frozen water pipes

niceirishfella

Sponge Bob wrote: »

tell the developer to come back

like they will care? Even if they are still in business.

There is a small river coming out of Wellpark onto the main road.

Hopefully it doesn't freeze.

frisket

chizzle82 wrote: »

I have water in the cold tap in the kitchen but nothing in the hot tap or both taps upstairs in the bathroom.
I thought if my water was frozen the cold tap would freeze first?
Am a bit confused!

I was under the impression that the law requires that the kitchen cold tap (ONLY) is always connected directly to the incoming main and does *NOT* go through the cold tank. Therefore if you have cold water running from your kitchen tap, it's not the water main that's frozen, it's your pipework in the house, most likely in the attic where the tank it. This is much easier to fix: just heat your house and attic more.

It's nothing to do with cold taps freezing before hot taps: it's to do with whichever tap (only ever one, AFAIK) that is connected directly to the main, which I believe is the kitchen cold tap -- but I may be wrong on this: ask a plumber. If the water main freezes, you get no cold water out of the kitchen tap (you also get no water at all out of anything else once the cold tank has been run dry). If you still have water from the kitchen cold tap, the problem is not in the water main but elsewhere in the house, or you have a very odd plumbing arrangement, or I'm out of date :-)

frisket

Das Kitty wrote: »

It's funny in an estate of 20 houses only two of us have been affected and we were both here all through the cold snap and using our supply, both went last Wednesday.

My neighbour reckoned that the first people to freeze were those whose driveways had been renewed/resurfaced/gravelled/paved/tarmac'd in the Time of Plenty, because that disturbed the ground, made it more porous, so water was able to seep in and freeze. Those of us in 60s estates with crappy 60s concrete drives untouched for 40 years have ground underneath like iron, and probably bone dry. Eventually, of course, everyone froze, but the newer driveways were the first to go and the last to unfreeze.

Pure speculation, but based on observation, he reckons.

WooPeeA

niceirishfella wrote: »

in some cases, yes.

But not all, Irish building reg's don't cover down to -12 to -15 which is what we were getting there last week at night.

Yes but there's a rule that says that you never install any water pipe less then 2 ft underground. Otherwise the pipe might get frozen even with -1 outside which happens nearly every winter to someone...

Sponge Bob

WooPeeA wrote: »

Yes but there's a rule that says that you never install any water pipe less then 2 ft underground.

2 foot ( 600mm) is common sense but is it really an actual rule or published building regulation ?? I was looking at a house today where the top of the stopcock was within 2mm of the hatch. The body of the stopcock ( and the pipe) is no more than 100mm down. The pipe is at 130mm down within 18 inches of the outside wall just beside the path.

They have homebond and intend claiming off it if the builder does not fix the whole thing straight away. They also intend to set the council enforcement section on the builder .


Homebond specifies 450mm deep at the outer wall of a house and a synthesised document ( composite of practice from regulations and laws etc ) HERE also specifies 450mm for the underground section outside the house.

Service pipes and fitings
The Water Section must approve the diameter of the service pipe in advance. The
service pipe shall be laid without mechanical joints from the boundary box to a stop
valve inside the house and contained within a 50mm duct along the entire length
with 450mm minimum cover to finished ground level.

Das Kitty

frisket wrote: »

My neighbour reckoned that the first people to freeze were those whose driveways had been renewed/resurfaced/gravelled/paved/tarmac'd in the Time of Plenty, because that disturbed the ground, made it more porous, so water was able to seep in and freeze. Those of us in 60s estates with crappy 60s concrete drives untouched for 40 years have ground underneath like iron, and probably bone dry. Eventually, of course, everyone froze, but the newer driveways were the first to go and the last to unfreeze.

Pure speculation, but based on observation, he reckons.

New estate here, reckon the pipe is under the front flowerbed which would be a similar situation.

Sponge Bob

After the big freeze of 1963 they generally put pipes deep in the rest of 1960s

Das Kitty

Sponge Bob wrote: »

2 foot ( 600mm) is common sense but is it really an actual rule or published building regulation ?? I was looking at a house today where the top of the stopcock was within 2mm of the hatch. The body of the stopcock ( and the pipe) is no more than 100mm down. The pipe is at 130mm down within 18 inches of the outside wall just beside the path.

They have homebond and intend claiming off it if the builder does not fix the whole thing straight away. They also intend to set the council enforcement section on the builder .


Homebond specifies 450mm deep at the outer wall of a house and a synthesised document ( composite of practice from regulations and laws etc ) HERE also specifies 450mm for the underground section outside the house.

Same here stopcock is not at homebond level, will be telling the landlord to claim off it because I know this estate is a homebonded one

Sponge Bob

Das Kitty wrote: »

Same here stopcock is not at homebond level, will be telling the landlord to claim off it because I know this estate is a homebonded one

Write to the planning department and ask for an enforcement order against the builder too. When an estate is built 2 things happen.

1. an engineer undertakes to ensure compliance with regulations, this is a matter of record with the planning section and ALSO the water department who have a signed copy of a connection request to the public supply.

2. a bond is paid in in case the council has to do the work themselves aftewards.,

If the builder will not complete step one like they should have then the council calls in the bond and does the work with the money. Galway is full of planners with absolutely feck all to do nowadays except issue enforcement proceedings against non compliant builders and calling in bonds where they do not comply.

biffoman

Yahoo,got our water back a few hours ago thank god.Hope everyone that has being without water gets sorted soon.We [me and me other half] did a little water dance in the kitchen,with our daughter jumping up and down in between us.It was a moment to behold.Cheers to anyone who gave me advice.

toadfly

anyone else got theres back yet?? no sign of ours coming back. must be a burst pipe...

Das Kitty

TillyGirl wrote: »

anyone else got theres back yet?? no sign of ours coming back. must be a burst pipe...

Ours came back yesterday afternoon and we were thinking the same up to then. Turned on the outside tap and noticed a drip, so then put on the kitchen mains tap and another one we have in our downstairs bathroom. After about 10 mins they were trickling and a minute later full pressure.

Maybe if you ring a plumber to see if they're still seeing frozen pipes in your area it could give you an idea on whether to worry about a burst pipe or not?

toadfly

going to ring the landlord this evening, plumber was out over two weeks ago but surely he can do something at this stage. will see how the neighbours are getting on as well.

thanks, glad it has come back for you!

Sniipe

Our water came back on yesterday - delighted.

galah

Ours is still gone as well...Rang the council, they said it's a problem in our house (it's not), we should call a plumber (paying for confirming that it's not a problem in the house?), and it's not their problem. Charming.

Advertiser speaks of burst pipes in the Taylor's Hill area, I'd say that affects us. Or some other burst mains....

Tedole

Rang Homebond about the depth of the mains conection to our house, was told they don't cover it so not an issue for them. Pipe outside our house only about 4 inches below surface level, block of ice finally disappeared last night, but still no water

bethm

TillyGirl wrote: »

anyone else got theres back yet?? no sign of ours coming back. must be a burst pipe...

Back last night after 10 days Salthill. No problems with burst pipes just frozen outside.

dollybird2

galah wrote: »

Ours is still gone as well...Rang the council, they said it's a problem in our house (it's not), we should call a plumber (paying for confirming that it's not a problem in the house?), and it's not their problem. Charming.

Advertiser speaks of burst pipes in the Taylor's Hill area, I'd say that affects us. Or some other burst mains....

If your neighbours have water and there is only you or a couple of houses in your area that don't have water than it is a problem in your house.

Webbs

dollybird2 wrote: »

If your neighbours have water and there is only you or a couple of houses in your area that don't have water than it is a problem in your house.

Not really the case, on our estate our next door neighbour was fine only had pipes frozen for 1 or 2 days we were out for 5 days and neighbours across the road still have no water.
It depends on where your pipes are running, is it in shade or sun, how deep are the pipes etc a few inches might make all the difference as to your pipes being frozen for days etc

galah

dollybird2 wrote: »

If your neighbours have water and there is only you or a couple of houses in your area that don't have water than it is a problem in your house.

All the neighbours didnt have water either...

But it's all good, the water came back last night. Phew. 10 days without water not so much fun.

toadfly

finally gots our back this afternoon! but only because we attached the ice around the stopcock with boiling water and a drill!

happy days anyway.