Water mains frozen in Ennis?

Akrasia

It seems like the water mains for the lahinch road is frozen. Is there any chance at all that the council would be able to get it working again before christmas?

Are there other places in Ennis that are without water?

Clareman

I'm out the Kilrush Road and I seem to be ok, I've heard that Corofin is frozen as well

maiden

Im on the lahinch road and water is fine!

Claregirl

Clare Co Co site emergency water supplies:

http://www.clarecoco.ie/water-waste-environment/news/emergency-water-supplies.html

I can't see any mention of frozen water mains.

Battleflag

On the lahinch road and water is frozen too

bossman07

i would hardly think the mains themselves are frozen ,the most likely cause is the service pipe coming from the mains to the proprty which could be frozen, they should be buried in the ground to a depth of 750mm to protect them from such hazards , i worked on water main laying in uk for many years and some in ireland and i can be well confident that the pipes are far from that depth see some thing on sites in clare that certainly were eye openers ,when you finally get water back on leave cold tap in kitchen slighty running that will stop it freezing

Akrasia

bossman07 wrote: »

i would hardly think the mains themselves are frozen ,the most likely cause is the service pipe coming from the mains to the proprty which could be frozen, they should be buried in the ground to a depth of 750mm to protect them from such hazards , i worked on water main laying in uk for many years and some in ireland and i can be well confident that the pipes are far from that depth see some thing on sites in clare that certainly were eye openers ,when you finally get water back on leave cold tap in kitchen slighty running that will stop it freezing

is there any way to unfreeze the service pipe?

I presumed it was the mains because our house and 2 of the neighbours are all without water.

Does the water usually freeze at the stopcock? Would it be a bad idea to go at it with a butane torch to try and get it melted?

Clareman

Last year my in laws (up Shannaway Road) had water but their neighbours didn't, went out to check the stop cock (hehe I said stop ) and it had frozen solid, they disconnected the valve, cleared it and put it back in, water worked then. It was funny to see someone try to reconnect a valve when the hole was filling with freezing water.

pedroThePirate

Akrasia wrote: »

is there any way to unfreeze the service pipe?

I presumed it was the mains because our house and 2 of the neighbours are all without water.

Does the water usually freeze at the stopcock? Would it be a bad idea to go at it with a butane torch to try and get it melted?

I wouldn't use a blowtorch if I were you, my friend.
Many modern pipe fittings contain thermoplastics - you could do damage.

Boil some bottled water and run that over the pipes/stopvalves etc.
Expensive, I know, but better than no water !

Chris

Clareman

Spot on Pedro, ideally if you could stuff some tea towels or old t-shirts onto the stop cock and douse that with water it'll be perfect. I think it's fairly random who has and doesn't have water, my neighbours don't, but I have

bossman07

its not neccesarily always the stopcock that freezea althou they tend to be shallow the pipe could be frozen anywhere along the line as no.one knows its depth , all you an do it boiling water on the stop cock you might be lucky or hot air gun , if your not on a meter when it unfreezes leave cold tap in sick slighty running waste of water and not nice thing to be doing but will stop freezing occuring on service pipe ,depending on age of property and be copper, lead or poly service pipe.

bossman07

Akrasia wrote: »

is there any way to unfreeze the service pipe?

I presumed it was the mains because our house and 2 of the neighbours are all without water.

Does the water usually freeze at the stopcock? Would it be a bad idea to go at it with a butane torch to try and get it melted?

also there is a sealed box thats available with stopcock built in ,we called them Atplas Boxes when i was doing it

cynder

Our waters ok tulla road,

BUT our cold water tank in not filling up, mains is ok.

No idea why cold water tank not filling, frozen pipe somewhere in the house?

bossman07

Right thee Mains or Main the the pipe out in the road , the service pipe runs from Mains to house with stopcock usually at the boundary from stopcock it 9/10 goes to cold tap in kichen with another stop cock there, but on route to kitchen sink like in my house it branches off to tank in loft , so it could be froozen in loft near tank and not affect kitchen tap

pedroThePirate

Place to watch is in the roof space, where a rising main
turns horizontal to feed a tank (CW or CH header).

I've been caught a few times like that when I lived in UK,
where this kind of weather is *normal* in Winter ! ! !

Chris

Ayman

Park avenue right beside Dunnes carpark has an erratic water supply with some houses still having it and others not. Been out to the manhole with hot air gun and no joy. Can't believe there's nobody actually working on the pipes that are frozen. Our central heating might go too as no water in the tank. Its awful. Wish I could get some water piped up to my attic. Nightmare

pedroThePirate

You expect CCC to be out mending pipes two days off
Christmas Day ? ? ?

My, that kind of optimism outranks almost anything . . .

-

See if you can actually turn the stopvalve on the street main.
If you can, it ain't frozen and the fault lies (probably) in the feed to your
house. I know that estate and I'd guess the contractors might have cut some
corners with depth of incoming mains. If they're closer than a couple of
feet to the surface, the Ennis temps of -10 to -14 just lately might have
caught them.

Chris

CptSternn

I'm on the Kilrush road near Cahercalla and we have been without water since Monday. Nothing coming in from the mains - we had a heater in the attic and I had a go at all metal fittings with a hair dryer, with no joy, so its definitely outside where the pipes are frozen.

cynder

Just checked the water tank and its 3/4 full, so had myself a shower while the going is good.

went up to check the water tank again and its not filling up, so not sure whats going on. Also taps are airlocked and not enough pressure in the mains to get rid of the airlock, will try again later.


I know people on the kilrush road opposite cahercalla and their water is good.

When we first moved into our house (5years ago) the water froze and that was because the builders didn't insulate the stop cock outside the house.

Clareman

I didn't have any water at around 9 this morning, but it's back now. If you have problems, leave the kitchen cold water tap open slightly, if your water comes back that'll get the water flowing and should keep it from freezing over again

pedroThePirate

Yes, that flow is important.

Stationary water will freeze far more readily because the
thermal mass is not changing.

Chris

cynder

All water tanks empty and not refilling, thinking its down to low water pressure, not enough presure to fill up tank in attic until nighttime when demand is less. Still have mains water.

Fingers crossed, cant find any forzen pipes in attic.

Ayman

Our heating is now officially gone since yesterday afternoon. Think the boiler like blew up or something. Sure was making a hell of a lot of noise. We'd manually put some water in the tank in the attic before trying to get it going again after it cut out. What a week this is going to be

pedroThePirate

Ayman wrote: »

Our heating is now officially gone since yesterday afternoon. Think the boiler like blew up or something. Sure was making a hell of a lot of noise. We'd manually put some water in the tank in the attic before trying to get it going again after it cut out. What a week this is going to be

Is that a combi boiler that fills from the pressurised main or a gravity-fed
boiler from a small tank next to your big CW tank ?

What you were hearing was entrained air in the heating circuit going through
the boiler heat exchanger. It is doubtful that you have actually ruined the
boiler, though. They're pretty robust at resisting that kind of treatment.

If you have no mains water pressure, you can't recharge the pressure in a
combi boiler, so it's probably off until the mains come back on.

If you have a gravity-fed system, you could refill the header tank from
another source of water, manually. Then, bleed all your rads and run the system.

Chris

trance2004

In Ballyduff, no water since yesterday. Tanks in the garage not filling up, but one of the taps in the bathrooms still gets water from whats left in the tanks.
It looks like our stop cock is located outside the front gate with the meter, would it be safe to put some old towel in and pour hot water over?

pedroThePirate

DON'T ever do that ! ! !

Pour hot water in by all means but never put a towel or
any other cloth material over the stopvalve. It will absorb
the water, freeze solid, and you'll never be able to turn
off the supply to stem leaks when the thaw happens !

Put polystyrene granules or bubble wrap in there to
insulate - never cloth or paper.

Chris

angelfire9

No water in our house in Cappahard
New baby
Should = No toilets / No showers

Oh joy!
Am blessed that my parents live 5 minutes away and am keeping me supplied with water for the toilets but its a pain having to go to my mothers for a shower every morning!

trance2004

No worries pedro, wont touch it. It looks like the weather is improving a bit. 3 days no water so far. Maybe we can get it back very soon due to frost going away.

Clareman

Still no water for me, although people closer to the front of the estate are starting to see trickles through their taps, hopefully soon it'll come down to my house soon enough, once everyone elses tanks fill and open taps are closed

mel.b

angelfire9 wrote: »

No water in our house in Cappahard
New baby
Should = No toilets / No showers

Where are you in Cappahard Anglefire? I'm in Waterside and sometime between 12.30 and 8.30pm last night lost the cold water in my kitchen. Still seem to be able to flush the toilets and use other cold water taps and have hot water. Had thought maybe the council shut the water down overnight but i guess not. Hopefully it's nothing major and with the thaw will sort itself out soon.

Builderfromhell

Good advice given by Clareman and pedroThePirate.

Clare CoCo and other Local Authorities could have helped peolpe a lot by giving advice on their Web site before the freeze came.
They could have advised on
- how to reduce risk of freezing pipes.
- what to do once external pipes are frozen.
- what to do once internal pipes are frozen.
- How to prevent flooding when pipes thaw out.

I fear half the countries houses and commercial premises will be flooded now that the thaw has set in.

angelfire9

mel.b wrote: »

Where are you in Cappahard Anglefire? I'm in Waterside and sometime between 12.30 and 8.30pm last night lost the cold water in my kitchen. Still seem to be able to flush the toilets and use other cold water taps and have hot water. Had thought maybe the council shut the water down overnight but i guess not. Hopefully it's nothing major and with the thaw will sort itself out soon.

Glenview
I've had no water since Tuesday!

CptSternn

One week on and still no water. I was out last night and it looks like pretty much everyone is out of water.

Last year there was an article in either The Clare Champion or The Clare People that described the problem. The pipes which were laid over a hundred years ago are like fifteen inches below the ground. When they were put in place it was unheard of for the ground to freeze past twelve inches. Thanks to global warming/climate change Ireland is going to continue to get colder winters and the ground will be freezing to deeper depths than anyone anticipated over a century ago.

The only way to fix this is to put new pipes in across the county. That is a massive undertaking I don't see the Coco doing any time soon.

I guess we will all have to get used to being without water a few weeks out of the year sure.

Last year our water was out (frozen pipes) for three weeks. Hopefully we will have a thaw this week so it won't be longer than two weeks this time around.

excuse me

no water since last thursday:eek:
how long does it take the pipes from mains to thaw?
any way to speed up the process

Bif

Folks,
Had water until 10 last night...all neighbours now appear to be gone. Rang council and they couldn't tell me if the mains supply was gone / switched off or anything else...anybody else got any info on water supply in Doora area?

Jim Martin

CptSternn wrote: »

One week on and still no water. I was out last night and it looks like pretty much everyone is out of water.

Last year there was an article in either The Clare Champion or The Clare People that described the problem. The pipes which were laid over a hundred years ago are like fifteen inches below the ground. When they were put in place it was unheard of for the ground to freeze past twelve inches. Thanks to global warming/climate change Ireland is going to continue to get colder winters and the ground will be freezing to deeper depths than anyone anticipated over a century ago.

The only way to fix this is to put new pipes in across the county. That is a massive undertaking I don't see the Coco doing any time soon.

I guess we will all have to get used to being without water a few weeks out of the year sure.

Last year our water was out (frozen pipes) for three weeks. Hopefully we will have a thaw this week so it won't be longer than two weeks this time around.

Could be months, not weeks, if this man is to be believed:

http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=6791

pedroThePirate

I report a very rare sighting of the blue/yellow
striated transitus countycouncillus in Kilkee early
this morning.

Perhaps the guys are out of the pub and on the job ?

Chris

djbm

We are in an estate off the Kilrush Road in Ennis. During the freeze last winter we lost our water for just over a week due to the mains water freezing somewhere between the water main/stopcock and the house. Many other people in our row of houses also lost their water, although some didn't. The pipe at our stopcock is only about 24 cm below the surface, and our neighbours pipe is only about 18 cm below the surface!

This year many of our neighbours lost their supply, but ours remained on. I put a 100W light bulb in a wooden box, put it over the stopcock, and covered it with a rubber mat and some carpet. I don't advise anybody else to do this because it means running a cable running outside - also the bulb or fitting could get wet. We also let the water in the kitchen sink run at a trickle (I'd estimate about 1 litre every 10 minutes).

In the spring I think I will try to find a contractor in Clare to advise on a longer term solution to the problem (see link below). Would anybody be able to suggest a contractor to try?

http://prosperous.newsfinch.ie/national-news/water-supply-in-the-cold-weather-tips-info/

bossman07

i worked for the water companis in uk for many years ,stopcock to house can be replaced by property owner but only coucill can touch from stop cock to mains the best stop cock is this one http://www.stratique.com/clients/tyco/pdf/METERBOXES/Atplas%20Boundary%20Box%20Data%20Sheet.pdf

pedroThePirate

That's an interesting rig-up, djbm.
-
I just found out yesterday from a friend in Germany
that they have schemes in permanently cold areas
such as Hochdorf, near Freiburg, where she lives, which
involve a low-power heating element being run alongside
mains water pipes, which is run off the same supply as
the street lighting and comes on automatically.

Chris

woggie

We're in estate just off kilrush road and have been without water since Tuesday but neighbours on both sides ok

Neighbours have been great refilling our bottles as have the civil defense guys over at cahercalla but it's becoming a real pain in the backside, especially with a 9 month old baby to be taking care off.

I fear this is going to become an annual event so any advice as to what we can do to prepare for it next year greatly appreciated. I've heard lots of people talk about infrared light in attic but our problem doesn't appear to be there.

Clareman

If your neighbours are ok I would imagine your stop cock is frozen, I would recommend putting some of the pellets you would have gotten with presents down your stop cock to insulate it. While you're waiting for that if you have an outside tap and 1 of your neighbours have, hook up a hose between both taps and turn them on, that should pressurize your system.

woggie

Thanks Clareman will try that;)

mel.b

Clareman wrote: »

If your neighbours are ok I would imagine your stop cock is frozen, I would recommend putting some of the pellets you would have gotten with presents down your stop cock to insulate it. While you're waiting for that if you have an outside tap and 1 of your neighbours have, hook up a hose between both taps and turn them on, that should pressurize your system.

My stopcock was very definitely frozen as i melted about 10inches of ice from it today. With regards to pressurising the system, what if i am unable to do that? Will it come back by itself or does it really need to be pressurised by another tap/system? Also i don't have an outside tap, so can this still be done?

As an aside, i noticed from the clare coco website that at lot of the town will be shut off tonight including tulla rd, gort rd, lahinch rd and shanaway rd.

glineli

The clare co co website is a disgrace. How hard is it to keep it upto date with known leaks etc. There are 2 mobile numbers that no one answers. The Clare fm site has more information, surely that doesn't make sense. I would just like an idea when they will start to fix the problem.

Clareman

If you have an inlet/outlet that you can connect securely to another then do it, if your stop cock is frozen you won't be getting any water into the house so it won't matter, with the thaw that has been going on for the last couple of days, start throwing as much boiling water down on top of it as you can, you should have water back very soon

mel.b

Where will i find an inlet/outlet & what does it look like?

I melted all the ice on the stopcock today around 1 pm and still don't have any water

Clareman

Every tap/drain is either an inlet or an outlet, I would imagine that the water going into your kitchen tap is frozen, if you can take the tap off and break/defrost the ice you should be ok, hopefully

mel.b

Clareman wrote: »

Every tap/drain is either an inlet or an outlet, I would imagine that the water going into your kitchen tap is frozen, if you can take the tap off and break/defrost the ice you should be ok, hopefully

Thanks lareman. I think i'll leave that for the landlord.

mel.b

Woohoo...got my water back this morning

CptSternn

It came back on here late last night sure.