On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:20:26 -0000
"A Plumber" wrote:
"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
TheOldFellow wrote:
My previous thread about my frozen supply pipe elicited no helpful
suggestions, frankly just as I expected. There just isn't any way
to thaw out a pipe in the ground.
So now it's 4 days later, and the air temperature here has been
above 4 for all that time, even at night, and most days above 6.
Pits dug around the garden in the likely places have not found the
pipe yet, but do confirm that the ground is NOT frozen now - at
any depth.
I've checked that the stopcock in the road is OK, and that there is
nothing impeding flow at the house. The pit was full of ice on
Monday, but has been clear since I cooked that out with boiling
water.
Does anyone know how long it will take to thaw a pipe, or does this
sound like a 'hire a digger' job?
Much appreciate some help on this, as watching SWMBO with the
bucket of her head going to the village pump is getting boring. 
R.
How cold did it get in the air and roughly how long?
My supply is 2' down and have never frozen though the top layer of
the ground does freeze for some random depth - probably a few
inches.
I suspect as you found ice in the stopcock pit that that is where
the freezing took place.
Can you pour some more boiling water down there?
If the ground is now unfrozen at any depth, the pipe should follow
suit - the difference being the ground is not solid water/ice so
has a lower amount
of heat per cubed required to thaw it. The pipe if frozen of course
may take
longer but it is only a small diameter.
Cheers,
Tim
--
Tim Watts
Your supply pipe should be at a "mimimum" depth of 30" to prevent
freezing. the pipe normally goes straight to the house from the stop
cock, you shouldn't have to dig all
over the garden to find it.
good luck in your search
Mmm. Thanks for the information.
Nice in theory. My house is an L-shaped bungalow, the long side points
to the road (country lane), the rising main comes up at the other end
of the short side of the L. About 35 metres from the supplier's
stopcock, diagonally across the plot.
So unless the dorks that built it in 1970 ran the pipe under the slab,
through 90 and through the rest of the slab, it runs right under the
lawn.
Strangely the stopcock appears to be running parallel with the road,
and not pointing towards the house at all. It's also at least 10
metres from the edge of the tarmacked drive in all directions
So I
can't dig round it to find a direction.
Thanks for the good wishes. I rather suspect that hiring a minidigger
is going to be nightmare here for the next six months... Still I do
own a pick.
Incidentally, do I have a complaint against United Utilities as my
stopcock is only 15" below the road? I realise that the pipe from
there to my stopcock is my responsibility.
Let's say that I do have to replace the pipe. Can I bring it into the
house at the end futhers from the kitchen sink, and take it (lagged
with the right stuff) through the roof to the serve the various taps
and the HW tank? Or does it have to come up under the sink?
If I can do that, I still have to cut through the tarmac, but it's the
shortest route to the inside. The stopcock would be in the attached
garage though.
R.