Water mains frozen in Ennis?

angelfire9

mel.b wrote: »

Where are you in Cappahard Anglefire? I'm in Waterside and sometime between 12.30 and 8.30pm last night lost the cold water in my kitchen. Still seem to be able to flush the toilets and use other cold water taps and have hot water. Had thought maybe the council shut the water down overnight but i guess not. Hopefully it's nothing major and with the thaw will sort itself out soon.

Glenview
I've had no water since Tuesday!

CptSternn

One week on and still no water. I was out last night and it looks like pretty much everyone is out of water.

Last year there was an article in either The Clare Champion or The Clare People that described the problem. The pipes which were laid over a hundred years ago are like fifteen inches below the ground. When they were put in place it was unheard of for the ground to freeze past twelve inches. Thanks to global warming/climate change Ireland is going to continue to get colder winters and the ground will be freezing to deeper depths than anyone anticipated over a century ago.

The only way to fix this is to put new pipes in across the county. That is a massive undertaking I don't see the Coco doing any time soon.

I guess we will all have to get used to being without water a few weeks out of the year sure.

Last year our water was out (frozen pipes) for three weeks. Hopefully we will have a thaw this week so it won't be longer than two weeks this time around.

excuse me

no water since last thursday:eek:
how long does it take the pipes from mains to thaw?
any way to speed up the process

Bif

Folks,
Had water until 10 last night...all neighbours now appear to be gone. Rang council and they couldn't tell me if the mains supply was gone / switched off or anything else...anybody else got any info on water supply in Doora area?

Jim Martin

CptSternn wrote: »

One week on and still no water. I was out last night and it looks like pretty much everyone is out of water.

Last year there was an article in either The Clare Champion or The Clare People that described the problem. The pipes which were laid over a hundred years ago are like fifteen inches below the ground. When they were put in place it was unheard of for the ground to freeze past twelve inches. Thanks to global warming/climate change Ireland is going to continue to get colder winters and the ground will be freezing to deeper depths than anyone anticipated over a century ago.

The only way to fix this is to put new pipes in across the county. That is a massive undertaking I don't see the Coco doing any time soon.

I guess we will all have to get used to being without water a few weeks out of the year sure.

Last year our water was out (frozen pipes) for three weeks. Hopefully we will have a thaw this week so it won't be longer than two weeks this time around.

Could be months, not weeks, if this man is to be believed:

http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=6791

pedroThePirate

I report a very rare sighting of the blue/yellow
striated transitus countycouncillus in Kilkee early
this morning.

Perhaps the guys are out of the pub and on the job ?

Chris

djbm

We are in an estate off the Kilrush Road in Ennis. During the freeze last winter we lost our water for just over a week due to the mains water freezing somewhere between the water main/stopcock and the house. Many other people in our row of houses also lost their water, although some didn't. The pipe at our stopcock is only about 24 cm below the surface, and our neighbours pipe is only about 18 cm below the surface!

This year many of our neighbours lost their supply, but ours remained on. I put a 100W light bulb in a wooden box, put it over the stopcock, and covered it with a rubber mat and some carpet. I don't advise anybody else to do this because it means running a cable running outside - also the bulb or fitting could get wet. We also let the water in the kitchen sink run at a trickle (I'd estimate about 1 litre every 10 minutes).

In the spring I think I will try to find a contractor in Clare to advise on a longer term solution to the problem (see link below). Would anybody be able to suggest a contractor to try?

http://prosperous.newsfinch.ie/national-news/water-supply-in-the-cold-weather-tips-info/

bossman07

i worked for the water companis in uk for many years ,stopcock to house can be replaced by property owner but only coucill can touch from stop cock to mains the best stop cock is this one http://www.stratique.com/clients/tyco/pdf/METERBOXES/Atplas%20Boundary%20Box%20Data%20Sheet.pdf

pedroThePirate

That's an interesting rig-up, djbm.
-
I just found out yesterday from a friend in Germany
that they have schemes in permanently cold areas
such as Hochdorf, near Freiburg, where she lives, which
involve a low-power heating element being run alongside
mains water pipes, which is run off the same supply as
the street lighting and comes on automatically.

Chris

woggie

We're in estate just off kilrush road and have been without water since Tuesday but neighbours on both sides ok

Neighbours have been great refilling our bottles as have the civil defense guys over at cahercalla but it's becoming a real pain in the backside, especially with a 9 month old baby to be taking care off.

I fear this is going to become an annual event so any advice as to what we can do to prepare for it next year greatly appreciated. I've heard lots of people talk about infrared light in attic but our problem doesn't appear to be there.

Clareman

If your neighbours are ok I would imagine your stop cock is frozen, I would recommend putting some of the pellets you would have gotten with presents down your stop cock to insulate it. While you're waiting for that if you have an outside tap and 1 of your neighbours have, hook up a hose between both taps and turn them on, that should pressurize your system.

woggie

Thanks Clareman will try that;)

mel.b

Clareman wrote: »

If your neighbours are ok I would imagine your stop cock is frozen, I would recommend putting some of the pellets you would have gotten with presents down your stop cock to insulate it. While you're waiting for that if you have an outside tap and 1 of your neighbours have, hook up a hose between both taps and turn them on, that should pressurize your system.

My stopcock was very definitely frozen as i melted about 10inches of ice from it today. With regards to pressurising the system, what if i am unable to do that? Will it come back by itself or does it really need to be pressurised by another tap/system? Also i don't have an outside tap, so can this still be done?

As an aside, i noticed from the clare coco website that at lot of the town will be shut off tonight including tulla rd, gort rd, lahinch rd and shanaway rd.

glineli

The clare co co website is a disgrace. How hard is it to keep it upto date with known leaks etc. There are 2 mobile numbers that no one answers. The Clare fm site has more information, surely that doesn't make sense. I would just like an idea when they will start to fix the problem.

Clareman

If you have an inlet/outlet that you can connect securely to another then do it, if your stop cock is frozen you won't be getting any water into the house so it won't matter, with the thaw that has been going on for the last couple of days, start throwing as much boiling water down on top of it as you can, you should have water back very soon

mel.b

Where will i find an inlet/outlet & what does it look like?

I melted all the ice on the stopcock today around 1 pm and still don't have any water

Clareman

Every tap/drain is either an inlet or an outlet, I would imagine that the water going into your kitchen tap is frozen, if you can take the tap off and break/defrost the ice you should be ok, hopefully

mel.b

Clareman wrote: »

Every tap/drain is either an inlet or an outlet, I would imagine that the water going into your kitchen tap is frozen, if you can take the tap off and break/defrost the ice you should be ok, hopefully

Thanks lareman. I think i'll leave that for the landlord.

mel.b

Woohoo...got my water back this morning

CptSternn

It came back on here late last night sure.

woggie

Our water "issue" appeared to have been resolved early this morning (around 2am) - hurray the luxury of flushing loo's :rolleyes: .... only to be cut off this morning by the council :mad: (i'm assuming)

Ayman

We got ours back yesterday too and were working on getting the heating fixed until around 3am when our house started flooding. Now we've the water off again and no hope of getting the heating going without it. When will it end

Clareman

My neighbour turned off my water yesterday in case I wasn't around and the water came back with burst pipes, I'm no way of turning it back on now so I don't know if I have water or not

Clareman

I managed to get it turned back on this evening, almost immediately I had a trickle of water from the kitchen tap, couple of hours later it's flowing normally, I have just turned on the dishwasher, will wait an hour or so to do a load of washing.

CptSternn

Ours came back yesterday morning, but disappeared around lunch and hasn't been back. I checked the attic - no leaks - but the tank is no longer filling so it looks like the council has turned it off again for some reason.

Clareman

Mine has been turned off again, they are just turning it on in the evenings I'd say, but our tanks have been filled and I managed to get the dishwasher done as well as 3 loads of washing, once they continue to put it on in the evenings to fill the tanks I should be fine

woggie

Ayman hope you get sorted soon, sounds like you're having an awful time of it.

Sounds like we're in the same situation clareman, ours comes back on at night, time to get one load of washing on and then it's gone in the morning, still I had the luxury of a hot shower this morning, I turned the hose off while shampooing my hair, first time I ever did that! I guess we'll all be a bit more conscious of water wastage from now on :rolleyes: sounds like Northern Ireland having an awful time of it also.
Incidently - does anyone know if there is a laundrette in Ennis? I know my DH used to go to one about 6 years ago before I moved in, think it was near the river, but think it's closed now. I've about 5 washloads to do and at this rate i'll never work through them.

Clareman

The only 1 I know of is in Westgate at the back of John O'Dwyer's, they do a great job at a very reasonable price, couldn't recommend them enough.

pedroThePirate

woggie wrote: »

Incidently - does anyone know if there is a laundrette in Ennis? I know my DH used to go to one about 6 years ago before I moved in, think it was near the river, but think it's closed now. I've about 5 washloads to do and at this rate i'll never work through them.

What you must do, dear woggie, is to toddle down to the now threatening
waters of the mighty Fergus at Harvey's Quay, find a suitable lump of
civic granite, and bash the dirt out of your clothes. You may find yourself in
good company, and also make a lot of new friends . . .


Chris

woggie

LOL Cheers Chris, think i'll try Clareman's suggestion first;)