Mains water frozen - I think. Tips?

C

Caveat

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Hi

Shower cut off mid-flow this morning - strange. no water at all then from hot or cold taps.

Checked tank in roof space which was empty except for this layer of ice at the bottom.

I'm assuming the mains water has frozen and if so, I believe it's basically a waiting game.

Will be away form the house tonight (out of necessity) and on a few nights over the next 4 or 5 days - scheduled to be away anyway. Any tips?

What should we or should we not do in the meantime?

E.g. Thinking of pouring a little warm bottled water into bottom of tank - good or bad idea?
 
I don't think defrosting the tank will get water back.
Do your neighbors have water, if so its just your stopcock or he mains to your house.
You need to defrost the stopcock or the water main coming into your house.
If everyone has no water, it might be a burst main further away, notify th council and hope for the best!
 
corkgal said:
I don't think defrosting the tank will get water back.
Click to expand...

Well it just did :D

Kind of. Defrosted pipes leading into tank and we're back in business - literally 10 minutes ago. Used closely placed blow heater.

Maybe others should try this before they assume it's an outside pipe that has frozen - which is what we sort of assumed.

Thanks anyway corkgal.
 
I had the same problem last January but I used a hair dryer to thaw the feeder pipe to the header tank. The ball cock was also frozen in the up position which I freed up with some hot water. I leave the attic door open for a few hours each day at the moment to leave some heat up - haven't had a problem so far.
 
Hi Cav. I had that problem last year. Water seeped in around the stopcock cover outside and it literally froze in a ball and we had no water for a week. :(

This year I got a thing called a stopcock cosy. It's a cylindrical insulator with a cap that fits snugly around the stop cock. Not cheap at €25 (Cork Builders Providers, a bit of a distance from you, I know), but well worth it. I sealed around the cover with silicone and I placed a small sheet of rigid insulation, that I had in my shed, over it. It's been much colder this year but we've had no problem whatsoever. :)

Ensure also that there isn't any insulation under your attic tank if it's less than 30cm off the attic floor. The heat coming up from underneath will prevent it from freezing. Also, you should insulate the tank itself. You can use fibreglass or you can get lagging jackets, specially designed for the job, in any builders providers or good DIY outlet. Just make sure you measure the tank first as there are a number of different sizes. And, of course, make sure to lag all of your attic pipes as well.
 
Also- if you are going away Caveat for a few days turn off the mains supply into the house (probably near kitchen sink) and leave attic door open a little - God Forbid if you spring a leak at least the amount of water that could leak is finite
 
All house in our estate are frozen at main since Monday, nightmare, have tried everything, kettles of hot water and all that but no good. Could be next week I expect b4 any running water, fed up of this weather now..
 
I have one of the stopcock cosy things and had no problems until this morning. We have water in toilets and hot taps but there was water from the cold tap this morning but very low pressure and then it stopped altogether so I presume its mains. If its not the stopcock is there any way to find where it's frozen ? There is a burst water main locally so I was hoping that was the problem as there may be some chance of that getting fixed but one of the neighbours has water so I was probably clutching at straws. Is there anything we can do or do we just have to wait it out. Thanks AmC
 
If the mains is frozen externally, very little you can do AFAIK.

Unless your house is quite new (where typically it seems the water mains are not nearly as deeply buried and therefore more susceptible) my plumber told me that more often than not the problem is internal - as it was in our case.

Maybe a trip to the roof space with a blow heater or hairdryer is in order?

Might take a bit of time but just apply the heat (carefully, and not too closely) to all the feeder pipes starting closest to the tank.

It worked for us.

Please do be very careful though - water and electricity - also, the water could return with a few spurts so watch out for that in particular.

Good luck!
 
If your mains is frozen on the way in, forget it! I have tried all, waste of time. Thaw is only thing that will get water back coming into your house sadly...
 
Amazing what we take for granted such as water - ah well just gathered the empty big water cooler bottles in work so will fill them and bring them home to start with and then rely on good will of people with water to keep us going through the freeze. Caveat if its the cold water supply thats gone though it probably means its outside but will try the attic as well. Tks and Merry Christmas dry or otherwise !
 
hi, Im on my own at the moment and need some help.

The cold taps are running fune but we have no water coming from hot taps. What does this mean and do i need to turn off mains? If so, where or how?
Havent a bulls, sorry.
 
It's possible that the feed from the storage tank in the attic to your hot water cylinder in hot press is frozen, or the storage tank has drained due to the incoming mains that has frozen up in the attic. This will lead to no hot water supply.
Keep the heating on and if possible open the hatch up to the attic and leave heated air from below up into the attic which may defrost frozen pipes.
There should be a stopvalve on your incoming mains under/near the kitchen sink. Turn this valve in a clockwise direction to turn off if you have any problems.
You are not the only one suffering at the moment as the temperatures are freezing pipes below and above ground. The time to be alert is when the thaw comes as this is when the leaks are going to show!! Remember that valve!!
 
Thanks Villa.

I asked a neighbour who is a pumber to come in and apparently the ballcock in the tank is gone so the tank wasnt filling. He filled it there now and turned off the mains and will pop in tomorrow to replace the ballcock.
panic over.
thanks
 
The stopcock outside the front of your house is usually the point at which the mains water will freeze. It is the point where the pipes are closest to the surface. The pipe comes up from deep underground to the stopcock and then returns deep underground before heading into your house (usually under the kitchen sink).

As some have mentioned some houses (particularly recent shoddy builds) have the stopcock too close to the surface. This results in them freezing more easily.

However, copious amounts of boiling water poured down on top of the stopcock should get the water going again. It may take a while but it will return. The only problem with this solution is that people don't tend to have copious amounts of boiling water as their water supply is frozen!!
 
I bet they have copious amounts of snow and ice.
They could build a fire from local firewood and a tinderbox, and boil up some snow.
 
We are going away today for a week and were going to leave our heat running on a timer in mroning and at night to stop pipes from freezing. My dad however said that wont stop pipes in attic from freezing and instead we should turn off mains today and empty the tank so there's no water in the pipes at all. What do you think is best? If we turn off mains can we still leave gas running to keep the some bit of heat in the house?
 
Leave the heating on a timed sequence, turn off the mains supply at the valve normally found under the kitchen sink and finally drain down your cold water storage tank in the roofspace using taps in the bathroom.
 
if a thaw comes tomorrow will the frozen pipes thaw quickly or would it take a long time....we have no water also and it is from outside its frozen
 
athens2004 said:
if a thaw comes tomorrow will the frozen pipes thaw quickly or would it take a long time....we have no water also and it is from outside its frozen
Click to expand...

Could take a while if it's outside, you could try pouring hot water on the stopcock outside which would help speeds things up if that is where the freeze is. Worth a try and you may get lucky.
 
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