Yearning for Cozumel weather

[cicopo]

I haven't read the entire thread but based on what I've seen on our Canadian news I have some advice for those in the deep freeze based on a 13 day outage here in 98. I was fortunate & had a small generator I shared with 4 other homes so we could run our furnaces. What you need to worry about more than being cold is what might freeze both underground or in your homes. Here in my area water supply pipes are buried below the frost line which suggests they be 4 ' below grade but I don't think yours will be down very deep. Also remember to check any outdoor fixtures for things like garden hoses or sprinklers. If they freeze they will split the pipe inside the house & when the heat comes back on you'll have a major leak. The same could apply to plumbing in outside walls if they aren't well insulated. If there is a risk your house (or any other building with plumbing in it) will drop below the freezing point you need to shut off & drain the water from the pipes. If they do freeze you're going to need a major clean up & expensive repairs once the water pushes back through as the ice in the pipe melts.

 

[cozcharlie]

I haven't read the entire thread but based on what I've seen on our Canadian news I have some advice for those in the deep freeze based on a 13 day outage here in 98. I was fortunate & had a small generator I shared with 4 other homes so we could run our furnaces. What you need to worry about more than being cold is what might freeze both underground or in your homes. Here in my area water supply pipes are buried below the frost line which suggests they be 4 ' below grade but I don't think yours will be down very deep. Also remember to check any outdoor fixtures for things like garden hoses or sprinklers. If they freeze they will split the pipe inside the house & when the heat comes back on you'll have a major leak. The same could apply to plumbing in outside walls if they aren't well insulated. If there is a risk your house (or any other building with plumbing in it) will drop below the freezing point you need to shut off & drain the water from the pipes. If they do freeze you're going to need a major clean up & expensive repairs once the water pushes back through as the ice in the pipe melts.

All good advice Cicopo, though if can be tricky to shut down water in a house you are living in. My small town still has pretty good water pressure and electricity. I have a serious automatic backup generator bought with hurricanes in mind , but I am not sure how well it would hold up if power went out if gas system pressure is low in middle of winter storm.

I was out thawing external water faucets on Monday when my very slow drips froze overnight. There have been mixed messages on this where Houston was telling people ahead of the storm not to drip and Austin was telling them to drip. Though both cities wound up under boil water notices, I think they are going to find they would have been better with more people dripping and fewer pipe bursts since a pipe burst at one house is probably equal to drips dozens of houses.

It is going to be a very good time to be a plumber in Texas (I am anything but ). A couple of years work over next few months. Please come on down if you live out of state.

You know you have a big problem when the Governor devotes 5 minutes of his press conference to waiving/altering licensing regulations for plumbers. Thinking he simplified requirements for out of state plumbers and for in state plumbers said if you have missed continuing ed recently don’t worry about it more or less. I assume that is trying to bring back anyone recently retired or who switched fields.

 

[DandyDon]

The Thaw arrives in the Central High Plains of Texas tomorrow. We're expecting mids 60s next week. Wake me from the nightmare.

 

[ggunn]

All good advice Cicopo, though if can be tricky to shut down water in a house you are living in. My small town still has pretty good water pressure and electricity. I have a serious automatic backup generator bought with hurricanes in mind , but I am not sure how well it would hold up if power went out if gas system pressure is low in middle of winter storm.

I was out thawing external water faucets on Monday when my very slow drips froze overnight. There have been mixed messages on this where Houston was telling people ahead of the storm not to drip and Austin was telling them to drip. Though both cities wound up under boil water notices, I think they are going to find they would have been better with more people dripping and fewer pipe bursts since a pipe burst at one house is probably equal to drips dozens of houses.

I know where the main valve is, but I don't know how I could drain the system to where the outside pipes wouldn't be full. During the worst of it I had a steady stream 1/8" or so running at my outside faucets. I had some impressive ice sculptures but no frozen pipes.

 

[cicopo]

Draining a system is very dependent on house lay out. I have a sink in the basement I can drain to by turning on the taps in my kitchen & upstairs bathroom. My water heater is in the basement on the floor & I have 2 options (because removing about 20% of it's water allows the expansion freezing uses up). I can drain water into a basement sewage pump about 6 feet away or into buckets I empty into the laundry sink also about 6 feet away. Because I normally vacation to Cozumel in mid winter I do shut off my water (it's a well) & drain the system as well as turn off the water heater. This is normal for me & should we have furnace problems or a major power failure it's good practice.
Oddly enough my first job was as a plumber's apprentice but I left it & the next job was wiring telephone offices. After a few years of that I became a Quality Control Inspector at an Aerospace shop but ultimately the hot rodder in me wanted to be a mechanic which I am. I'm retired from all of it but in 86 I turned my hot rodder / auto restorer into a full time home based business.
Now I did say IF you think your house will get down to freezing temp shut off the water & drain it. Being without running water for a day or 2 will be a decent trade off to being without it until concealed pipes that froze & burst get repaired. Fill your bathtub with water to flush a toilet & jugs for cooking, drinking etc. That's how we live here & what we do when there's a storm we think might knock out the electrical system locally & I do have a larger generator on hand should things get real nasty. Here's a photo from the Ice Storm of 98 which was a major blow to a huge area.

 

[gopbroek]

Texas (at least N Texas) is almost exclusively slabs and basements are very rare due to the soil. The pipes come up through the slab and typically are plumbed through the walls or overhead. Not a lot of low point drains. Several of my coworkers were without power for multiple days and the interior of their homes went down to the mid 30's. Hopefully the pipes near the exterior walls didn't freeze. At this point finding a plumber will be a nightmare.

 

[ggunn]

Texas (at least N Texas) is almost exclusively slabs and basements are very rare due to the soil. The pipes come up through the slab and typically are plumbed through the walls or overhead. Not a lot of low point drains. Several of my coworkers were without power for multiple days and the interior of their homes went down to the mid 30's. Hopefully the pipes near the exterior walls didn't freeze. At this point finding a plumber will be a nightmare.

Yo tambien. No basement and my water heater is in the attic. I wish I could find the guy who thought up that ridiculous idea so I could beat the crap out of him. Changing out an attic water heater (I've had to do it) is a major ordeal, and a leak up there (I had that, too) is a potentially catastrophic event as well.

 

[DandyDon]

my water heater is in the attic.

 

[cicopo]

Well I can understand the lack of a basement in many areas including most of Florida (it would be an in ground pool there thanks to the low elevation) but there must be some way to drain the plumbing. If not how would a plumber deal with making repairs when he couldn't remove the water first? What are your pressure pipes made from? Plastic or copper? Florida had a lot of plastic & a lot of it was exposed to the elements.

 

[cozcharlie]

I thought this week was cold , but I happened to be checking wind forecast on Windy for Cozumel and glanced up at temp forecasts for Houston on the map. A balmy -273C—aka absolute zero. Some data set must default to that in the absence of data . Made me laugh.

Just to be clear , not knocking Windy. Might have been bad data feed for a vendor or who knows what type of IT issue. Happens to everyone now and again