Preparing For Winter

Discussion in 'Home Improvement' started by Ed Wilson, Sep 26, 2021.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Connected to the house, coming through the foundation from the crawlspace. I forgot to cover it the year before last, and had to replace the faucet part of it. The pipes didn't freeze - just the part that extended outdoors.
     
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  2. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    If you ever have to replace it, use a freeze proof faucet. It shuts the water off 9'' to 12" inside the crawlspace. If you take any hose or attachment off the faucet, it will not freeze--at least here it doesn't--down to about -40. If you go below that or have an exceptionally cold crawl space, it never hurts to insulate the faucet as well.
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The year that mine froze, I had left the hose attached because winter snuck up on me when I wasn't looking.
     
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  4. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    we planted garlic today...emptied our rain catchers...oh..lots of coffee
     
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  5. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Nothing like fixing a busted water pipe in the cold, its bad enough when its warm out.
     
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  6. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    To think I thought -4 degrees while living in OKC was cold. I would walk to school and I never used hair oil or creams I just wet my hair and off I went, my earmuffs would freeze to my hair after a two block walk to school. I thought that was cold.
     
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  7. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    When we see 14 or 15 here that usually causes a massive amount of damage, even running your water cold and hot side. I had my pipes frozen and they would not thaw so that evening we had another really cold warning and I thought I would just go out and turn the water off at the meter. I still had 4 burst pipes when it finally thawed. I also learned my lesson never turn off the water at the meter when there is no way to clear the house pipes first. Frozen water pays little attention to physics. If I were still working I would have bought a heater blower and let it blow warm air under the place in really hard freezing nights. Thankfully we have few really low night,s mostly in the high 20s and low 30s, running the tap normally takes care of pipes from bursting. Water is a heck of lot cheaper than trying to buy pvc pipe when the only local hardware store is sold out already by the time you get there.
     
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  8. Hoot Crawford

    Hoot Crawford Veteran Member
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    It was 80 here in Central Florida today, took a nice ride on the Harley. Looking at a 10 day forecast, the low will be 59. Heating costs are not an issue, since my AC is still running. I do have a gas furnace, but it doesn't run much. It may or may not get down to low 30s in January or February. When that is likely to happen I do bring in the plants off the patio.

    I spent most of my adult life in Columbus, OH area, and I do not miss those winters one iota. I think the worst blizzard we dealt with was in January 1978. Damn, has it really been 45 years ago???
     
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  9. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    In North Georgia we'd have hard freeze and snow about every 10 years or so. So, I do remember a few busted pipes.
     
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  10. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    We are always ready for winter. It hasn't been above 0 F. for several days now. -20 F. this morning here and perhaps colder tonight. No water issues here, though.
     
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  11. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    I have to get up and put on a jacket just watching Ice Road Truckers !.. The past two days it has been warm enough inside the house to run air conditioning, I woke up at 3:30 this morning and could not go back to sleep it was so warm. I got up made coffee and fed 3 cats but will wait until 6 to feed those little ones, it is so wet outside I don't think they are up and walking around on the front porch. When I ring the dinner bell they will come in thru the flooring under the bathroom vanity. They need to diet soon because the entrance is pretty small and all 4 are already bigger than their mother. I won't know if the rain is over until 6 when sunup comes because it is too dark out to see the sky. One small brief shower while I had woke up around 3 but I think that might have been the last gasp of the front for us. Ms really caught hell over night, not far from me it's about 2 hour drive.
     
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  12. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    We watched a series similar to Ice Road Truckers, 'Hiway Thru Hell' watched it for a couple years.
    About a wrecker service on the COG.
     
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  13. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    I watch both series and wonder how they can work out in that cold and dangerous environment. Now my favorite is the re run of the series Duck Commanders, it's all tongue in cheek but still entertaining. I'm off to shopping and the power went on and off three times and finally stayed off so I figured if I lay back down it would come on again, it did 30 minutes later. This is a common problem here and it would never happen if in a decent state that actually maintained the utilities like every other state in the union. They hijack money appropriated to cut and trim trees every year in the millions of dollars and buy more votes with hand outs instead of keeping power lines clear of the tree limbs, a little wind and you have a transformer blown or a fuse opens simply because they mis used the money.
     
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  14. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    While watching Hiway Tru Hell you actually get to know the wrecker drivers and see amazing task these men do. It is real life as it happens.
    I'm trying to stay out of politics, but I do understand your frustration with county leaderships.
     
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  15. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    Same happened to me about 30 years ago when I had a little house 4 miles from where I now live. I had a very well insulated house but for some reason my water froze and I walked outside to see if I could discover where it might have possibly froze. I found the water feed coming into the foundation just outside my bedroom window, so I dropped a hair dryer down out the window and within 5 minutes it was already thawed and water flowing again. Just a small area of pipe unwrapped is enough to allow the water to be blocked at that one spot.
     
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