Well, I kinda own this one....

CAJUNLAWYER

CAJUNLAWYER

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The freeze a few days ago played havoc with me. No broken pipes but I have old galvanized piping and after every freeze the thaw brings a lot of crud trough the piped which clogs up faucet strainers, the toilets and the washing machine.
All the pipes are carefully wrapped, but I have found to my chagrin that at least for me, all this does is slow down both the freezing as well as thawing.
Anyway, after replacing one set of toilet guts, cleaning out three faucet strainers and replacing the leaking cold water washing machine cutoff, I pronounced the work accomplished and sat down to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Wife put in a load of clothes and after a while we heard rushing water! :eek: I ran to the laundry and found that I had not replaced the drain hose when I moved the washing machine back in place! (At least an easy fix!) Tried to blame it on the wife-said she should have noticed it-but she was having none of it.
Y'all got any idea how much water drains out of a washing machine!!!!!
Y'all have any idea how pissed my wife was when I used all the towels to sop up the water!!!!
 
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CAJUNLAWYER said:
The freeze a few days ago played havoc with me. No broken pipes but I have old galvanized piping and after every freeze the thaw brings a lot of crud trough the piped which clogs up faucet strainers, the toilets and the washing machine.
All the pipes are carefully wrapped, but I have found to my chagrin that at least for me, all this does is slow down both the freezing as well as thawing.
Anyway, after replacing one set of toilet guts, cleaning out three faucet strainers and replacing the leaking cold water washing machine cutoff, I pronounced the work accomplished and sat down to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Wife put in a load of clothes and after a while we heard rushing water! :eek: I ran to the laundry and found that I had not replaced the drain hose when I moved the washing machine back in place! (At least an easy fix!) Tried to blame it on the wife-said she should have noticed it-but she was having none of it.
Y'all got any idea how much water drains out of a washing machine!!!!!
Y'all have any idea how pissed my wife was when I used all the towels to sop up the water!!!!
Click to expand...

Was she screaming I should have married a plumber?--:D
 
CAJUNLAWYER said:
The freeze a few days ago played havoc with me. No broken pipes but I have old galvanized piping and after every freeze the thaw brings a lot of crud trough the piped which clogs up faucet strainers, the toilets and the washing machine.
All the pipes are carefully wrapped, but I have found to my chagrin that at least for me, all this does is slow down both the freezing as well as thawing.
Anyway, after replacing one set of toilet guts, cleaning out three faucet strainers and replacing the leaking cold water washing machine cutoff, I pronounced the work accomplished and sat down to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Wife put in a load of clothes and after a while we heard rushing water! :eek: I ran to the laundry and found that I had not replaced the drain hose when I moved the washing machine back in place! (At least an easy fix!) Tried to blame it on the wife-said she should have noticed it-but she was having none of it.
Y'all got any idea how much water drains out of a washing machine!!!!!
Y'all have any idea how pissed my wife was when I used all the towels to sop up the water!!!!
Click to expand...

Sort of amazed that you could have these freeze / thaws in LA! :eek::eek:
 
Well, they do have these heat tapes that will warm your pipes in very cold weather. Put them on their own circuit breaker and only flip it on when you think there'll be a problem. How much tape you'll need kinda depends upon the piping layout of your house.

It's much less fun having a freeze with plastic piping. I replaced something like 25-30 feet of pipe for a friend with a 'manufactured home'. Every time I thought I'd fixed everything, I'd find a new leak. Once upon a time there'd been some form of shielding from the air temperature. Time, wildlife and pets had pretty much removed all of it.

Long ago bought a fairly small shop vac when it was on sale. One of the best investments I've ever made in a tool. lIt'll also sometimes suck stuff up out of drains.
 
Last edited:
"Y'all got any idea how much water drains out of a washing machine!!!!!"

I'll take a guess. Pretty much all of it? Now calculating how many square feet that water will cover is a little more difficult. I would suggest you get the water sopped up before you start doing the calculation.
 
A while back I was visiting in Houston during a Freeze.
My Bro’s house and several more that I observed had the water yard line coming up out of the ground at the house, then going horizontal about 6 inches into the house. My Bro had his electric taped.
A friend of my SIL had a covered walkway from her house to her garage.
There was a copper waterline just laying on the sidewalk.
Split open in several places.
No shut off valve.
We had no plumbing tools and there were none available in town.
 
WR Moore said:
Well, they do have these heat tapes that will warm your pipes in very cold weather. Put them on their own circuit breaker and only flip it on when you think there'll be a problem. How much tape you'll need kinda depends upon the piping layout of your house.

It's much less fun having a freeze with plastic piping. I replaced something like 25-30 feet of pipe for a friend with a 'manufactured home'. Every time I thought I'd fixed everything, I'd find a new leak. Once upon a time there'd been some form of shielding from the air temperature. Time and pets had pretty much removed all of it.

Long ago bought a fairly small shop vac when it was on sale. One of the best investments I've ever made in a tool. lIt'll also sometimes suck stuff up out of drains.
Click to expand...

You don’t even have to hard wire tape into box. It can just plug in a receptacle. I use it at my cabin. My water main from well comes up through ground in my crawl space. It is insulated and wrapped with this tape. It comes up through floor to holding tank. Below zero temps are not uncommon and it works great. Never a problem. Well driller I hired sss as I’d he does them all this way. Cheap insurance
 
I "fixed" a leaky faucet one time. In fact, I fixed it twice. It continued to leak. I finally told my wife to call a plumber and get it done right as I was tired of screwing with it and I was happy to pay someone else to get it right. So she did. Seems one of the gaskets was in backwards, hence the leak. Plumber told me that if I would promise not to do any more plumbing, he would promise not to write any more Wills. Funny guy.
 
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