I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street). We went on vacation and never left a faucet trickling and
Chicago just had a very bad freeze. We came back to zero water in our
coach house. The water main is not frozen (front building has water).
The line which runs underground from the front building to the coach
house is what I assume is frozen. We've had a full week of temps in
the 40's, but we still don't have water. Any ideas??
Thanks is advance!

wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street). We went on vacation and never left a faucet trickling and
Chicago just had a very bad freeze. We came back to zero water in our
coach house. The water main is not frozen (front building has water).
The line which runs underground from the front building to the coach
house is what I assume is frozen. We've had a full week of temps in
the 40's, but we still don't have water. Any ideas??
Thanks is advance!


Could still be frozen. Takes a very long time to thaw underground. 40's in
the day, but what about at night? Is it a copper pipe? There are ways to
defrost without digging up assuming the pipe is not split. You probably
need a pro.

wrote:

I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street). We went on vacation and never left a faucet trickling and
Chicago just had a very bad freeze. We came back to zero water in our
coach house. The water main is not frozen (front building has water).
The line which runs underground from the front building to the coach
house is what I assume is frozen. We've had a full week of temps in
the 40's, but we still don't have water. Any ideas??
Thanks is advance!


Will the city help? Maybe, if it is separately metered.

The line must run at shallow depth to freeze underground.
Just seems surprising.

If the line is metallic (copper/galv), commercial firms
can thaw it electrically.

Don't rule out stuck valves somewhere in the service
(as an example).

Jim

It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?

wrote in message
oups.com...
It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?

It was very cold for a long time. A few hours a day above freezing is not
going to cure it.

wrote:
It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?

No, it will stay totally frozen until the entire line is thawed and that
means all the ground down to where the pipe is frozen needs to thaw. At 40º
that is going to take a while.

BTW the electrical trick is to use an electric welder to put some heavy
current through the pipe to warm it. You need to have some idea of what you
are doing to do that or it can cause damage. It does work however.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

On Feb 24, 9:04 am, wrote:
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street). We went on vacation and never left a faucet trickling and
Chicago just had a very bad freeze. We came back to zero water in our
coach house. The water main is not frozen (front building has water).
The line which runs underground from the front building to the coach
house is what I assume is frozen. We've had a full week of temps in
the 40's, but we still don't have water. Any ideas??
Thanks is advance!

I am in Wisconsin, and even with the severe cold over the past couple
of weeks, we didn't get frost to any significant depths. It seems
very hard to believe that any competent plumber buried the pipe
shallow enough where it would freeze. The water laterals on most
houses here are buried at least 4' down.

Please keep us up to speed once you solve the problem.

JK

On 24 Feb 2007 07:22:16 -0800, wrote:

It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?

I don't think it works that way. Once there was a slight opening,
water going through it would melt the opening bigger pretty quickly.

But when there is no flow, everything around the ice is also cold and
it will take time.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T LEAVE THE FAUCETS ON, OR WHEN THE PIPES THAW,
THEY WILL FLOOD YOUR HOUSE. MAYBE YOU CAN LEAVE ONE WHICH HAS A GOOD
DRAIN OPEN A CRACK, BUT I AND OTHERS CAN TELL YOU THAT YOUR "OVERFLOW"
IS NOT BIG ENOUGH TO DRAIN AWAY A LOT OF WATER, AND IF THE FAUCET IS
OPEN WHEN YOU ARE NOT THERE, THE SINK WON'T BE STOPPED FROM
OVERFLOWING BY THE SO-CALLED OVERFLOW.

On 24 Feb 2007 08:38:50 -0800, "Big_Jake"
wrote:

On Feb 24, 9:04 am, wrote:
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street). We went on vacation and never left a faucet trickling and
Chicago just had a very bad freeze. We came back to zero water in our
coach house. The water main is not frozen (front building has water).
The line which runs underground from the front building to the coach
house is what I assume is frozen. We've had a full week of temps in
the 40's, but we still don't have water. Any ideas??
Thanks is advance!

I am in Wisconsin, and even with the severe cold over the past couple
of weeks, we didn't get frost to any significant depths. It seems
very hard to believe that any competent plumber buried the pipe
shallow enough where it would freeze. The water laterals on most
houses here are buried at least 4' down.

Please keep us up to speed once you solve the problem.

i HAD A friend who said her well was dry and for weeks she was getting
water at work. Finally she called someone and found out that the well
pump had broken!

To top it off, it was only 2 or 4 years old.

JK

"Big_Jake" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Feb 24, 9:04 am, wrote:
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street).

It seems
very hard to believe that any competent plumber buried the pipe
shallow enough where it would freeze.

True, but he did not say it was a competent plumber. Being a coach house in
back of the main house, it may have been done by the original owner with no
permits or inspections 100 years ago.

On Feb 24, 2:08 pm, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:
"Big_Jake" wrote in message

oups.com...

On Feb 24, 9:04 am, wrote:
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street).
It seems
very hard to believe that any competent plumber buried the pipe
shallow enough where it would freeze.

True, but he did not say it was a competent plumber. Being a coach house in
back of the main house, it may have been done by the original owner with no
permits or inspections 100 years ago.

I was thinking that too, but you would think that it would have frozen
on a regular basis over that time, and probably burst. Overall, this
winter has been pretty mild. BTW, coach houses, multiple houses on
one lot and mulitple houses sharing the same water service are pretty
common in my area. I never get to see a shallow service unless I am
vacationing somewhere warm. But, of course, you may be right...

JK

wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street). We went on vacation and never left a faucet trickling and
Chicago just had a very bad freeze. We came back to zero water in our
coach house. The water main is not frozen (front building has water).
The line which runs underground from the front building to the coach
house is what I assume is frozen. We've had a full week of temps in
the 40's, but we still don't have water. Any ideas??
Thanks is advance!


cut off the supply to the coach house till it gets warmer or you can get it
checked in case there is a leak

wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street). We went on vacation and never left a faucet trickling and
Chicago just had a very bad freeze. We came back to zero water in our
coach house. The water main is not frozen (front building has water).
The line which runs underground from the front building to the coach
house is what I assume is frozen. We've had a full week of temps in
the 40's, but we still don't have water. Any ideas??

You might have another problem ahead of you. The pipe might have split.
Freezing water expands and often burst or splits or disconnects the unions
of copper water lines.

"Big_Jake" wrote in message

I was thinking that too, but you would think that it would have frozen
on a regular basis over that time, and probably burst. Overall, this
winter has been pretty mild.

He did mention that water was not left dripping so it may have happened
before. After once, I'd have wanted to fix it right, but . . . . .

wrote:
It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?


Hmmm,
How could they do that? Pipe should be buried below frost line which is
6 feet where I live.

Where the heck is that? 36" is deep enough in most of the US of A.

--
Steve Barker




"Tony Hwang" wrote in message
news:En5Eh.1136401$R63.547558@pd7urf1no...
wrote:
It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?


Hmmm,
How could they do that? Pipe should be buried below frost line which is
6 feet where I live.

"Tony Hwang" wrote in message
news:En5Eh.1136401$R63.547558@pd7urf1no...
wrote:
It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?


Hmmm,
How could they do that? Pipe should be buried below frost line which is
6 feet where I live.

6 Feet? Where do you live, Antarctica?

On Feb 24, 5:46 pm, "Eigenvector" wrote:
"Tony Hwang" wrote in message

news:En5Eh.1136401$R63.547558@pd7urf1no...

wrote:
It is a copper pipe. Ahoudln't I be getting at least some dripping
after the weather warmed up for a week?

Hmmm,
How could they do that? Pipe should be buried below frost line which is
6 feet where I live.

6 Feet? Where do you live, Antarctica?

Just a wag here but since Tony's email ends in .ca that might
indicate Canada

& since a lot of Canada gets as cold or colder than Minnesota, his 6
ft number is probably right

here are current & historical frost depths for Minnesota

http://www.mrr.dot.state.mn.us/resea...haw_graphs.asp

ain't the internet got all sorts of data

and for those interested in the current season snow depth in Yosemite

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/q...Feb-2007+19:18

cheers
Bob