We endure in the country yet this story can equally as quickly take place to someone in the city. After 25 years of residing in the same area, our water line iced up on us this winter. We had an extremely early beginning to winter this year. In November the temperatures came down to solitary figures and we really did not have any snow. Had we had snow in combination with the cold temperatures, it most likely would not have been so bad. The snow has a tendency to work as an insulator and keeps the cool from driving down right into the ground. Where we live, in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico, the frost line is to about 3 ft.
The conventional wisdom has always been that if your pipes go to the very least 3 feet deep, after that they will not freeze. However, since we didn’t have the snow covering the ground as well as, I’m thinking, because our pipelines are hidden beneath an area where the water often runs throughout run-off (out below, we call these little stream beds arroyos), there’s a great chance that several inches or more of protective dirt has actually been removed in time. Does not appear like the ground level has gone down a lot, however it’s tough to remember gradually simply what the ground looked like 25 years ago!
Profits is, our pipelines froze as well as they froze hard. Our water line takes a trip at least 700 feet from the well house to our residence on top of the hill. By the time our line froze, we did have snow covering the ground and that made it much more challenging to take care of. I imply, where does one begin when one has 700 feet of water line underground? Digging it up simply really did not seem like an alternative. Thankfully there is only my wife and also I as well as our 2 canines so we decided we would simply wait it out till the pipes thawed. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t just quit. I was pro-active.
I separated the major water line in your home, set up a union (pipes gadget which enables two items of pipe to be uncoupled and also repair) in-line as well as attempted running warm water pull back the line – even with a tiny pump this really did not work, couldn’t get it to push against the air block – as well as affixed an air compressor to the line to try to blow it back out. This really worked at one factor. We had water for 4 days till we left one evening as well as didn’t think to let the water drip to avoid an additional freezing! The second time it iced up is when we had the solid freeze that lasted for around 6 weeks and also would not move, no matter what we did.
Despite our willpower to not let this situation obtain us down, after concerning a week and a half, I began to assume “outside the box.” It struck me that considering that we had a water hydrant down at the end of the driveway, simply 250 feet away, that I might be able to use that to our advantage. I created the concept of running a hose pipe from the hydrant up to the outside water faucet on the side of the house. Appeared sensible enough to me, so after obtaining the correct adapters, I was able to do just that. During the day, as long as the temperature levels were above 28 levels or two, I had the ability to run the water from the hydrant up the hill and right into your house.
Considering that the outside tap was right concerning where the major water line can be found in, the entire home system, including the hot water heater, came to be charged. Great! Water! At night, just as the temperature levels were dropping way back down, I would need to shut down the system and also drain the pipes and after that, the following day, when the temperatures got back approximately 28 levels or much better, I would hook the system back up. Check out more tips on how to find good plumbing repair services by clicking here.
I think this system would certainly operate in a pinch in the city or suburban areas where the houses are close together. One would simply hook their pipe to a next-door neighbor’s tap until such time as the water line thawed or was other wise fixed.
I can’t inform you just how much this assisted to reduce what otherwise would certainly have been a concern. We were able to shower, run the dish washer, flush the commode, do washing and also fill up bottles of drinking water, as long as we did every one of the above prior to dark or when the temperatures plummeted. Fortunately for us, February was rather mild and also we were able to have many days that worked in our favor. But, it had not been till almost the end of February that we had enough moderate climate for the line to thaw.