Broken water pipe - Xmas morning surprise

[sassafraspete]

Ok....first time for me in 20 yrs at this house....I had a frozen pvc water pipe break this morning. It occured at the weakest link....where the line goes to the outside spigot on the side of the garage.

Loaded up the wood furnace in the basement this morning and heard nothing, however about an hour later my wife goes to let the dog out, and says hey, we got water pouring out in the garage.

I ran down there and shut the whole house valve off....then took a look. Luckily, it was at the edge of the garage (unfinished wood frame walls) and was close to the garage door. The water just ran under the garage door and down the driveway. No cleanup necessary. I have a shutoff for that one line so I shut the valve off and drained the line, then dug out some old plumbing supplies and then capped the end of the line with another shutoff. I will fix it in a more proper manner later on.

The funniest thing about this was that I noticed the water pressure had dropped after my wife took a shower, and had just got thru saying that our water company must have a break this morning due to being below zero. Didn't occur to me that it was my own pipe causing the issue. I had been thru minus 25 before without issue.

My morning started out , sitting in front of the woodstove, drinking a cup of coffee, looking out at the snow, firing up the laptop to look at TBN, smelling my wife's fresh baked breakfast rolls in the oven....and listening to George Winston's "December" ....piano music for the occasion....then the water line break. Oh well, back in business now....and as my wife says, better it be our house than the main line, as can you imagine those guys working on xmas day, in 20 inches of snow, below zero temps, trying to dig up a main line.

Hmmmmm, did I say those rolls sure smell good in the oven.....time to put another log on the fire, life is good.

sassafraspete

 

[Moon]

Good job. At least you had a shutoff already in place for that line. Makes plumbing problems easier to handle.
You might already know this, but just in case you don't .....they have 'no freeze' outside valves. 12 inches and I think they also have 18" ones. When you shut off the water outside, the actual valve sits either 12" or 18" behind it (inside the house).
It's cold over here this morning too. 21F here right now.

Moon of Ohio

 

[PineRidge]

Moon is right the valves don't freeze as long as you don't have a hose hooked up to them. If you do then you could still have problems.

Glad your problems were easily handled and at worst your garage floor got a good wash job.

Merry Christmas!

 

[sassafraspete]

What has been a help to me is that I built my own house with the help of family and friends. My bro-in-law did my plumbing work so I directed him on putting more cleanouts, shutoffs , etc so my life would be easier. I have an all weather wood wall (8 inch treated lumber with 3/4 treated plywood skin, and cedar siding. We didn't have the width to use the regular spigots you mention, so opted for a shutoff valve, with weeper cap....and I am supposed to shut this valve off and drain the line, to avoid any problems. I hadn't done this the whole 20 yrs I have lived here....first time any problems.

 

[BigAl]

May I have another roll please? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Merry Christmas and enjoy your day .
Big Al

 

[Steve_Miller]

<font color="orange"> My morning started out , sitting in front of the woodstove, drinking a cup of coffee, looking out at the snow, firing up the laptop to look at TBN, smelling my wife's fresh baked breakfast rolls in the oven....and listening to George Winston's "December" ....piano music for the occasion.... </font>
I was jealous up to this point, glad there was no damage.


Happy Holidays
Steve

 

[ThistleKop]

Sassafras, Seems that bad things pick the worst time. The morning before Christmas Eve I was on TBN reading the latest posts and from the kitchen Mrs. TK says, THERE'S NO HOT WATER!!. You guessed it. Companies coming tomorrow and the water heater has failed, roads are covered with new ice, and my two prospective repair men are unavailable. I replaced the heater, company came, Christmas came and went and we had a wonderful Christmas. Look at my by-line that follows my post. For a short time that morning I must confess, that didn't seem like small stuff.

TK

 

[LBrown59]

My brothers furnace went down at 1:am Xmas morning.
No heat till 3m yesterday after new furnace was installed.

 

[SPIKER]

Hi All:

I got Electric again!@ /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif yeaaaa. it went down Wensday night or thursday morning, today it went back on right as I was getting of work... turned on my pump and no water leaks that I could see/hear... I shut pump back off and will check water pressure on the tank tomarrow. the temps have been down to -17 F this past weekend... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif brrrrrrr. my tractor did start up thursday night for the drive plowing and the hard part was getting the rototiller off ! (hadn't starter her since october! no charger or block heater on it even if power HAD been on it!) it was very dark in the barn fumbling around for the hiden tractor key and missing all the lumber I have laying about /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif It took 2 hrs to get the drive 3/4 plowed using my box blade but it probably was lot less as I had to remove tiller, then install box blade which was snowed in under 16 or so inches of ice & snow. I parked her when it got too cold and gave up for the night, it dropped to -17 that night /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I did get x-mas day off (was susposed to work replacing a main line transformer at work, was too cold and the ice kept the gates froze shut so they called it off. one good thing about the cold & snow I guess!) /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[sassafraspete]

You guys in Ohio have had your hands full. I feel fortunate to not have gotten the ice. I'll take the snow any day over the ice. It's true that these things always pick the darndest times to happen. It's hard to chisel those implements out of the ice if they have been sitting outside. We had a very dry , fluffy snow here where we live, which was a blessing since it is easier to deal with . I will admit to using my gasoline powered leaf blower to blow snow off of my van! I guess the man upstairs is just testing us all.