Frequent flyers might remember that I sought advice on thawing a frozen
supply pipe (The bit betwixt road and house) in the New Year.

In the end I got it unfozzed by repeated kettles of boiling water into
the stop-cock pit in t'road, followed by extraction of cold water with
wet'n'dry vac. It took 4 days.

Turned out that the stop cock was only 15 inches down, so I reported
that to United Utilities by email.

I had a nice call from UU last week to say that they were planning a
Capital Program to rectify such stop-cocks. Good to know they make
enough money to plan that. I've already got 15" of insulation over
mine.

R.

On Jan 26, 9:52 am, TheOldFellow wrote:
Frequent flyers might remember that I sought advice on thawing a frozen
supply pipe (The bit betwixt road and house) in the New Year.

In the end I got it unfozzed by repeated kettles of boiling water into
the stop-cock pit in t'road, followed by extraction of cold water with
wet'n'dry vac. It took 4 days.

Turned out that the stop cock was only 15 inches down, so I reported
that to United Utilities by email.

I had a nice call from UU last week to say that they were planning a
Capital Program to rectify such stop-cocks. Good to know they make
enough money to plan that. I've already got 15" of insulation over
mine.

hopefully waterproof?

Jim K

TheOldFellow wrote:

I had a nice call from UU last week to say that they were planning a
Capital Program to rectify such stop-cocks. Good to know they make
enough money to plan that. I've already got 15" of insulation over
mine.

If it's like the program adopted by Southern Water, be afraid. Be very
afraid.

I came home one night and nearly fell down a hole in the dark someone
had removed the cover from the stop tap. Stop tap is in the middle of
the path and had a relatively large cover. Called SW they denied
responsibility.

A few weeks later got home late at night to find I had no water. Went
outside and checked the stop tap to find a new cover, locked, no key.

Called SW, they denied responsibility. But sent someone to investiate -
at 2AM.

He sighed, got a key opened cover turned on supply. Came into house to
check water. No water on ground floor but worked OK on top floor. He
said a plumber would call next day and left.

Next day I dismantled the pipes leading to the taps. Every single one
jammed with stones and clay. It took a few hours to go around the house
flushing and cleaning every single cold water connection. Flushed the
entire system which was full of soil.

Later that day got a call "Hello Dis is Clancy Docwra you may have
noticed we did some work on your house for Southern Water..."

On 26/01/2011 09:52, TheOldFellow wrote:

Frequent flyers might remember that I sought advice on thawing a frozen
supply pipe (The bit betwixt road and house) in the New Year.

In the end I got it unfozzed by repeated kettles of boiling water into
the stop-cock pit in t'road, followed by extraction of cold water with
wet'n'dry vac. It took 4 days.

Turned out that the stop cock was only 15 inches down, so I reported
that to United Utilities by email.

I had a nice call from UU last week to say that they were planning a
Capital Program to rectify such stop-cocks. Good to know they make
enough money to plan that. I've already got 15" of insulation over
mine.

I found the same problem when I returned home after Xmas a week or more
after the end of the really cold weather and took the same advice. An
afternoon pouring kettles of boiling water onto the stop cock had no
immediate effect but some time overnight service was restored much to my
relief.

My stop cock is only 18" down but somehow I don't think Yorkshire Water
is going to be as kind as United Utilities. When I pointed out the gland
was leaking 20 odd years ago they did it up so tight I haven't been able
to turn the stop cock off since.

On Jan 26, 9:52*am, TheOldFellow wrote:
Frequent flyers might remember that I sought advice on thawing a frozen
supply pipe (The bit betwixt road and house) in the New Year.

In the end I got it unfozzed by repeated kettles of boiling water into
the stop-cock pit in t'road, followed by extraction of cold water with
wet'n'dry vac. *It took 4 days.

Turned out that the stop cock was only 15 inches down, so I reported
that to United Utilities by email.

I had a nice call from UU last week to say that they were planning a
Capital Program to rectify such stop-cocks. *Good to know they make
enough money to plan that. *I've already got 15" of insulation over
mine.

R.

Had a similar problem though with much deeper stop cock some years ago
(after cable company installed cables all the way up pavement giving
some nice ducting for freezing air.) Still had my mother's old Pifco
hairdryer, so I ran a cable out, aimed the dryer nozzle down the hole,
switched it to highest heat, and put a cardboard box on top. Solved
the problem in a few hours.

Toom