quote:

freezing rain/ice storm

that sounds awful! Hope it's not too bad!

How did your friend with the frozen pipes make out?

Yikes. I just looked at AM's forecast. Looks like a fair bit of ice is possible. Hope it's not too bad. Stay safe!

They’ve closed the schools because of the cold. Not snow - cold.

I didn’t know they ever did that here.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

quote:

freezing rain/ice storm

that sounds awful! Hope it's not too bad!

How did your friend with the frozen pipes make out?

Water is flowing! She heated the area in the garage where the shut off valve is located, and things are good. Thanks to wtg for her very helpful advice!

We are completely iced over here. We had freezing rain overnight (air temp is higher above the clouds, so snow melts into rain and turns into ice as it comes down to the ground). We’re up to about 32 degrees, but it ‘s raining/sleeting so we won’t be going anywhere today. There’s about a half inch of ice on the ground, over old snow.

Glad your friend's situation improved!!

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There’s about a half inch of ice on the ground, over old snow.

Yikes, sooo dangerous!!

We are up to -4C / 25F and the sun is out!! When the wind blows it's still pretty cold, but I just went for a walk, a short walk but a walk nonetheless. I figure I needed to get outside while the sun was out, because starting tomorrow, the forecast looks to be absolutely horrible (gloomy, rain or snow, no sun at all) for like the next two weeks. -_-

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Glad your friend's situation improved!!

quote:

There’s about a half inch of ice on the ground, over old snow.

Yikes, sooo dangerous!!

We are up to -4C / 25F and the sun is out!! When the wind blows it's still pretty cold, but I just went for a walk, a short walk but a walk nonetheless. I figure I needed to get outside while the sun was out, because starting tomorrow, the forecast looks to be absolutely horrible (gloomy, rain or snow, no sun at all) for like the next two weeks. -_-

I’m glad we have a treadmill in the basement. So Mr. AM can use it! I don’t feel moved to do so…yet.

Glad your friend got the frozen pipe situation sorted out before she had a disaster.

Our pipes froze a couple of years after we bought our house. We had no clue what could happen and were thinking that when it got warmer the pipe would thaw and we'd be back in business.

I had been home sick for a few days during the frozen pipe episode but decided to try to go to work one morning, thinking I was feeling a bit better. I didn't even make it to the train station when I decided I needed another day to recover. Turned around and went home.

Around 10 am I heard water running. "Oh, good. The pipes have thawed." I figured maybe it was a toilet refilling, or that maybe water was running from a faucet. After about 15 seconds I was like "Oh, carp. That's not a faucet, that's a burst pipe!". The pipe had split in the wall between the house and attached garage, and the water was cascading over a doorway between the front hall and kitchen.

I shut off the main and a plumber came out the next day. Turns out we actually had two places the pipes had split. Water damage was localized to the ceiling near the doorway in question. And his pipe repair was done from the garage side, so we didn't have to tear out kitchen cabinets or anything. Had I not been home, the water would have been going full blast from 10 am until 6 pm when I would have returned from work.

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Had I not been home, the water would have been going full blast from 10 am until 6 pm when I would have returned from work.

ugh, I hate to even imagine! This might be the only time you'd say "thank goodness I was sick!"

I had to fix a minor leak under the kitchen sink the other day and I noticed the the pipes came up through the bottom of the cabinet rather than through the wall.

I cussed it as a Micky Mouse installation at the time but now I realize they did it that way to keep the pipes out of an outside wall.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Glad your friend got the frozen pipe situation sorted out before she had a disaster.

…

Had I not been home, the water would have been going full blast from 10 am until 6 pm when I would have returned from work.

You definitely lucked out there! Thanks for your advice.

Steve when was your house built? I’m wondering if that practice has been standard for a long time or not……

2017.

Ahh, that's quite recent then.

Our two story house with attached garage was built in 1960.

The water pipes to our kitchen sink come up through the floor from the basement. The sink is on an outside wall, so we have the scenario that Steve described.

The pipes that have frozen in the past are in a second floor bath. Those go up through the wall that is common between the unheated garage and the house. They can't be run up through the floor, because that's where the kitchen cabinets are.

When we first moved in, and before the great freeze, we had noticed a lot of cold air in the winter in that bathroom. After the freeze, we had the wallboard on the garage side taken down and discovered that there was insufficient insulation. The bathtub was cantilevered out into the garage and the only insulation was the wallboard around it, along with a one inch thick piece of styrofoam insulation. Along with the water pipes, the drain for that tub also froze that cold winter. The rest was bad as well. We built out the wall into the garage to support the tubs and hadi everything insulated with fiberglass; spray foam wasn't a thing back then. At least we didn't know about it. There is still some air getting in there, but we don't know from where. Probably should have it redone.

When we replaced the original windows, we found crumpled newspaper to fill the gaps around the window framing.

All of this was probably pretty common back in that time frame. Housing was going up fast and the builders did a half-a$$ed job.

Looks like AM is still in the middle of ice problems. More freezing rain today.