So who had plumbing issues in the big freeze?

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Isaac-1

Isaac-1

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May 10, 2010
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SW Louisiana
I was lucky overall here in Louisiana, it was down to 17 degrees last night, and a high of 45 today, we went about 36 hours with below freezing temperature. I had one CPVC hot water stub to nowhere outside my laundry room freeze and break, simple fix, cut the stub back and capped it off with a fresh cap, total cost about $5 most of that for a can of CPVC glue, plus a trip to the hardware store which was very busy with people buying plumbing supplies) Also the water line for a refrigerator ice maker froze up, thawed around noon and seems to not be leaking, will check that one closer later (I had dumped the old ice yesterday but I guess that was not enough flow to keep it from freezing in the wall). The forecast calls for a low in the low 20's again tonight, so hopefully everything else will hold up, I suspect I will be up a few times getting water from the laundry room fridge's door dispenser :)

Ike

p.s. to make this a little pool related, pool is fine, solar panels are on freeze protect recirculation, and have a small non powered kerosene space heater running in pool house for added redundancy. (Pool pump has generator backup, there have been some low temperature related power outages in the area, but not too many)
 
I'm thinking we may have got hit too. The past two days have brought us -20 temps and I've been able to keep all our water pipes flowing just fine. My wife however noticed that once you flush the upstairs toilet that you hear a loud "gargling" sound from the tub about 2 feet away. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the weather froze the vent pipes, or something got stuck in the pipe, causing the airflow to come from the tub rather than the vent. Kinda odd that it started, and only has happened once we hit these record low temps. It's a hope anyway..........

I hate winter!
 
Yeah, but you guys are up north where such things are common, down here in Louisiana that 17 degrees we had last night was probably the coldest night in the last 5 years, or so. (I remember it hit 14 one night about 10-12 years ago, but was above freezing the day before and day after).

Ike
 
Kinda walked out my back door to a shock about 2 hours after dark this evening. Thought my pool had a little more "sparklyitis" than usual. It was the street light reflecting off a thin sheen of ice forming on top of the pool! I turned the pump off around noon today as it got up to a blistering 42 this afternoon. It was only 36 when I noticed the ice forming and had planned to crank the pump up shortly. My pool is above ground, but it is buried 2 feet. Bottom line-------Buried metal pool and frozen ground equals ice on top. Wind is nonexistent, .....dead calm. Temps averaged about 15 for the last 2 nights here.
 

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I'll share my :cry: story! Thankfully I DID close my pool this year so all is well there! To have had problems with it along with this busted pipe in the house might have put me over the edge! :lol:

It's 2:30 Sun morning and the smoke detectors start going crazy making me sit straight up and W...T...F!!!! I try turning it off with the burglar alarm...not happening. I run down the stairs trying to find the dang fire and there's nothing going on. And then I hear it....the waterfall that was happening in the garage!



Water was spewing EVERYWHERE!!! Fortunately several months ago the Gas man was here and showed me where the water cut-off was or I would never have known it! I built this house 10 years ago and have never needed to know. But, now I needed to climb up on my step ladder, trying to get enough room between the water heater and the car for it to sit steady so I could reach this valve all the while being sprayed with water! At 2:30 in the morning in 2 degree weather! :shock:



So, once I got it turned off I tried calling the plumber in case they had a crew out and about and left a message. Since there really wasn't anything else I could do until later, I went back to bed. Around 7:15 I hear this sound that eerily sounded like a ceiling falling in on my car! So up I am again. I start the phone calls and the insurance company sends their folks out.



After he pulls all the insulation and junk back, it's discovered that when they built this house, there was venting in the siding of the house that allowed air between the floors and did not protect ANY of pipes therein!!!


(there's the pump I have on my poo! Of course, right now it's frozen in about 2 inches of ice!)



So, the pipes have been repaired but the garage and my house are a wreck from all the wet but now dried up drywall! My car turned out to be fine...kinda like throwing a wet sponge at it! :wink:

Needless to say, the problem with the exposure WILL be corrected so this can't happen again. Guess I'm lucky it hasn't happened before. Folks all over town and probably all over the country, are having this same problem. The plumber said I could have left the water running at full force and it wouldn't have made a difference...too much exposure to the cold. Oh and cheap-azzz builders too! :rant: Grrr...

But, on the bright side...I will get a cleaned out and repainted garage when they can get back to me! :lol: Thankfully the weather is warming up for the next week or so...

Karen
 
Karen is goin to win this thread, ceilings down! :mrgreen:

We experienced no plumbing issues at our home in SWPA. All I can say is that the boxer was traumatized by the polar vortex! Every time I opened the door for a potty break, she sat in the hallway shaking like a leaf with her head down! She was having no parts of it!

I have a new found appreciation for 20 degree weather and no wind chill factors. It felt like a heat wave yesterday! :shock:
 
Casey said:
Karen is goin to win this thread, ceilings down! :mrgreen:
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:lol: Good one Casey!!

woodyp said:
Now there's a contest I wouldn't care to win!
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Yeah, it's not a contest I'm relishing in winning, I can tell ya that! But, none of it surprising...that's my world! I just expect the worst and sometimes I get surprised with the best! :lol:

And I'm with ya on the temperature Casey! I'm in Nashville...that's supposed to be the South! TWO degrees..seriously??? 70 days until the first day of Spring!!! :party:
 
Here in Oregon over Christmas break we had 6" of snow and below freezing for a week straight, lows around zero and highs in the teens. At the height of it my pool had 6" of ice on top. Drilled and measured lol. All thawed now and seems fine.
 

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