Texas freeze

[Gigem]

Been fighting the cold all week. Cold won this morning at 4 am. Excuse my **** demo work, I was not in a good mood.

Just capped for now. Costs me a hose bibb for a while. No biggie. Will fix for real before sheetrock.

Will do more demo tomorrow, still some wet rock and insulation. If my attitude is better.

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[dcs13]

Oh, that *****. Its been a tough road. Ive been fighting for 6 days to keep my stuff from freezing. Praying for another 48 hours til we get above freezing... I will certainly evaluate my emergency plans after this.. I'm gonna squeek through

 

[Wheelingit]

I feel really sorry for all of you with the extreme cold. We get that around my way but we are more insulated and better prepared than the warmer states. Hard to believe you are experiencing such low temps.

 

[niget2002]

I have my fingers crossed. Our house has pex. We've had a few frozen lines, but a space heater in the room with the door closed and faucets open have opened them back up. I have no idea if my outdoor faucets have survived or the pipes in the shop. I've gone and checked on the shop a few times and haven't found water on anything, but they could all still be frozen.

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[Jlbc212]

Often damage to piping caused by freezing doesn't show up until the ice begins to melt. Having to deal with burst pipes really does ****. In my former career as a firefighter I often had no choice other than to completely shut down housing and displace families because the water damaged electrical and heating systems. Our local Red Cross chapter was frequently taxed to the max attempting to find temporary housing for families.

 

[bigdav160]

Going to go look at one of my rentals today. 72+ hours without electricity and freezing conditions. Occupants couldn't figure out how to turn the water off and had to get a neighbor to do it.

 

[mobetta]

What a nightmare I feel for ya'all

 

[DeeKay]

Man that really *****, hang in there!
I hate when I hear people up here talking sh*t saying all the people and power companies in Texas should have been better prepared for this. So stupid, that's like saying someone in Iowa should be prepared for Hurricane season.

 

[PWC Repair]

I also feel for you guys. Several years back we had an ice storm that left pretty much everybody in Northern Arkansas without power. We didn't have any backup at the time.....had to stay with my sis-in-law for 9 days. Luckily, my outdoor hose bib sits lower than my whole house. I was able to open it up and open all the faucets and siphon drain the house. Didn't have any fixing to do. My bro-in-law had multiple busted water lines under his mobile home, as did thousands of others around here. What a SHi**y mess!

 

[zkdiesel]

Horrible experiences. Good luck to you!

 

[Hobby_Man22]

I have a customer that preaches everytime we have a hurricane we get freezing weather and so far she's been right. Never got a direct hit but I guess Louisiana was close enough. Although it came kind of late this year.

 

[finn]

Man that really *****, hang in there!
I hate when I hear people up here talking sh*t saying all the people and power companies in Texas should have been better prepared for this. So stupid, that's like saying someone in Iowa should be prepared for Hurricane season.

History shows this happens, to some extent, every ten or so years. It’s more severe this time, but not unheard of.

Iowa gets tornadoes, not hurricanes, and there are emergency plans in place.

 

[DeeKay]

History shows this happens, to some extent, every ten or so years. It’s more severe this time, but not unheard of.

Iowa gets tornadoes, not hurricanes, and there are emergency plans in place.

I think you made my point; Tornados are common in Iowa therefore there are procedures to deal with them. Maybe a Hurricane in Iowa isn't a great example because it's an impossibility, but you get the point.

Maybe a better example would be from when I lived in St. Louis MO. One year we had an uncommonly bad winter. The city ran out of salt towards the end of the season. The city shut down for a couple days because the roads were so bad. A lot of people bitched and moaned that the city should have done a better job clearing/treating roads, even though the same amount of salt had been fine for the previous 30 years. Next year the City bought more salt and plow trucks for the winter. Those same people then bitched about having to pay higher city taxes to pay for said extra salt/pretreat.

Winterizing equipment is expensive and isn't just a one shot, install it and forget about it until you need it type deal. It generally just doesn't make sense to winterize anything in Zone 2&3 climates, too expensive, too much maintenance.

 

[WisJim]

The thing about hurricane vs tornado is the advance warning you have. Days to weeks for hurricane, minutes for tornadoes.

 

[jimindm]

History shows this happens, to some extent, every ten or so years. It’s more severe this time, but not unheard of.

Iowa gets tornadoes, not hurricanes, and there are emergency plans in place.

You might be forgetting. The whole midwest suffered a land hurricane last august. It was called a derachio.

Hundred plus MPH winds a couple of hundred miles wide and traveled from western Iowa to mid ohio.

It *****, but people will deal with it. There will be investigations about it, then millions spent. All to be forgotten till it happens in another 30 years.

 

[McFarmer]

I will not make light of the problems the folks in Texas are experiencing. I read where hospitals have their own generators but when they loose water, they’re done.

Imagine, one of the most high tech industries there is laid low by the one first thing man needs to survive. We’ve come a long way haven’t we.

 

[AP514]

YUP here in Houston we had the choice drain all the water lines or hope water stayed on and drip the fausets......

Wonder what is best ?

 

[pmiranda]

If you have the choice of draining the lines you're not using I'd take it! Rarely is it that easy. Our house hasn't frozen yet but we lost water yesterday and it will be days before we get it back since we're not in the central zone, and we're not a hospital. Tomorrow I should be able to get over to my shop to see if anything was damaged in the freeze and if not I can get a hot shower

 

[jhelrey]

It's not the freeze that you have to worry about, it's the thaw!

 

[pmiranda]

Yep, I want to be there tomorrow for the thaw. Worst case I have fittings in the wall that froze as well as the toilet and water heater I never even had a chance to turn on

 

[elba]

I am 73, grew up in N.E. Ohio . It was cold in the early 60s. The water line in our neighborhood froze and it was 7 ft below the surface !

 

[930dreamer]

I see the sun! Flying to the PNW in the morning to be in the rain for a week.

 

[Lassen Forge]

That helecopter shot of San Antonio on this morning's news was spooky - Slip and Slide on 281, Northstar mall covered in snow... I tell ya, it's ominous!

 

[Ryan]

Banning accounts that post politics.

 

[danfromsyr]

I feel for the people and the animals who just haven't ever experienced such an extreme.
heck Neg temps is a pain here in Upstate NY. and we get them each year.
then turn off the power..
I saw the sea turtles needed to be brought in to safety and that a bunch of primates at a reserve died from exposure..
alot of pets and livestock suffering as well.

 

[pmiranda]

I am now a huge believer in PEX and closed cell foam. Several days below freezing with no heat but what was retained in the ground and slab and had no leaks or frozen pipes. Still have power and water pressure so we set up a space heater in the bathroom and got hot showers for the first time in 3 days before filling up some water jugs and heading back to the city for dinner.

 

[danfromsyr]

Matt Risinger ran a PEX vs CPVC vs Copper freeze test.

 

[ddawg16]

Banning accounts that post politics.

You doing ok down there? I'm guessing you have your power back.

I used to joke....San Antonio would have snow and at the same time DFW would be balmy.....

I remember one winter where it didn't go above 10 deg for about 10 days. Another year, it snowed in March.

It's Texas...don't like the weather? Wait 5 min.

Typical pattern...in the 60's for Xmas day....ice storm on Jan 2nd....

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

Just watching the news and saw that 47 people have perished in the state of Texas.
It saddens me that people have died in your ordeal.
The other night on the news it mentioned our provincial POCO is sending 175 MW of power to the lower US states that are experiencing your cold spell.
Good Lck

 

[aussieblake]

Just watching the news and saw that 47 people have perished in the state of Texas.
It saddens me that people have died in your ordeal.
The other night on the news it mentioned our provincial POCO is sending 175 MW of power to the lower US states that are experiencing your cold spell.
Good Lck

Since the majority of Texas is on its own Independent power grid, anything sent to the states would not help 90% of Texas.

I am located in Oklahoma City, we were more fortunate, some people saw prolonged outages when there was a failure of a component in the power grid system, but many experienced rolling blackouts of 1-2 hours in duration. I live in town but in a more rural area and fortunately I didn't experience any outage. But most I know did.

This will change the way buildings and homes are designed and built. Hopefully it will cause the utility companies and power generation companies to upgrade their systems.

I work in the engineering sector for building systems, too many times I hear that was a 100 year event, or it doesn't get that hot or cold here long enough to cause damage. I realize planning for everything is not feasible, but this will change the way ASHRAE defines design criteria for many locations. To often design criteria is a WAG.

 

[Jazz1]

I am 73, grew up in N.E. Ohio . It was cold in the early 60s. The water line in our neighborhood froze and it was 7 ft below the surface !

Water main in my sons ‘hood broke. There’s been a few this week. It happens, another nearby took 3 days to repair. Only so many city workers. It’s warmed up to -20c this am as we are coming out of a very cold spell

 

[pmiranda]

The thing is, even in warm climates you should insulate your pipes so the cold doesn’t come out at 80 degrees in the summer and you don’t waste hot water. So cheap and easy to do when building but everyone seems to be in too much of a hurry to get everything done fast and save every penny without thought to what it can cost down the road. Build something right and it lasts forever.

 

[lml999]

The thing is, even in warm climates you should insulate your pipes so the cold doesn’t come out at 80 degrees in the summer and you don’t waste hot water.

I was shipping a bicycle from my in-laws house in south Florida and went in search for foam pipe insulation to pad the frame. Guys at Home Depot and Lowes had no idea what I was talking about. Weird.

 

[like2wheel]

The thing is, even in warm climates you should insulate your pipes so the cold doesn’t come out at 80 degrees in the summer and you don’t waste hot water. So cheap and easy to do when building but everyone seems to be in too much of a hurry to get everything done fast and save every penny without thought to what it can cost down the road. Build something right and it lasts forever.

Forever is a long time.

Insulation doesn't prevent pipes from reaching ambient temperatures, it just slows the process.

 

[alexb2000]

Forever is a long time.

Insulation doesn't prevent pipes from reaching ambient temperatures, it just slows the process.

I agree. My pipe burst this week was on an insulated pipe. Not on the seam, valve, or **** end, but right in the middle where it should have been the most protected. It was on a branch that I didn't keep dripping (hose bibb). Not much you can do except shut off the water and drain the system.

 

[Jeepster04]

Curious, is the plumbing in the attic or something? Why do we keep seeing water pouring down from the ceilings? I've never seen plumbing in the attic of a house. Are most homes built on a slab in TX?

Looking like that pipe is just trying to sing a melody.

 

[alexb2000]

Curious, is the plumbing in the attic or something? Why do we keep seeing water pouring down from the ceilings? I've never seen plumbing in the attic of a house. Are most homes built on a slab in TX?

Looking like that pipe is just trying to sing a melody.

My house is slab on grade with most of the pipes in the slab. They come up into the attic space for the water heaters. This line was tapped onto the water feed for the heater and ran across the joists to a hose bibb inside the garage. Many houses in Texas have their water heaters in the unheated attic (to save sq. ft.) and that is where all the flooding is coming from.

 

[Bert_]

It's the nice thing about a basement. Makes plumbing simple and most would take a week without heat before freezing. I realize digging a hole is easier in some places than others.

 

[BruceMc]

Matt Risinger ran a PEX vs CPVC vs Copper freeze test.

That was pretty good. Hard to understand, though, why anyone living in an area with potential freezing wouldn't use frost-free bibs.

 

[BruceMc]

People don't really appreciate just how much force it takes to heave a section of road or a building foundation, but freezing water can exert pressures in excess of 100,000 psi.

For a deeper dive into freezing pipes --

https://inspectapedia.com/plumbing/Force_of_Freezing_Water_Ice.php