Texas deep freeze carnage thread

[luke duke 6413]

There’s not one damn plumber on this site?

None that are any good.

[wd40 1976]

20 hours ago, Stinkpalm said:

Looks like I’m not the only one here that needs to get my prostate checked

from all the recreational drinking and lack of activity, I was clearly dehydrated, but had to run with the inspiration (and comparatively fair weather) at the moment.  started running out of juice somewhere in the U.  resultant backfires from the increase in effort diverted my aim several times, thereafter.

all the pipe paranoia here finally got to me last night, so I went around checking hose bibs.  had two frozen.  no heatgun, so I used my MAPP torch from a distance, until I got cold and pissed off at the stubborn one.  sweat joint came loose, just inside the rock wall (haha, very funny plumber guy).  I backed off, and it seemed to hold when it cooled down.  not so much when I checked it this morning.  shut off the main, drained the system, then removed, cleaned and reinstalled it.  bullet dodged.

so...don't do what I did (although it was effective on the ice problem).

.

[Newdoc 3440]

If your hose bibs are frozen, should you even bother to thaw out unless you are going to actually run them until weather improves? Seriously, IDK.

Seems like what's done is done if they're frozen and now you just have to keep pressure off your system.

[TwiceHorn 31470]

I have been worried about W/D lines on an east wall.

Well I just turned on the washer and got a good vigorous flow.  Turned hot water line off, flow continued.  Whew.

Then, I turned it to the drain after spin portion of the cycle and had a minor eruption of water.  FURK!!!

Took me a second to realize that it was whatever it drains into.  A sink trap I guess.  The water backed up for just a second.  The jolt of warm water cleared it and all is good.

I guess the question then pertains to what is happening with our sewer lines?

[TwiceHorn 31470]

7 minutes ago, Newdoc said:

If your hose bibs are frozen, should you even bother to thaw out unless you are going to actually run them until weather improves? Seriously, IDK.

Seems like what's done is done if they're frozen and now you just have to keep pressure off your system.

Might give em a go with hot water with a towel wrapped around it.

Although I don't think the hose bibs is the end of the world, if you can get them flowing again it cannot hurt.  Especially with lows moving into the 20s.

[wd40 1976]

18 minutes ago, luke duke said:

 

None that are any good.

 

maybe, but my working theory lately is there's too many damn lawyers here, and no one wants to take the chance on getting sued.  kind of like how none of the real doctors chime in on the health/injury threads.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

Well I had a pipe connecting one of the outside faucets (covered) burst this afternoon when it was warmer than probably any other time in the last three days.

[TwiceHorn 31470]

6 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I have been worried about W/D lines on an east wall.

Well I just turned on the washer and got a good vigorous flow.  Turned hot water line off, flow continued.  Whew.

Then, I turned it to the drain after spin portion of the cycle and had a minor eruption of water.  FURK!!!

Took me a second to realize that it was whatever it drains into.  A sink trap I guess.  The water backed up for just a second.  The jolt of warm water cleared it and all is good.

I guess the question then pertains to what is happening with our sewer lines?

On reflection, sewer lines probably aren't too much of a concern with things dripping.

In this case, a couple of ounces of water from the last time stayed in the sink trap, unmoving, and the 14 hours of heat off helped it freeze a little bit.  The plug seems to have gone in an instant when hit by the warm washer water.

[Foosters 17856]

11 minutes ago, wd40 said:

maybe, but my working theory lately is there's too many damn lawyers here, and no one wants to take the chance on getting sued.  kind of like how none of the real doctors chime in on the health/injury threads.

fuck, you're onto me. 80% of my practice involves suing surly posters for giving bad advice.

[troph 24798]

I just moved from insulated hose bibs to drip after unthawing with a hair dryer. Second bib took 30+ minutes but it started flowing now I’m dripping it.  I had a space heater on the inside wall for 2+ days. Other one I unthawed after 10 minutes and it was on a drip all last night.  So we are currently still 100% ok but that’s mostly due to uninterrupted power. 

Edited February 16, 2021 by troph

[Post Oak 20213]

Over 40 hours without.  My kingdom for just an hour of electricity

[TwiceHorn 31470]

5 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Over 40 hours without.  My kingdom for just an hour of electricity

So sorry, man. 14 hours about wore me slick.  We were still comfortable, but all the uncertainty.

[washparkhorn 9939]

2 hours ago, Pancho said:

I don't have a hair dryer (blek), so what other options are there? 

Anecdotally, white women in my experience have at least three of them - each.

Volunteer on NextDoor to distribute any excess hair dryers that are placed at your door. 

[davidg 4037]

Well, put me on Team busted pipe.  NW Harris co, power out since 2 am Sunday, came on about noon today.  Wife’s there by herself and I’m up in Tyler taking care of my dad.  Pipe in the ceiling of the garage that feeds the master bath tub on the 2nd floor let go it looks like.   I guess it froze and when the power came back on and thawed out there was a gusher between the floors.  Collapsed the garage ceiling onto all my shit on that side of the garage.  At least it was the garage and not elsewhere in the house.

Guess I’ll get to use that PEX repair kit I bought for the RV.  Gotta pickup some shark bite fittings on my way back after this next storm comes through.

 

[gmr548 16580]

Turned our water off Sunday night to prevent any pipe freeze issues. Tried to turn it back on just now and basically nothing. Apparently loss of water is widespread around Oak Forest and Houston in general.

[Dbeasy 15051]

So with Austin and San Antonio shutting off water, what do residents do wrt pipes? Turn it on and drain?

[washparkhorn 9939]

Pipes bursting comes with a warm up. Be prepared.

Learn how to shut off your water main, if you haven't already.  (for those is apartments, hope that you landlord is prepared to act quickly). 

[troph 24798]

27 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Over 40 hours without.  My kingdom for just an hour of electricity

where are you?

[troph 24798]

1 minute ago, washparkhorn said:

Pipes bursting comes with a warm up. Be prepared.

Learn how to shut off your water main, if you haven't already.  (for those is apartments, hope that you landlord is prepared to act quickly). 

good point, the one that was the worst for us was on the outside garage wall so even if we had a leak it would not be the end of the world.  the other was on the exterior wall of the breakfast area. more concerns but still exterior.  that breakfast one was a non-issue I caught it freezing pretty quickly.  it probably didn't freeze back more than a few inches.  the other one was not insubstantial but still I bet not more than 6 inches. so maybe just average now that I think about it.

[wd40 1976]

44 minutes ago, Foosters said:

fuck, you're onto me. 80% of my practice involves suing surly posters for giving bad advice.

this is how bored I am

[troph 24798]

32 minutes ago, washparkhorn said:

Anecdotally, white women in my experience have at least three of them - each.

Volunteer on NextDoor to distribute any excess hair dryers that are placed at your door. 

four here.  current one from dyson it's so bad ass. two back ups that suck, and a fourth one as a fan for the smoker when we need to get that ceramic up to 800 degrees for reverse seared steaks.  I used the ceramic smoker hair dryer for the hose bibs, it's the "outside" hair dryer.

Edited February 16, 2021 by troph

[Goredho 17406]

I have this and a shit ton of guzzoline.  Who wants to be my Channing Tatum?


 

[troph 24798]

25 minutes ago, davidg said:

Well, put me on Team busted pipe.  NW Harris co, power out since 2 am Sunday, came on about noon today.  Wife’s there by herself and I’m up in Tyler taking care of my dad.  Pipe in the ceiling of the garage that feeds the master bath tub on the 2nd floor let go it looks like.   I guess it froze and when the power came back on and thawed out there was a gusher between the floors.  Collapsed the garage ceiling onto all my shit on that side of the garage.  At least it was the garage and not elsewhere in the house.

Guess I’ll get to use that PEX repair kit I bought for the RV.  Gotta pickup some shark bite fittings on my way back after this next storm comes through.

 

that fucking sucks.  sorry.

[Guest Lobo]

In January, the entire World was laughing at the United States. 

In February, the entire United States is laughing at Texas. 

In March, I assume everybody will still be laughing at me?  

I'd like to make Ercot the new "Munson'd" expression.  

"Did you hear about that disaster down in Alabama?  Yeah, they really Ercot'd that one."  

[Shaddie 1651]

Went to Lowe’s this afternoon and gal was stopping people trying to sell “whole home generator setups”.
 

Might have sold quite a few if they could install this afternoon. 

[TwiceHorn 31470]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Explain, please. So I’m in Dallas. Forecast calls for first temps above freezing to be Friday early afternoon. Do you suggest shutting off my water like Thursday night?  Or before that...

And then what?

Turning off before thaw would be wise, but you won't know if anything's busted, most likely.  Your cutoff is probably in the back yard near the alley.

You could shut if off and call a plumber to turn it back on and react to whatever happens.

[Biff Tannen 45685]

Went out to see if my car would start after 36 hours of sub-freezing temps and she started right up.  I started to scrape the "ice" from the windshield, but realized it's still all snow.  Since we have ice coming tonight, would it be more beneficial to just leave the snow on for now?  Or should I get rid of the snow and put a towel on the windshield before it ices tonight?

There's also a crack about halfway across the windshield that is covered by the snow.  I would like it to not explode if it ices.  It's made it through several years of icing without cracking further, but I don't want this to be the last straw.

[Updawg 2266]

Not sure. I just did the same. A towel is a good idea

[Parliament 14260]

Don't bother. You have far worst things to worry about.

[SizzleChest 8284]

1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

I have been worried about W/D lines on an east wall.

Well I just turned on the washer and got a good vigorous flow.  Turned hot water line off, flow continued.  Whew.

Then, I turned it to the drain after spin portion of the cycle and had a minor eruption of water.  FURK!!!

Took me a second to realize that it was whatever it drains into.  A sink trap I guess.  The water backed up for just a second.  The jolt of warm water cleared it and all is good.

I guess the question then pertains to what is happening with our sewer lines?

[B00M 6416]

1 hour ago, luke duke said:

 

None that are any good.

 

Plenty that can clean your pipes though

[Brew 3049]

On the hose bib discussion, I grabbed a stack of the stick on heat pads (like hand warmers but you stick them to your shirt or some other material) from Academy and have been rotating them every 12 hours under the styrofoam covers. They were all frozen when I checked them before I got them, all have been perfect since. If you can find any, they have been great. One is leaking but other than that they are good. I did forget we still have a well servicing an outdoor area after we moved to city water, so we'll see what happens with it when we thaw out this weekend.

[tfoolry 8214]

Pipe burst behind toilet in master bath.  About 4-5 gallons all over floor before I could get water off.  This is other side in garage.  
 

 

 

[washparkhorn 9939]

53 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Explain, please. So I’m in Dallas. Forecast calls for first temps above freezing to be Friday early afternoon. Do you suggest shutting off my water like Thursday night?  Or before that...

And then what?

I do not have any good answers other than to have someone there to shut off the water when the leaks appear with the warm up. 

[washparkhorn 9939]

Just now, Dr. Beeper said:

I figured I should shut off PRIOR TO it warming up. 

That comes with its own set of issues and might possibly exacerbate problems, but you wouldn't have gallons of water gushing through your house.  

If I was leaving a house in DFW on Weds/Thurs/Friday/Saturday/Sunday for a long period of time, I would shut off the water.  But that may be PTSD talking after the family home in NW Arlington was decimated by broken frozen pipes way back when. 

[davidg 4037]

1 hour ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Explain, please. So I’m in Dallas. Forecast calls for first temps above freezing to be Friday early afternoon. Do you suggest shutting off my water like Thursday night?  Or before that...

And then what?

This is exactly what happened at my house where my wife is by herself.

If your pipes freeze and burst, the ice in the line may make a ice plug that keeps it from leaking any water.  Once it warms backup the ice plug melts and water flows.  I didn’t get any pics but a while my wife was getting the water shut off,  water soaked enough of my garage ceiling for a 4’x6’ portion of the Sheetrock to collapse. 
 

I would at least make sure I know where the water cutoff is at and have a tool available to cut it off.  Mine happened about 4 hrs after the power came back on after being off for 36 hrs.

[Post Oak 20213]

1 hour ago, troph said:

where are you?

Hewitt. 

[kmac30 416]

Yesterday my kitchen. Island got slow, then the rest of the house got low. By 10pm it was all fine. Same thing is starting up now. I’m assuming it’s pressure coming into the house, but not sure. A bunch of neighbors have frozen pipes.

[bmbmd 1027]

Relax-the mayor of Colorado City has advice for all you losers out there.

 

 

[bmbmd 1027]

And again, the mayor of Colorado City....

All, I have set back and watched all this escalating and have tried to keep my mouth shut! I won’t deny for one minute what I said in my post this morning. Believe me when I say that many of the things I said were taken out of context and some of which were said without putting much thought in to it. I would never want to hurt the elderly or anyone that is in true need of help to be left to fend for themselves. I was only making the statement that those folks that are too lazy to get up and fend for themselves but are capable should not be dealt a handout. I apologize for the wording and some of the phrases that were used! I had already turned in my resignation and had not signed up to run for mayor again on the deadline that was February 12th! I spoke some of this out of the anger that the city and county was catching for situations which were out of their control. Please understand if I had it to do over again I would have just kept my words to myself and if I did say them I would have used better wording and been more descriptive.

The anger and harassment you have caused my wife and family is so undeserved....my wife was laid off of her job based off the association people gave to her and the business she worked for. She’s a very good person and was only defending me! But her to have to get fired from her job over things I said out of context is so horrible. I admit, there are things that are said all the time that I don’t agree with; but I would never harass you or your family to the point that they would lose there livelihood such as a form of income.

I ask that you each understand I never meant to speak for the city of Colorado City or Mitchell county! I was speaking as a citizen as I am NOT THE MAYOR anymore. I apologize for the wording and ask that you please not harass myself or my family anymore!

Threatening our lives with comments and messages is a horrible thing to have to wonder about. I won’t share any of those messages from those names as I feel they know who they are and hope after they see this they will retract the hateful things they have said!

Thank you

Tim Boyd(citizen)

Edited February 16, 2021 by bmbmd

[Machinator 32099]

He's not the mayor anymore. How he got to be in that position, though...

 

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

3 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

On Reddit - word is that TxDot in Austin is out of sand. Just in time for additional winter weather tonight.

Complete bullshit. There is no way you can run out of sand.

[washparkhorn 9939]

In planning for the thawing and pipes bursting, a wet-vac or a sump pump makes life so much easier - which assumes power is available.

First thing though with a burst pipe is to shut off water to the affected areas or house.  

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

13 minutes ago, Jiggy-Z said:

Complete bullshit. There is no way you can run out of sand.

But by the point you have moved on to sand then you have definitely run out of crawdads.  That's a travesty in its own right.

[SizzleChest 8284]

Tim Boyd resigned as Mayor to put all of his time into building a crisis management PR shop.

[gmr548 16580]

Another plumbing question:

Turned off water at our house (place is not in great shape, and done at landlord’s instruction though I generally agreed) on Sunday to avoid issues with bursting pipes. Let pipes drain then. Turned it back on this afternoon. Pressure was low, which appears to be a wider local issue, but we did notice a lot of rust in the water and heard what sounded like a leak/dripping in the ceiling in the bathroom. Scoped things out in the attic and found what looked like galvanized pipes with pinhole leaks. So we shut the water off again. Let the landlord know about the pipes and all but I’m confused as water still comes out at a trickle when I activate a faucet.

That’s a lot of context to ask this, but why is there still water coming out after I’ve put water shut off valve back in the off position?

[Ten Bears 2481]

3 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Another plumbing question:

Turned off water at our house (place is not in great shape, and done at landlord’s instruction though I generally agreed) on Sunday to avoid issues with bursting pipes. Let pipes drain then. Turned it back on this afternoon. Pressure was low, which appears to be a wider local issue, but we did notice a lot of rust in the water and heard what sounded like a leak/dripping in the ceiling in the bathroom. Scoped things out in the attic and found what looked like galvanized pipes with pinhole leaks. So we shut the water off again. Let the landlord know about the pipes and all but I’m confused as water still comes out at a trickle when I activate a faucet.

That’s a lot of context to ask this, but why is there still water coming out after I’ve put water shut off valve back in the off position?

Maybe a chunk of ice blocking the valve?  Open it all the way up to flush.

[Parliament 14260]

Delete

[washparkhorn 9939]

Just now, Parliament said:

Like water dripping? There's still water in the pipe, above the hole. Gravity is pushing it out.

That's what i would think - the water system is draining (that's a good thing and you want it to drain if you are shutting off your water to prevent frozen pipes).  

[TwiceHorn 31470]

38 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Oddly, the shower just starting working. I had attempted to let water dribble out, and as it wouldn’t, turned the knob more, and got annoyed it wouldn’t go and walked away. Now, hot water is screaming out and wifey is showering. No pics. Other shower still frozen. Bathtub still not draining. 

I know where the cutoff is. I’m thinking of cutting off water tomorrow morning. 

On the other two are you just trying to dribble?  Put a gallon of all hot in that tub and open that other shower up.