I woke today to find water coming out from under my garage door. We have had a week of freezing temperatures and I feared for the water pipes to the sink and washing machine in there. I had added some extra insulation, but it was too little too late. The garage was awash and a fountain of water was escaping from a pipe in the cupboard. I failed to turn the stiff valve, it was cramped in there and I endured a soaking.
Back into the house to turn off the main valve to stem the flow but leaving me without water or heating. Back into the garage cupboard with a head torch I could see a split in the pipe. What chance of getting a plumber on a Sunday when they will all be busy with burst pipes. I didn’t even try. Self-help first aid was needed. A rubber patch held on with Gaffer Tape and Jubilee clips might be the answer for a temporary repair. But access was difficult with all the other pipes under there. Most of these were dismantled to give me a better working space. Now I was able to squirt some WD40 onto that stuck valve.
A coffee and a warm-up back in the house, and I was ready to try again. Now using an adjustable gripper I could cautiously try and tighten that valve. Much to my relief it moved a little. Back inside to turn the main valve back on only to see water still escaping. Another turn, wary of breaking the thing all together, and it looked as though the flow was stopped. The emergency is over, I had water and heat in the house, and I can sort a plumber out tomorrow.
All this is a prelude to why an hour later I was parked on the fell road hoping to de-stress and blow the cobwebs away with a brisk walk. The above view from my car windscreen says it all. Freezing rain and no visibility. I didn’t even get out of the car.
Not today.
I’m glad you managed to temporarily sort out your emergency and got the water and heating back on – definitely no fun being without just now. The pipes at my morning job have been frozen up for three days so we’ve been using large bottles of mineral water for brews and washing up and 5 gallon drums of water from the boss’s house for mopping floors and anything else. It’s been raining here since yesterday, that fine stuff which is making the packed ice like glass and not really clearing anything much – my street is like an ice rink just now 🙁
Hope when those pipes defrost you don’t have any leaks.
Mild weather from now on, so the ice should disappear tomorrow, go careful on those roads.
Empathy: I had my boiler go off on Friday. Despite having an insurance with Domestic and General at £16/month I couldn’t get through to them. We spent the day and night without heating and hot water. Next day I Googled the error fault and found it was likely the water overflow pipe was frozen. I located that and put a fan heater on to it and “hey presto!” I was back on. The sink in the garage was also frozen and the washing machine uses the same water discharge, so no washing machine, but that has come good today with no bursts.
It doesn’t take much to reduce us to potential anarchy!
The solution is to carry on walking (whenever you can) or dare I say “chill out?”
You were lucky with your garage pipes.
That problem with the condensing pipe freezing is all too common. One can fit an electric element inside it – but is it worth it for our infrequent freezing conditions. Or are they becoming more frequent in these global warming years?
Arrgh! What a nightmare. Hope you can get that sorted. This time of year does stress test all our weak spots. Not a good time to get a soaking, either. We certainly seem to be paying for all that fine, dry weather now. Hopefully we’ll get some half decent walking days in before not too long.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s sunshine.
Know the feeling.
That sinking feeling…