white ground reflects it and never heats up at all. If the pipe is on the north side of the house then tough until we get a a good thaw.

Sponge Bob

Chris_533976 wrote: »

According to BBC weather at - http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/10209 theres a pile of snow coming on Tue.

Not in Galway, it will fall as ( maybe freezing ) rain initially and eventually as real rain later tuesday.

The GALWAY 5 day weather forecast from the BBC is HERE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2299?&search=galway&itemsPerPage=10&region=world

vulcan57

Had no water since Monday lunch time. Its the pipes coming into the house alright because it was the water in the kitchen sink that went first. I could still use the hot water and the bathroom taps until all that was used up. Houses both sides of me are OK and the ones 2 doors away in each direction have no water.

Sponge Bob

vulcan57 wrote: »

Houses both sides of me are OK and the ones 2 doors away in each direction have no water.

Rig a hose from the ones that HAVE water to the attic tanks of the ones that have NO water and fill the main cold tanks in the attics one by one ( which should fill the hot water tanks too). Then disconnect the hoses and empty them of water and store indoors where they are warm.

B and Q have lots of garden hoses on reels that will do the trick nicely, get up there now if they are open.

Also ensure there is a bit of water in the expansion tank in the attic ( the small one) so your central heating works.

Draining the whole system clean is _really_ stupid. Don't do that again. Once water stops coming in you must conserve what you have.

biffoman

im gona fill my tank up from next doors tap.it means running a hose up to the attic.it should get us by for a few days and hopefully it will warm up a bit between now and then.fingers crossed.
just saw what you posted.

toadfly

this has gone beyond a joke now havent had water since 29th. driving me crazy. was like a mad woman today after reading this had the hairdryer on under d sink and pouring boiling water on outside tap. no good. gonna try it again tomo tho.

we arent too bad as we have a gym to go to for showers but heat is dodgy and getting sick of having to go to friends houses looking for water. I'm afraid theres is gonna go and it'll be my fault for using all of theres!

is that 5 day forcast right? gonna be better from Tuesday??

niceirishfella

Hairdriers are useless, you need one of these......

http://cgi.ebay.ie/MAKITA-HG5002K-HOT-AIR-HEAT-GUN-240volt-BRAND-NEW_W0QQitemZ170430226666QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM?hash=item27ae6ee0ea