Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Been dealing with this crap all day! 4 homeowners have been without water. Trying to walk them through thawing their pipes cause I can’t get out there.
One day every three years my place looks like y’all’s!
- Thread starter omicron1792
- Start date
Our well pump is in a small pumphouse, a 3' x 4' building that's 6 feet high. I keep a milkhouse heater in there to keep it at 40 degrees minimum.
The house itself is built with a crawlspace, with water pipes underneath. There's about 18" of space down there. Another milkhouse heater keeps it above freezing. I plug it in any time outside temps will fall below 10 degrees. Just plugged it in for the first time this past Saturday, much later than normal.
But in 9 years I've had to replace the well pump twice, and fix busted water lines 3 times due to heater problems. We have jugs of water on standby in case something freezes so we'll have water for the toilet, and the pets.
The house itself is built with a crawlspace, with water pipes underneath. There's about 18" of space down there. Another milkhouse heater keeps it above freezing. I plug it in any time outside temps will fall below 10 degrees. Just plugged it in for the first time this past Saturday, much later than normal.
But in 9 years I've had to replace the well pump twice, and fix busted water lines 3 times due to heater problems. We have jugs of water on standby in case something freezes so we'll have water for the toilet, and the pets.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Your cameras look like an average adirondack winter the past few years.. Can't believe people are riding on 5 inches of snow with brand new sleds up there.
Barndog, Might be worth it buying heat trace tape and pipe insulation. You can get 100ft of self regulating heat trace tape for about 60 bucks. Foam insulation pipe about $1.25 for 6 feet.
I do not have any pipe issues in my current and last home ,but still keep a run of heat trace tape around incase. Used to work in steam cycle and combined cycle power plants. Without good heat trace, the place has a snowball's chance in hell to keep running on a cold night. Electricians and mehcanics used to not like me sometimes, I'd nit pick the heat tracing. I'd tell em you wanna fix it now, or when it's -5 degrees out......
Barndog, Might be worth it buying heat trace tape and pipe insulation. You can get 100ft of self regulating heat trace tape for about 60 bucks. Foam insulation pipe about $1.25 for 6 feet.
I do not have any pipe issues in my current and last home ,but still keep a run of heat trace tape around incase. Used to work in steam cycle and combined cycle power plants. Without good heat trace, the place has a snowball's chance in hell to keep running on a cold night. Electricians and mehcanics used to not like me sometimes, I'd nit pick the heat tracing. I'd tell em you wanna fix it now, or when it's -5 degrees out......
T-Max
5 year old buck +
You still have full pods? If so, what did you plant. Mine e all split over a month ago.
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Brian662
5 year old buck +
Yeah, they're full. I switched over to enlist beans because I'm pretty goofy about controlling weeds. I've read the deer aren't as crazy about enlist beans, I've had mixed results but mostly good.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Building codes account for it. My well sprung a leak this fall where the pipe running from the house connects to the well pipe. That was buried over 8’ deep. We do tend to shut off all our water to outdoor spigots and blow out all the sprinkler lines before winter to keep things from getting wrecked.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
Now is your chance
Frost seed that muthah
At least you can say that you have done it once
bill
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Brian, this happened to me every winter for a decade. Got sick of going up on a ladder in January to remove the ice. I eventually replaced the 3" septic vent with a larger 4" piece of PVC...and switched from white PVC to black. It completely solved the issue. I also wrapped all of the PVC in the attic with insulation. Haven't been up on the roof in 10 years.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Just told my wife last night that I'll be wrapping the attic portion this spring. Ironically, when I got home from work yesterday the house had the sewer gas smell. Smell was gone within 5 minutes after clearing the ice.
Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Yeah, what a pain. Mine was way up 20'....had to go up on an icy ladder. Ridiculous. If you decide to replace the PVC I've heard that if you cut the pipe at a slight angle that also helps. You could also wrap the pipe with some kind of heat tape for now and plug it in when it freezes over.
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
Careful with heat tape. I used heat tape on a pvc line running out of the basement basket pump and damn near melted through it. I didn't know the heat tape got that hot. Got lucky that all it did was leave black marks on the pvc.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
This weather is where our woodstove fireplace insert comes in. We've had a nice oak, maple, ash fire going for a few days. House is nice and toasty, and the fire doesn't have to roar either.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Yep. Had our stove going most of this week. Only crappy part is my kids rooms are on the opposite end of the house so they end up around 65 degrees because the hvac doesn’t push as much heat when the stove is hot.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
That’s funny!
Our water lines are buried 3-4 feet deep under the frost line. The plumbing in the houses are usually fine as long as the heat stays on. Now the cabins are a different story. I need to drain all the pipes for winter. Blow them out with a compressor. Rv solution is poured down drains to keep them from freezing. So I leave my cabins water shut down till spring.
