2023-2024 Winter Weather

[USCATX 1,076]

12 hours ago, Born to Run said:

TLDR

Spanish oaks?

Nah, after a miserable performance in ‘21 we did pretty well in ‘23 and drama this go ‘round has been limited to a few customers with low/no propane.  Amerigas has them on individual tanks for now.  I got all the AE alerts about impending doom and outages in the area, which were triggering.   

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13,558]

The 7-11 in Blanco has no water and I was told that applied to the whole town so I'm guessing water main break.

[texasdago 7,553]

My guess is the delay is due to 

a) ensuring we're not turboscrewed thanks to a non-functioning grid

b) having school pipes/plumbing checked before opening

...because I stepped outside and while its cold here (16), its totally fine.  There's no ice on the roads.  They could totally operate the schools today if our state's infrastructure wasn't hot garbage.  

[HenryJames 65,931]

2 minutes ago, texasdago said:

They could totally operate the schools today if our state's infrastructure wasn't hot garbage.  

Are they able to stop trans people from using the restroom when it's this cold, smart guy?

[texasdago 7,553]

2 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Are they able to stop trans people from using the restroom when it's this cold, smart guy?

Only if they are carrying naughty books to the library

[phdhorn 6,224]

13 hours ago, Born to Run said:

TLDR

Spanish oaks?

Homestead, next door.

Learned last night that Austin Energy issued an apology to us over the news, neighbor captured screenshot but I haven't seen it yet. I guess that's a start!

[The Dog 43,884]

16 hours ago, Homercles said:

This.  My wife works for someone at District who is in the know, and apparently they were all waffling the past hour…so guess they changed their mind recently to do late start.  I’d be surprised if RRISD cancels while all surrounding are just a late start.  Who the fuck knows. 

Story my wife heard was that the Cedar Ridge principal sent out an email saying there was going to be a delay before it was decided. So they had to go ahead and do the delay thanks to that. Several of our friends are RRHS teachers so that's where it came from.

[Armybrat 40,767]

15 hours ago, boilerhorn said:

BTW - laughing at the "punch a bitch" comment, not the other stuff.  One of my daughters (no pics) teaches at RR High School.  Another is a student teacher in AISD.  Yes, do not forget the gloves...

My SIL taught at RR High School for 44 years before retiring in 2011 - original campus, then the “new” location on 620.

[Armybrat 40,767]

[Brisketexan 104,799]

So, still no hot water to our kitchen sink -- that pipe's frozen, and will stay that way till the temps come up (no real way to access it without tearing out soffit.  So, when this is past, presuming our new PEX pipe holds up, we need to come up with a plan.  I don't know if insulating that stretch of pipe will be enough -- we really may need to permanently install heat tape there or something.  Sheesh.

[UTexasFight 9,406]

48 minutes ago, The Dog said:

Story my wife heard was that the Cedar Ridge principal sent out an email saying there was going to be a delay before it was decided. So they had to go ahead and do the delay thanks to that. Several of our friends are RRHS teachers so that's where it came from.

That seems dumb and I’m certainly hoping that BS.

a rogue email sets policy?

nice precedent if true 

Edited January 16 by UTexasFight

[The Dog 43,884]

1 minute ago, UTexasFight said:

That seems dumb and I’m certainly hoping that BS.

a rogue email sets policy?

nice precedent if true 

kind of a "genie out of the bottle" situation I'd guess. Not sure if the email was sent to parents or to staff/teachers. 

[TonyTexas 10,496]

9 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

So, still no hot water to our kitchen sink -- that pipe's frozen, and will stay that way till the temps come up (no real way to access it without tearing out soffit.  So, when this is past, presuming our new PEX pipe holds up, we need to come up with a plan.  I don't know if insulating that stretch of pipe will be enough -- we really may need to permanently install heat tape there or something.  Sheesh.

Same with me in a north side bathroom. I’m wondering, in both our cases, why it’s only the hot water but not the cold side as well. 

[UTexasFight 9,406]

1 minute ago, TonyTexas said:

Same with me in a north side bathroom. I’m wondering, in both our cases, why it’s only the hot water but not the cold side as well. 

Hot water freezes faster

duh

[Brisketexan 104,799]

2 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Same with me in a north side bathroom. I’m wondering, in both our cases, why it’s only the hot water but not the cold side as well. 

We dripped the cold water.  Didn't think to also drip the hot.  First winter having this new setup, didn't think it through.

[ballrific 215]

drip “warm” water, problem solved

[TexEx15 17,493]

33 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

[Trey3216 15,325]

19 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

How I know this is an old man site.

Guy finds an excuse to obviously post pictures of the pump shed he built with a half-dozen photos. 

Me, looking the photos in depth:

 

19 hours ago, BillyGoatHill said:

I went with the pouch/mitten covers this time around as those have come off in the past for me. These pouches have been more secure but maybe not as good as those plastic covers. I had to go out this morning and thaw out (hair dryer) two of my faucets ( even though I had dripped both but they are exposed on N side of house). I think I'll go with a combination of both covers (plastic and pouch) next time around.

As far as pool pump stuff....with Snowpocolypse '21 and then Icemageddon '23 (both times losing power for long stretches) I tried to be a little more proactive and build an insulated shed around my pool pump so I wouldn't have to worry quite as much about it this year. First test happening now, and while it isn't quite perfect ( I forgot to put a thermometer inside as of yet) but with the pump running and a small ceramic heater in there now, it's nice and toasty. When the weather warms up a bit, I'll start the same for my well pump that sits just down the outside wall from it.

 

 

19 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

How I know this is an old man site.

Guy finds an excuse to obviously post pictures of the pump shed he built with a half-dozen photos. 

Me, looking the photos in depth:

Becoming old guy chiming in with....

 

Be sure to report that to your insurance company since it attaches to your house.  And make sure you take copious notes of exactly what's in there so the tax man doesn't try to say you added 60 sq ft to your livable space.  

[Trey3216 15,325]

16 hours ago, Willfully Horn said:

She’s just being koi, Roy; she needs you to comfort her in her grief. 

[atomheartbevo 89,511]

26 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

So, still no hot water to our kitchen sink -- that pipe's frozen, and will stay that way till the temps come up (no real way to access it without tearing out soffit.  So, when this is past, presuming our new PEX pipe holds up, we need to come up with a plan.  I don't know if insulating that stretch of pipe will be enough -- we really may need to permanently install heat tape there or something.  Sheesh.

My BIL cut a chunk out of the wall over a problematic pipe (with an outside faucet),  like a foot square, and put hinges and a latch on the part he cut out, and when it gets cold like this, he opens the little door/hatch and lets the heat circulate into the wall. If it’s really cold, he points a little space heater at it.  One or two more problematic storms like last year, and he’s probably going to open the wall and properly insulate (it’s an older house).  Still, with the little space heater running on low, it keeps the outside faucet warm.

[Guest]

Walked the kid to school today. With the sun shining and still, it was actually quite nice. If the wind blew even a slight breeze, however, it cut through instantly.

[crash_davis 23,090]

29 minutes ago, ballrific said:

drip “warm” water, problem solved

I learned years ago on a random cold night in my new home at the time that my kitchen faucet, master BR sinks, and water coming into my tankless water heater would freeze. Hot water was frozen to all faucets, kitchen sink hot and cold was frozen. When the temps rose later in the day, everything was flowing back to normal. No pipes burst.

From then, on every night where there is a forecasted hard freeze, on almost every indoor faucet, I drip hot and cold. Is it overkill, probably. Would I rather pay the extra few bucks on dripped water to avoid having to pay thousands in repair. Fuck yes.

[Brisketexan 104,799]

2 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

I learned years ago on a random cold night in my new home at the time that my kitchen faucet, master BR sinks, and water coming into my tankless water heater would freeze. Hot water was frozen to all faucets, kitchen sink hot and cold was frozen. When the temps rose later in the day, everything was flowing back to normal. No pipes burst.

From then, on every night where there is a forecasted hard freeze, on almost every indoor faucet, I drip hot and cold. Is it overkill, probably. Would I rather pay the extra few bucks on dripped water to avoid having to pay thousands in repair. Fuck yes.

And....shit.  The cold water tap to the kitchen sink just froze up, too.  We had it on a slow drip, but that wasn't enough.  We definitely have a design flaw/challenge with the pipes running through that soffit stretch.  Going to have to address that.

[immamac 42,732]

Forgot to empty/thaw the lines for my softener and oxidizer that go outside for the regen cycles and they froze so now I have water all over my well closet. Haha worse things than. 

[jimmyjazz 45,659]

  

3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

And....shit.  The cold water tap to the kitchen sink just froze up, too.  We had it on a slow drip, but that wasn't enough.  We definitely have a design flaw/challenge with the pipes running through that soffit stretch.  Going to have to address that.

 

Is that soffit on an outside wall?  Forgive me if you've already gone over this.

Edited January 16 by jimmyjazz

[Brisketexan 104,799]

Is that soffit on an outside wall?  Forgive me if you've already gone over this.

The soffit is really a "ceiling" over an outside patio.  We have a two-story deck.  The kitchen juts out from the main house on the top floor, so it covers part of the lower deck.  So the water line runs through the floor/ceiling below it, out all the way to the farthest exterior wall, then slightly up that wall to feed the sink.  So there's a stretch of about 8-10 feet where all that separates that pipe from the cold air is soffit and not-very-thick insulation (we can feel the floor is cold in that part of the kitchen).  See the fancy hand-drawn sketch, prepared by the same dude who did the drawing of the leprechaun (arrow pointing to exposed area):



 
Pretty sure we're going to have to have our guy pull the soffit and go heavier on the insulation (just for the purpose of better insulating the kitchen), but insulation alone won't protect those pipes.  My current thinking is that we wrap them in heat tape - if it's the plug-in kind of heat tape, then maybe we have the plug end at a small trap door, so when it's going to get cold, I can run an extension cord up there and plug it in for the cold snap.  I welcome other engineering ideas.

[dcbc 14,443]

3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The soffit is really a "ceiling" over an outside patio.  We have a two-story deck.  The kitchen juts out from the main house on the top floor, so it covers part of the lower deck.  So the water line runs through the floor/ceiling below it, out all the way to the farthest exterior wall, then slightly up that wall to feed the sink.  So there's a stretch of about 8-10 feet where all that separates that pipe from the cold air is soffit and not-very-thick insulation (we can feel the floor is cold in that part of the kitchen).  See the fancy hand-drawn sketch, prepared by the same dude who did the drawing of the leprechaun:

 

Pretty sure we're going to have to have our guy pull the soffit and go heavier on the insulation (just for the purpose of better insulating the kitchen), but insulation alone won't protect those pipes.  My current thinking is that we wrap them in heat tape - if it's the plug-in kind of heat tape, then maybe we have the plug end at a small trap door, so when it's going to get cold, I can run an extension cord up there and plug it in for the cold snap.  I welcome other engineering ideas.

Heated kitchen floor plus insulation?   Probably more hot circulating water to worry about, I suppose.

Edited January 16 by dcbc

[jimmyjazz 45,659]

My pipes through my garage ceiling (in an unconditioned attic space) are just wrapped in that split foam tubing.  The garage will get down to near-outside temperatures.  As long as I'm dripping the outside hose bib(s) (team drip), no issues.  Certainly no heat tape.

[texasdago 7,553]

Random Q... would putting one of those 10 hour hand warmer things inside of a styrofoam cover or another type of faucet cover actually help keep it warm overnight?  

[1978horn 891]

6 hours ago, 3adays said:

Dripping Springs ISD now closed to “water issues” all across the district. 

Yep, the WTCPUA had a mechanical failure.  They supply a lot of the areas East of Dripping, which includes 3 elementary schools and a middle school.

Edited January 16 by 1978horn

[Grimas 669]

3 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Random Q... would putting one of those 10 hour hand warmer things inside of a styrofoam cover or another type of faucet cover actually help keep it warm overnight?  

I tried it last night for the first time under the insulated cover our our pool backflow preventer as it's on the north side of the house...

[immamac 42,732]

6 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Random Q... would putting one of those 10 hour hand warmer things inside of a styrofoam cover or another type of faucet cover actually help keep it warm overnight?  

Overnight? No. For the time that they were in there? Yes. It doesn’t take much to keep water flowing with an active heat source (even small). It’s when you have to keep the heat from dissipating that you run into issues. 

most anti freeze things are as simple as a copper wire that gets heated a little bit to keep the outside of the pipe above 32. 

[texasdago 7,553]

6 minutes ago, immamac said:

Overnight? No. For the time that they were in there?

That's what I mean... let's say at 10 PM you take that thing... shake it up and put it on a pipe which you then wrap up with cloth or whatever and then a cover and leave it overnight.  Those things get up to 135, I believe... it would keep it warm during the coldest part of the night until it "runs out".  Seems like it would work.

[Brisketexan 104,799]

15 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Random Q... would putting one of those 10 hour hand warmer things inside of a styrofoam cover or another type of faucet cover actually help keep it warm overnight?  

I have our outdoor faucets wrapped in heat tape with foam covers (one downstairs on one the south side is just under a foam cover and then some soft-sided insulation), but I saw this rig online the other day, and think I'll be going with this from now on:

It is just a cheap night-light setup with a 7W bulb (has to be an incandescent) - a 7W bulb gets the temp up to 40F over the ambient temperature, so plenty good down to the single digits.  I'd make sure that it was mounted on the side as opposed to underneath (don't want to risk a random drip of water onto an electrical fixture).  But I've got 4 outside faucets that I could run that on - just get good foam covers, 4 nightlights with bulbs, and run them to outlets (all but one have a nearby outlet, I'd need a decent extension cord for the one on the south side of the house), and we're done.

Edited January 16 by Brisketexan

[texasdago 7,553]

It's funny but the first day when the overnight temps are done really freezing is like Christmas where you unwrap presents to see what you've got.  

[Brisketexan 104,799]

2 minutes ago, texasdago said:

It's funny but the first day when the overnight temps are done really freezing is like Christmas where you unwrap presents to see what you've got.  

Hooray.  Socks and underwear.

[Pato del Muerto 52,408]

40 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The soffit is really a "ceiling" over an outside patio.  We have a two-story deck.  The kitchen juts out from the main house on the top floor, so it covers part of the lower deck.  So the water line runs through the floor/ceiling below it, out all the way to the farthest exterior wall, then slightly up that wall to feed the sink.  So there's a stretch of about 8-10 feet where all that separates that pipe from the cold air is soffit and not-very-thick insulation (we can feel the floor is cold in that part of the kitchen).  See the fancy hand-drawn sketch, prepared by the same dude who did the drawing of the leprechaun (arrow pointing to exposed area):



 
Pretty sure we're going to have to have our guy pull the soffit and go heavier on the insulation (just for the purpose of better insulating the kitchen), but insulation alone won't protect those pipes.  My current thinking is that we wrap them in heat tape - if it's the plug-in kind of heat tape, then maybe we have the plug end at a small trap door, so when it's going to get cold, I can run an extension cord up there and plug it in for the cold snap.  I welcome other engineering ideas.

The heat tape I applied to the softener pvc that is exposed outside in an uninsulated plastic shed on my last house after it froze and broke last winter, had a thermocouple and would automatically turn on at 42°.  Easier than remembering to plug one in. 
 

but if you go for a manual, I’d install a switch instead of a plug and hard wire it. Label the switch. But yeah a kitchen with two walls and the floor exposed to air, plus I assume an unconditioned attic, is asking for frozen pipes if you don’t live on the equator. 

Edited January 16 by Pato del Muerto

[Brisketexan 104,799]

Just now, Pato del Muerto said:

The heat tape I applied to the softener pvc that is exposed outside in an uninsulated plastic shed on my last house after it froze and broke last winter, had a thermocouple and would automatically turn on at 42°.  Easier than remembering to plug one in. 

I like the heat tape, but the shortest ones I could find (when I bought a couple of years ago) were 6 feet.  So I have extra heat tape just laying outside the pipe insulator.  If there was a 12-18 inch length, that would be ideal -- all I have are short spigots sticking out of the wall.

[Wilcox Cummingtonite 2,918]

1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

I learned years ago on a random cold night in my new home at the time that my kitchen faucet, master BR sinks, and water coming into my tankless water heater would freeze. Hot water was frozen to all faucets, kitchen sink hot and cold was frozen. When the temps rose later in the day, everything was flowing back to normal. No pipes burst.

From then, on every night where there is a forecasted hard freeze, on almost every indoor faucet, I drip hot and cold. Is it overkill, probably. Would I rather pay the extra few bucks on dripped water to avoid having to pay thousands in repair. Fuck yes.

I do the exact same thing you described here. My tankless is on the north side of my house. No issues yet…

[Grimas 669]

29 minutes ago, texasdago said:

That's what I mean... let's say at 10 PM you take that thing... shake it up and put it on a pipe which you then wrap up with cloth or whatever and then a cover and leave it overnight.  Those things get up to 135, I believe... it would keep it warm during the coldest part of the night until it "runs out".  Seems like it would work.

That my my thinking...  My cover is foil lined and insulated so a small heat source in there should trap the heat in there and be good overnight...  Not warm enough to cook the PVC but good enough to keep the brass above freezing.  (I drained the valves but the previous brass one cracked last freeze despite being wrapped and drained...)

[NorthLoop 14,143]

Your kitchen is on the 2nd floor? What an age we live in..... 

[jimmyjazz 45,659]

3 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

Your kitchen is on the 2nd floor? What an age we live in..... 

I imagine he has a Texas-style "walkout basement".  The lot drops down and away from the street, so the upper floor is the main floor.  Pretty common in our part of town.

NOTE:  I don't see the spiral staircase in the artist's rendering.

[Bevo 13,534]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

 

That looks like a real nice house. How many USB ports does it have?

[Bevo 13,534]

3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I imagine he has a Texas-style "walkout basement".  The lot drops down and away from the street, so the upper floor is the main floor.  Pretty common in our part of town.

NOTE:  I don't see the spiral staircase in the artist's rendering.

Is that the one the wily coyote mastered?

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,323]

And just like that...@Brisketexan 's sketch of his house will become a meme of lore & wonder in the annals of surly.

[YGIFS 19,449]

The worst part is he billed the full 59 minutes it took him to sketch that to a real estate client.  

[gsoda3 3,238]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

 

can you line that area with a bunch of incandescent christmas lights?

[Deej 76,651]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

The soffit is really a "ceiling" over an outside patio.  We have a two-story deck.  The kitchen juts out from the main house on the top floor, so it covers part of the lower deck.  So the water line runs through the floor/ceiling below it, out all the way to the farthest exterior wall, then slightly up that wall to feed the sink.  So there's a stretch of about 8-10 feet where all that separates that pipe from the cold air is soffit and not-very-thick insulation (we can feel the floor is cold in that part of the kitchen).  See the fancy hand-drawn sketch, prepared by the same dude who did the drawing of the leprechaun (arrow pointing to exposed area):



 
Pretty sure we're going to have to have our guy pull the soffit and go heavier on the insulation (just for the purpose of better insulating the kitchen), but insulation alone won't protect those pipes.  My current thinking is that we wrap them in heat tape - if it's the plug-in kind of heat tape, then maybe we have the plug end at a small trap door, so when it's going to get cold, I can run an extension cord up there and plug it in for the cold snap.  I welcome other engineering ideas.

That downstairs window has to be a special order.

[crash_davis 23,090]

Here's Brisket's real unedited pic.

 

[Eastwood 4,394]

That area was originally closed in, but the Dart Bowl Enchilada Aftermath Incident of 2008 led to some unplanned “remodeling.” People pay good money for that kind of wall demo, so silver linings and all that.