What did you do in the garden today?

[Ascholten]

Leaking on an INSIDE wall? That plumber was a sorry plumber that's for sure. But then again, slab leaks are an entirely new kind of hell, so you are not getting off easy no matter how you choose!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

This video led to 4 hours of my family watching this guy on our big screen TV...

Until DH realized that a pipe burst in the outside wall behind the dryer. Flooded the laundry room, spare bedroom (where my in-laws are sleeping) and the entryway from the garage. No plumbers available for weeks because of all the burst pipes in the area.... My DH and FIL went to Lowe's to pick up supplies to cap it until a plumber can come out. Apparently they bought the wrong size... Still trying to get it fixed... And now every towel in the house needs washed too....

Oh no! I'm so sorry! We had a minor burst pipe situation this afternoon too. Fortunately it was a fairly easy fix because it was an external line running to our garden sprinkler. It was still stressful though! I can only imagine what it's like there having guests on top of it!

 

[Sally PB]

This is the reason when I built my last 2 houses I did not put pipes in any wall.

The idiot who built our house built the house next door. In case I didn't ever tell this story on this thread...

The neighbors' upstairs toilet has its tank recessed about 3" INTO the outside wall, which isn't insulated. It has to be drained in the fall, and is unusable in the winter.

That's even dumber than their garage, which is too short, front to back, for their small car to fit in.

 

[Acre4Me]

@WthrLady -that chocolate guy is amazing - I’ve seen a few things before. Thx!

@TJAnonymous -ugh, burst pipe. Hopefully fixed soon.

Today- three plows on our street at same time, for about 30 min, back and forth…yes, that bad. Only a couple inches snow, but all the hundreds of farm fields around us and on this road have a dusting, but we have 5+ ft drifts due to the constant high winds. More plows throughout the day, and now husband and friend are trying to remove snow so we can actually drive out of our driveway eventually.

Looks like a toy here, but a pretty large green farm tractor piling up the snow at the corner of our driveway. Not sure the reach of that arm, but he was piling it up until he could no longer dump it, then he’d move on to another pile.

Wind through tomorrow. It hasn’t let up. Yes. The intensity was generally less today. But we still had some whiteout conditions this afternoon.

 

[TJAnonymous]

It's a little late now but for ANYONE who is in sub freezing weather, especially those who generally in climates where this kind of weather does not usually happen. If you have pipes on the outside walls of the house, ie your kitchen you look out the window above the sink and you see the yard. Thats a good chance that water pipe is running along that OUTSIDE wall somewhere for some feet. It's a toss up whether they insulated it good or not. Given it's hidden behind a wall and you can not see it, you can guess how good of a job they did.

With that, leave the faucets run overnight JUST A SMALL TRICKLE. You don't need gallons of water gurgling down the drain, but just a trickle. That movement in many instances is just enough to keep the pipes from freezing solid and bursting. Ive done that many years since I blew a pipe in the wall and have not had a problem since.

Aaron

Edit I almost forgot. If it's a kitchen sink or something, open the drawers under the sink so that the heat from the house can get up under there where the pipes are and help keep them warmer. If you are in a BAD situation get yourself a small space heater and place it on LOW heat, you don't need a ton of watts and aim it up in there. Make sure it's sitting where there is not flammables around.

I grew up in the north (Michigan & Indiana) so I know the tricks. This happened to be from an outdoor water spigot that I think is branched off the laundry sink. The water spigot winterized so we never suspected it to cause problems...

 

[WthrLady]

@WthrLady -that chocolate guy is amazing - I’ve seen a few things before. Thx!

@TJAnonymous -ugh, burst pipe. Hopefully fixed soon.

Today- three plows on our street at same time, for about 30 min, back and forth…yes, that bad. Only a couple inches snow, but all the hundreds of farm fields around us and on this road have a dusting, but we have 5+ ft drifts due to the constant high winds. More plows throughout the day, and now husband and friend are trying to remove snow so we can actually drive out of our driveway eventually.

Looks like a toy here, but a pretty large green farm tractor piling up the snow at the corner of our driveway. Not sure the reach of that arm, but he was piling it up until he could no longer dump it, then he’d move on to another pile.

View attachment 3357989

Wind through tomorrow. It hasn’t let up. Yes. The intensity was generally less today. But we still had some whiteout conditions this afternoon.

12-15 feet reach

 

[Ascholten]

The idiot who built our house built the house next door. In case I didn't ever tell this story on this thread...

The neighbors' upstairs toilet has its tank recessed about 3" INTO the outside wall, which isn't insulated. It has to be drained in the fall, and is unusable in the winter.

That's even dumber than their garage, which is too short, front to back, for their small car to fit in.

THey didn't notice that when they moved in? That is something that really should have been stated on the sale or something like adeficiency. Shady. The only reason the tank is recessed is because they F'd up when the put the pipe down and did the blueprints wrong. It'd be a little expensive but that CAN be fixed, cut floor, cut off 4 to 6 from the poo pipe, re glue and then remount toiled out where it belongs. If they did that to me I'd bag my $#%t all winter long then drive by and dump it on the builders porch every spring!

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

Pipe has been capped and water is back on. It will get us by for the time being until we can get a plumber out here. DH said the plumbing aisle was PACKED with people all dealing with the same issue.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Pipe has been capped and water is back on. It will get us by for the time being until we can get a plumber out here. DH said the plumbing aisle was PACKED with people all dealing with the same issue.

I know it was a huge pain but I'm so glad you have it resolved for now!

 

[Ascholten]

oh yah, anytime the weather gets really rotten like this. Plumbing takes a serious hit and windows too. People go and blow on the windows, smoosh their noses against them and POW window cracks or shatters.

cars get whalloped too as people bring hot water out to thaw things and CRACK !!

Aaron