Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Frost Line = Water issues

bowman

bowman

Super Moderator
We woke up this morning with no water. Just my luck,it is frozen on my side of the main. I was told that there are spots in central Iowa that the frost line is over 4' deep! I was told that it is actually worse when we get warm weather and winter thaws (50 degrees the last two days) as it pushes the frost line deeper. My house is only 10 years old so one would have expected everything to have been installed plenty deep.

Anyway, it is going to be an expensive fix for me but they told me that it is suggested to let your faucet drip, just like the old days, especially when conditions are as they are.

So......heads up, might be worth letting the faucet drip.:confused:
 
Been on a water main break to locate, the contractor said frost was pushing 6' deep... yikes
 
A TON of water main breaks in my hometown this year.. I'm glad I live in the country. Freeze/thaw action causes the ground to shift also, breaking those old water main pipes
 
water

we just had a water main break here in town, now under a boil order but I can live with that as long as I can take a shower and flush the toilet
 
We were told by the city to run the faucet at half power since about a week ago.

Good luck, hopefully someone can bust it loose for you.
 
Lots of that up here this year. Hear about one a day on average. A plumbing company said about 20 percent of their homes have had freezing problems.
 
Here's a fun one! Your house won't drain. Toilet tub sink nothing! I get home from work and the house won't drain at all. I call the drain people and they come snake the line and hit ice. Oh sorry we can't get through that, you need our jet truck to come but that's gonna be $120. Jet truck gets here 3 days later and blows the ice out of the sewer line. Its frozen outside the house somewhere under the yard. $347.50 for them to come. 3 weeks later it freezes again. Out they come again and another $347.50. The last time was a week ago. Talk about a frustrating helpless feeling.
 
KnuckleDragr said:
Do you have rural water Bowman, or are you on city water?
Click to expand...

I live just into the county but am on city water. I am questioning wether or not it is my responsibility as they say it is. They tell me the issue is on the roadway in two spots that they say the line is only 3.5' deep and that the main is clear back in front of my neighbor's home. However, I remember that they made us run larger main when I built 10 years ago even though the wxisting line was smaller and not up to current code. (I am on a dead end) I saw the markings today that show the water line runs up the center of the road and then turn's 90 degrees along my driveway where the shut off is. While I am the only one being fed on this line, when it was run the neighbor was going to build and was going to tap into what I beleive is the main. He later died and it was never done.

I might be fighting a winless fight but it sure seems hard to beleive that I am responsible for a line freeze infront of my nieghbors house, in the roadway, on a line that is only 3.5 feet deep. I was told that it would have been inspected by them (city water) to meet the 4.5' to 5' requirement when I built 10 years ago.:confused:

Sorry to rant. I just wanted to let everyone know that they might want to crack the faucet for a while to save yourself from the issue I am dealing with.

Wish me luck!
 
My folks are dealing with a similar issue on a rural water main on a dead end road. To my knowledge, I dont believe the residents are being faulted for it though. I would think if the freeze occurred on the other side of the curb box ( if you have one) or valve then it shouldn't be the homeowners expense. Might need to look at the contracts real close to see.
 
If I were you Wayne I'd start with arresting all the city counsil members then mayor, administrator and so on until they cave. Remember, you have no friends in your business.....:D
 
Sounds like it was your service line that froze. The main isn't your responsibility. It shouldn't cost too terribly much to splice it back together for you. Good luck
 
Hope they can get that taken care of for you, Wayne. Doesn't sound like your responsibility. Tons of problems like that in our town this winter. Good luck!

-Longspurs-
 
Well, long story short, the line that is frozen is mine. The main is clear back down the road and my service line is long. It does sound like it wasn't installed correctly as one of the shallow spots the line is only 30' under the surface, obviously not to code. I will be addressing that with my builder.

The answer to my prayers came with a phone call on a whim to my insurance agent. Turns out my homeowners will cover it although my deductable is pretty high. At least I now know that if the repair costs are huge I will only have to pay less than $1000 out of pocket.:way: Better than some of the horor stories I have heard this week.
 
Good luck man! I know it can get pretty spendy once they start troubleshooting, excavating and defrosting the lines. There have been a lot of cases in CR as well; those poor distribution guys have been at it non stop fixing main breaks this year.

If you live in a residential area with quite a few houses you should be good but as you know in your case when you're in a cul de sac, on the end of the line or in a place that doesn't get a lot of flow you should drip your sink. Definitely worth the piece of mind to slow drip into a bucket; plus you can use it to water plants or something.
 
Keep in mind if you are out in the country and have a septic tank, running your water at a trickle could put excess water content in your septic tank and cause it to freeze up. Not a good situation at all.
 
shadowpeople said:
Keep in mind if you are out in the country and have a septic tank, running your water at a trickle could put excess water content in your septic tank and cause it to freeze up. Not a good situation at all.
Click to expand...

Good point! Our neighbors are battling the frozen septic field issue right now and although I haven't talked to them since last weekend about it, there have been service trucks there at least a couple of times this week, so I think they must still be battling that problem and I don't think it is going to be cheap.

Although they are right next door to us, their house is at a much lower elevation than ours and they basically have a marsh right behind their house and I know yesterday's rain probably didn't help their situation at all. That area was ponding up and if it gets cold again...sheesh, they could really be in for it.

Wayne - do you know what type of pipe it is that is frozen? Plastic, copper, etc? There are some "hillbilly possibilities" to free it up if it is metal that you may or may not be aware of.
 
Daver said:
Good point! Our neighbors are battling the frozen septic field issue right now and although I haven't talked to them since last weekend about it, there have been service trucks there at least a couple of times this week, so I think they must still be battling that problem and I don't think it is going to be cheap.

Although they are right next door to us, their house is at a much lower elevation than ours and they basically have a marsh right behind their house and I know yesterday's rain probably didn't help their situation at all. That area was ponding up and if it gets cold again...sheesh, they could really be in for it.

Wayne - do you know what type of pipe it is that is frozen? Plastic, copper, etc? There are some "hillbilly possibilities" to free it up if it is metal that you may or may not be aware of.
Click to expand...

Wow, I hadn't thought of a frozen septic. I am told that the pipe is copper.

Woke a few minutes ago (night shift recoverey) to a dirt mound in one spot and charcole buring with a barel over it on another low spot (hillbilly possibility?). They must have heeaded to lunch. I am told that if they can pin point it they will use heat on each end to heat the pipe to thaw it out.

Day three with no water.:confused:
 
One of my friends has been working like crazy this year on frozen lines. He was just telling me the other night where the main spot they find is frozen at. He said when the service line (Im pretty sure that's what he was talking about) comes off of the water main, it goes up and then back down.. He called it a gooseneck (Made me think of an upside down sink-drain water-trap).. That gooseneck is buried shallower and likes to freeze up.. They dig right beside it and use a hammer drill with a chisel to find the goose neck and then heat back and forth on it with a bottle torch while a sink inside is turned on..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom