How soon should water come back after thaw?

CockneyGirl

I have been without water since last Tues (21st) and today the thaw has started. How soon should the water start to flow normally?

Tried all the taps and some have a slow flow from the hot taps downstairs (kitchen and downstairs loo) but nothing from un-suite and bathroom (upstairs). No water at all from any of the cold taps.

I also tried the showers to see if the water tank in the attic was starting to fill - just gave them a quick blast when pulling the cord (water came through this morning - nothing this evening).

All the toilets vary - the ones upstairs did flush at first but the downstairs loo still doesnt.

Any advice would be great as I dont think I could go on much longer with the situation.

PS I have opened the attic trap door hoping the heat from central heating would help.

J.Ball

Mine came back there about an hour ago was without upstairs water and some of downstairs (toilet, hot water). Stick an electric radiator of a heater in the attic and it will speed matters up alot faster then just leaving the attic door open. Worked for me before but then everything just re froze so didnt bother again

Tom Slick

Keep an eye out for burst pipes which will only become apparent with a thaw. Make sure you know where your stopcocks are!
Hopefully any freezing occured outside.

Iwannahurl

Our water still off too, despite 'soaring' temperatures. But we have McIvored a temporary solution.

Just a theory: I reckon the loss of water to estates and individual houses in some areas was due to the severe cold gradually increasing the amount of ice in pipes. Like arteries furring up! This was exacerbated by lowered water pressure and decreased flow due to increasing numbers of houses being cut off.

If that is the case (and I'm just guessing really), then the return of water supply to some houses will take a little longer even when the thaw seems well under way. It takes time for the cold to seep through the ground as far as the buried pipes, and by the same token it will take time for the thaw to reach those pipes also.

Strangely, among our immediate neighbours, every second house (all semi-detached) is cut off. I don't know whether that is just a fluke, or whether there is some sort of pattern.

But, if the same is happening in your housing estate, and if by chance you have the same plumbing setup as us, then here is a possible solution.

Every house in our estate has an outside tap. Since our next-door neighbour's water is still on, I was able to connect a hose from his outside tap to ours. When both taps were switched on, the water pressure was sufficient to restore water to our kitchen tap as well as refilling the header tank in the attic. We now have working showers and toilets again.

I recommend investigating the possibility of organising a similar arrangement with a near neighbour.

Now that I think of it, even if they don't have an outside tap it might be possible to connect a hose to the rising main at their kitchen tap and then to your own kitchen tap. You'll just need suitable connectors and an adequate length of hose.

Good luck!

And since I am no plumbing expert, feel free to set me right re any or all of the above.

ebbsy

Mine came back after 3 days. It has been raining to beat the band however, which can only help ( Im in Kildare ).

A heater in the attic goes help, altho our external pipes were frozen solid for sure.

CockneyGirl

Thanks for all your replies.

Think I will wait a few days like the last post to see what happens. It seemed that everyone on my estate went without water gradually. Those at the top end (all the houses seem to be built on a gradual slope!) were the last to have no water. It has been raining but very softly, so hopefully it wont be long before everything is back to normal (fingers crossed).

This happened at the beginning of the year but the water came back more or less straight away once the thaw began.

Thanks again.

PS I am in Kerry and the roads are still very dodgy with ice!

Buford T Justice

How long is a piece of string tbh..... Could take an hour, some people have reported that it took over a week at times.

maurao

I still have no water. Having left the tap on for the whole cold snap, I was using the kitchen sink to do some washing on Xmas eve, turned the cold tap off for less than an hour, and it wouldn't come back on. The temp outside is well above 0, the ground temp is well above zero. The pressure in my heating system is at zero so I'm waiting for it to shut down if the water doesn't come back soon.....:mad:. This happens to me every year, and for trhe last 5 years the "builder" who built the house has been promising to come and fix it.

On a side note, Louth County Council has an emergency number set up for burst pipes etc., but when I ring it, it says its closed until the 30th December, so presumably any emergencies will have to wait 'til then - what a country! :rolleyes:

Just a quick note to the original poster - the downstairs loo flush is connected to the mains rather than the water tank in the attic. So if the water supply to the house is frozen, that will stop working immediately, as will the downstairs cold taps. The upstairs cold taps & loos are connected to the cold water tank in the attic, and will only stop when there is no water in that tank. The hot water taps will stop when there is no water in the hot water tank, and nowhere for it to get water from, and this can cause major problems for your heating system.

Joey the lips

My water is gone since last tuesday. Most of my estate has been gone. Have not been on boards much. I use 100 ltrs of water a day. My child is special needs and needs half that.

The council said they would send the civil defence if i was stuck but i have good neighbours.

They also advised i pour hot...Not boiling just about bearing temp water down the stop cock shore out the front.

I have not done this yet... I seen what this can do.

I am hopeing the melt waters heat the ground a little.

irelandspurs

turn all your taps on and flush toilets,your water may have came back on but has a bit of air in.

Buford T Justice

maurao wrote: »

and this can cause major problems for your heating system.

You are wrong. Domestic hot water and the cold water supply are separate systems to the heating. If you have an open system, you will have a separate F&E tank in the attic for it, which would already have water in it. If you have a closed system, then it 'should' already be pressurized to 1.5 bar and should run fine. Heating systems don't need to be topped up that often, so you should have no problems in running the heating without the mains water unless you have a considerable leak in the heating system which was being masked by the mains constantly filling it up.

Maurao, do you find that you are always having to top up you're heating system? If you are, then you could have a leak.

YFlyer

Our cold water came back yesterday here in Cois Ghruda, Castletroy, Limerick. However, the hot water only comes out in small splurts and then stops after a half a minute.

The radiators are working fine, and the small amount of water from the hot tap is heated.

Any suggestions on how to fill up the hot water tank?

Would I close the drain valve near the bottom of the tank? I think that the drain valve is slightly open (I'm not at the house now).

Normally, is the drain valve kept fully closed?

Thanks

Ray

yoshytoshy

Theres places in dublin without water today and won't be back until wednesday
I'd say we'll be on rations for a good few days.

baileye

We were without water for the last three days - didn't notice the first day because we were using the tank and the mains tap in the kitchen was working. Christmas morning the tank was empty. After some investigation guessed that the water froze from the outside tap and that blocked the inside pipe that fills the attic.

We were out all day on the 25th, when we got back on the 26th the mains had frozen too. Turned on a little heater and left it where the mains enters the house (the heater was inside), it took almost 12 hours but at around 1 last night the tank started to fill.

So far no leaks thankfully.

If you know which is the mains pipe coming into the house, find the area where it is coming through the wall and blast it with a hairdryer, that is the advise I received from a plumber.

If the worst happens and you have a leak, bend the pipe back on itself i.e. the bend in the pipe is 180 degrees, this should stop the flow of water or at least severely mitigate it. This will buy you some time to turn off the outside valve.

yoshytoshy

Water is scarce at the moment ,so there won't be the same pressure. The thaw is creating another shortage aswell.

YFlyer

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Water is scarce at the moment ,so there won't be the same pressure. The thaw is creating another shortage aswell.

Is it possible to have the tank full in the attic yet not have the hotwater tank filling up in the hot press? Should the drain valve be open or closed? Thanks Ray

irelandspurs

irelandspurs wrote: »

turn all your taps on and flush toilets,your water may have came back on but has a bit of air in.

Try this its what i had to do.

Buford T Justice

irelandspurs wrote: »

turn all your taps on and flush toilets,your water may have came back on but has a bit of air in.

Mains pressure will blow the airlock out. You should be able to do this from the kitchen sink. Other taps in the house and toilets are a bit pointless as they are generally tank fed. All this will do is drain the tank and cause airlocks etc.....

YFlyer wrote: »

Is it possible to have the tank full in the attic yet not have the hotwater tank filling up in the hot press? Should the drain valve be open or closed? Thanks Ray

The tank in the hotpress will always be full even if you have no water in the header tank. You only get no water out of it because there is no water pressure going into it and it normally flows from the top.

Why would you be trying to drain this cylinder?

Berty

So um I have no water.

My neighbour at one side has water and on the other side there is no water.

We only lost our water on Christmas day evening or so.

What can we do as we cannot blame the council as one neighbour has gushing water from his downstairs taps.

Our attic tank is now empty, we have not used the water in the hot taps because we fear emptying the tank in the hot press.

What can we do?

YFlyer

Fingers McGee wrote: »

Mains pressure will blow the airlock out. You should be able to do this from the kitchen sink. Other taps in the house and toilets are a bit pointless as they are generally tank fed. All this will do is drain the tank and cause airlocks etc.....



The tank in the hotpress will always be full even if you have no water in the header tank. You only get no water out of it because there is no water pressure going into it and it normally flows from the top.

Why would you be trying to drain this cylinder?

Thanks Fingers McGee, I'll head off home now to have a look.

The tank in the attic is full and fills up readily.

Cheers

Ray

Buford T Justice

YFlyer wrote: »

Thanks Fingers McGee, I'll head off home now to have a look.

The tank in the attic is full and fills up readily.

Cheers

Ray

If the header tank is full and you have no water then its likely an airlock if the tank was drained at some stage.

Celticfire

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Our water still off too, despite 'soaring' temperatures. But we have McIvored a temporary solution.

Just a theory: I reckon the loss of water to estates and individual houses in some areas was due to the severe cold gradually increasing the amount of ice in pipes. Like arteries furring up! This was exacerbated by lowered water pressure and decreased flow due to increasing numbers of houses being cut off.

If that is the case (and I'm just guessing really), then the return of water supply to some houses will take a little longer even when the thaw seems well under way. It takes time for the cold to seep through the ground as far as the buried pipes, and by the same token it will take time for the thaw to reach those pipes also.

Strangely, among our immediate neighbours, every second house (all semi-detached) is cut off. I don't know whether that is just a fluke, or whether there is some sort of pattern.

But, if the same is happening in your housing estate, and if by chance you have the same plumbing setup as us, then here is a possible solution.

Every house in our estate has an outside tap. Since our next-door neighbour's water is still on, I was able to connect a hose from his outside tap to ours. When both taps were switched on, the water pressure was sufficient to restore water to our kitchen tap as well as refilling the header tank in the attic. We now have working showers and toilets again.

I recommend investigating the possibility of organising a similar arrangement with a near neighbour.

Now that I think of it, even if they don't have an outside tap it might be possible to connect a hose to the rising main at their kitchen tap and then to your own kitchen tap. You'll just need suitable connectors and an adequate length of hose.

Good luck!

And since I am no plumbing expert, feel free to set me right re any or all of the above.

Our water went yesterday just at the start of the "thaw". Did as you said and working a treat.... showers for everyone..... Whoooott

Berty

Celticfire wrote: »

Our water went yesterday just at the start of the "thaw". Did as you said and working a treat.... showers for everyone..... Whoooott

And me, suggested in a different forum but worked a treat.

AmarilloFats

No Water since 23rd!
Assume it is frozen pipes.
I have started to pour hot water(not boiling) down the stopcock.

I called 4 plumbers who all said "you need to wait and see"..

Anything else I can do??

JackieChan

irelandspurs wrote: »

turn all your taps on and flush toilets,your water may have came back on but has a bit of air in.

Hot water on stopcock, tap on in kitchen...I think I can rewrite a famous phrase to "a watched tap never drips"....

AmarilloFats

WoooHoo .. Watching octopussy and heard that sweet sweet splashing sound of water in the sink...

No hot water yet - tank not filling...

morgana

Still no water, all water treatment systems (filter, softener) broken and taken out of the system, pump working and water is entering the system, so now only thing is underground pipes from pump house to house must still be frozen :(hope at least no burst pipe) - any idea how long it can take for the underground pipes to become unfrozen?
Had no water for one week now

canice

water on and off over last weeks but now house pressure water very slow as downstairs loo tap wont turn off. flowwing full blast, they were all frozen up with downstairs shower and toliet.
Probally needs a new washer? Anyone how i can do this? hate all the waste of water,

bozley

Folks,
At the risk of sounding stupid where is the stopcock??? We live in a half acre site, only 3 houses down here and all are frozen. Is it where my water meter is outside my gate???? Or outside my back door?? Our water softener has defrosted now and my heating is back after been frozen since 22nd. No running water since 20th
Thanks x

Buford T Justice

In the country, it should be at or near your front gate or perimeter of the land

AmarilloFats

Stopcock is usually a horseshow shaped access point to the water mains. It usually has "Uisce" wrtten on it..

JackieChan

All of a sudden my tap has come to life...yehaww....now to the attic to head off any potential leaks!

JuniorB

morgana wrote: »

Still no water, all water treatment systems (filter, softener) broken and taken out of the system, pump working and water is entering the system, so now only thing is underground pipes from pump house to house must still be frozen :(hope at least no burst pipe) - any idea how long it can take for the underground pipes to become unfrozen?
Had no water for one week now

We share a well with my folks. Water went this day last week. Their water came back yesterday morning. Our pipe/connection (250 meters in length or so) is 1 meter underground so didn't expect it to be frozen. No sign of water all day.
Turned on kitchen, utility and outside tap ('mains' fed ones) about an hour ago. Flushed the 2 'mains' fed toilets 10 mins ago ...... Might be a huge coincidence but we have water again!

morgana

Oh the most welcome sound of splashing water IT finally came back at full pressure so I presume no leaks underground or anywhere else

daftcody

I have been without water for five days at this stage.All my neighbours have had their supply restored at this stage. It's a balmy ten degrees outside at the moment so I can't understand why I'm still without water.Could there be a leak in the connection from the mains to my house or maybe an air-lock?

kc66

daftcody wrote: »

I have been without water for five days at this stage.All my neighbours have had their supply restored at this stage. It's a balmy ten degrees outside at the moment so I can't understand why I'm still without water.Could there be a leak in the connection from the mains to my house or maybe an air-lock?

Same happening to me. The water only went sometime between Christmas afternoon and yesterday morning. The house a few doors up is fine.

victor_db

daftcody wrote: »

I have been without water for five days at this stage.All my neighbours have had their supply restored at this stage. It's a balmy ten degrees outside at the moment so I can't understand why I'm still without water.Could there be a leak in the connection from the mains to my house or maybe an air-lock?

If there is no signs of excess water in or around the house, you probably have no leak at all. Your kitchen tap works like a "valve" when you open it, all the air (if any) will blow out from your pipes in 3 seconds.
Your neighbour's pipes are probably deeper in the ground than yours plus the water froze under pressure in your pipes which needs more time to thaw.
Do not worry, your water supply will be back soon.:)

Hellrazer

Mines still gone aswell--A week now without water.

Anyone know how if theres anything I can do to speed up the thawing process??
Heads wrecked at this stage.

maurao

Fingers McGee wrote: »

Maurao, do you find that you are always having to top up you're heating system? If you are, then you could have a leak.

The plumber who worked on this house was a moron! Yes, the heating system needs to be constantly topped up, and always has been - 6.5 years now. If there is water escaping (and there obviously is) I don't know where it is going. My water is still not back on as the moron didn't bury the pipe properly and it goes off every year, but this is the longest it has ever taken to come back, and thankfully the heating system is still valiantly struggling on......

Lord Spence

5 days now no water still waiting,all the neighbour's opposite us have theres back but not us, our next door neighbour stopcock out side his house is burst aswell as another neighbour a further 2 doors down, tried ring Clare county council on their so called emergency number but no answer. will our neighbours burst stopcock affect us getting our water back?? getting so peezed now at this stage

Buford T Justice

Lord Spence wrote: »

5 days now no water still waiting,all the neighbour's opposite us have theres back but not us, our next door neighbour stopcock out side his house is burst aswell as another neighbour a further 2 doors down, tried ring Clare county council on their so called emergency number but no answer. will our neighbours burst stopcock affect us getting our water back?? getting so peezed now at this stage

Shouldn't stop you getting water entirely, but it may reduce the pressure that you will get

maurao wrote: »

The plumber who worked on this house was a moron! Yes, the heating system needs to be constantly topped up, and always has been - 6.5 years now. If there is water escaping (and there obviously is) I don't know where it is going. My water is still not back on as the moron didn't bury the pipe properly and it goes off every year, but this is the longest it has ever taken to come back, and thankfully the heating system is still valiantly struggling on......

You definitely have a leak in the heating system somewhere if you keep needing to top it up.

maurao

Fingers McGee wrote: »

You definitely have a leak in the heating system somewhere if you keep needing to top it up.

Thanks - Where is it likely to be? Todays priority is not having water back yet, but the heating needs to get sorted out too!

Lord Spence

ok I have just found out that I am the only person in the whole estate still with no water could it be possible that my pipes still just havent thawed

mel.b

I've just defrosted a 10inch + thick piece of ice that was over my stopcock (i assume that is what it is). hopefully i'll start to get water again soon. If not, hopefully i haven't done any damage:eek:

jodyk

Hi there, hope I can jump on this thread because I think my problems are related to it anyway.

Water froze here last Sunday, December 19th and only finally came back on last night, December 27th. I moved out on Wednesday evening and my heating was still working then. However, I moved back in yesterday and my heating wouldn't come on and I had no water at that stage.

As I said, water came on last night at around midnight and I have cold water in the kitchen tap, water in the taps in the bathroom (live in a bungalow) and I thought all was well.

But have now discovered have no hot water in the kitchen tap - its a mixer tap and I tried the airlock removal tips from this site, but to no avail. That made me think maybe my heating (oil central heating - firebird popular 90 boiler) was airlocked also.

Again followed the instructions on this site - super advice here guys - and that seemed to work. But within about 10 mins, the boiler was making a scraping noise and when I went out to look at it, it was smoking. So I immediately turned if off, and am wondering now if the motor could have been burned out ?

I left the heating set to come on all week for an hour in the morning and an hour & a half each evening, because I heard that can help stop your inside pipes freezing. But if the airlock got in, would that have caused the pump to burn out ?

Also, still no joy with my hot tap in the kitchen either - any ideas there ?

Thanks in advance !!
Joanne

Hellrazer

Lord Spence wrote: »

ok I have just found out that I am the only person in the whole estate still with no water could it be possible that my pipes still just havent thawed

Im in the same boat--Everyone elses has come back except mine.Starting to worry here in case theres a burst mains feed to the house.

jodyk

Very worried now, just put my hand on the tank to the check if the imersion had heated the water for a shower - tank is freezing and there's about an inch of water in the bottom of the lagging jacket ?!?!?!?!

Can hear water trickling in the kitchen too at the sink (still not hot water from that tap) but can't see anything.

Does this sound like burst pipes ????

maurao

Hellrazer wrote: »

Im in the same boat--Everyone elses has come back except mine.Starting to worry here in case theres a burst mains feed to the house.

Same here - just checked, and the only other neighbour who had a problem had their water back yesterday evening - oh dear (not what I would've like to've said!)

Jodyk - I'd call a plumber if there was water in the lagging jacket....

jodyk

maurao wrote: »

Same here - just checked, and the only other neighbour who had a problem had their water back yesterday evening - oh dear (not what I would've like to've said!)

Jodyk - I'd call a plumber if there was water in the lagging jacket....

Thanks Maurao - been trying to phone one but they're inundated with similar problems all around Dunboyne. Will keep trying

seve65

had no mains water since 21st. neighbours who lost theirs (after we did) have had theirs back since yesterday lunch time. Unfortunately public supply in glanmire has been switched off today. So will have to wait until tomorrow to confirm what the status is. We havent even seen a single drop while others came back ok, so of course I am a little worried something else has now gone wrong

Buford T Justice

maurao wrote: »

Thanks - Where is it likely to be? Todays priority is not having water back yet, but the heating needs to get sorted out too!

Jeez, pick a point to start. Its unlikely to be caused by the freeze, as you said it was always like that, so it could be anywhere really. sorry. Good place to start would be a rigorous visual inspection of all pipes and where they go under floors.

jodyk wrote: »

Hi there, hope I can jump on this thread because I think my problems are related to it anyway.

Water froze here last Sunday, December 19th and only finally came back on last night, December 27th. I moved out on Wednesday evening and my heating was still working then. However, I moved back in yesterday and my heating wouldn't come on and I had no water at that stage.

As I said, water came on last night at around midnight and I have cold water in the kitchen tap, water in the taps in the bathroom (live in a bungalow) and I thought all was well.

But have now discovered have no hot water in the kitchen tap - its a mixer tap and I tried the airlock removal tips from this site, but to no avail. That made me think maybe my heating (oil central heating - firebird popular 90 boiler) was airlocked also.

Again followed the instructions on this site - super advice here guys - and that seemed to work. But within about 10 mins, the boiler was making a scraping noise and when I went out to look at it, it was smoking. So I immediately turned if off, and am wondering now if the motor could have been burned out ?

I left the heating set to come on all week for an hour in the morning and an hour & a half each evening, because I heard that can help stop your inside pipes freezing. But if the airlock got in, would that have caused the pump to burn out ?

Also, still no joy with my hot tap in the kitchen either - any ideas there ?

Thanks in advance !!
Joanne

jodyk wrote: »

Very worried now, just put my hand on the tank to the check if the imersion had heated the water for a shower - tank is freezing and there's about an inch of water in the bottom of the lagging jacket ?!?!?!?!

Can hear water trickling in the kitchen too at the sink (still not hot water from that tap) but can't see anything.

Does this sound like burst pipes ????

Have you water in the tank upstairs?

Are you referring to the lagging jacket on the Cylinder? Is it totally wringing wet or just damp? You could have a look around it to see if there's a crack in it somewhere.