Quick summary,

The water pipes to the house appear to be frozen before the stop tap and more than likely somwhere under ground (either beneath the floor boards or under the drive)

Severn Trent waters, answer via their website is to wait until the pipes thaw (likely to be the weekend at the earliest)

Anyone got any suggestions on any other methods to speed things up a little?

Please bear in mind i have no access what so ever to the alledged frozen pipework.

You can't get to them, but how close can you get? Heat up the floor where they are under? Make that room really toasty?

various bonfires? unless you have access to the pipes, can't really think of anything you can try...

Sounds a sod, can you remove just a second of floor, prehaps under a bathroom unit, and get a 2k fan heater in there?

[Edited on 7/12/2010 by dhutch]

is it just your house not whole street? i would think unlikely to be frozen in the ground, more likely to be if within void under floor (do toy have suspended floors?) or within water meter chamber, i would look here first if possible, i have stuck a pipe onto meter chamber from car exhaust and ran it to warm it before

[Edited on 7/12/10 by will121]

It's a bit annoying really, because the boiler is in the garage complete with a 5 degree frost stat, the heating for the house will not go off once the garage temp hits 5 degree (that's ok)

Beacuse of this we never really have to worry about the pipe freezing in the home but............ the stop tap is located in the cloakroom which has dimensions of approx 3'x5' one of the 3' foot walls and both the 5' wall are externals, and with 4 air bricks in those walls you can imagine how cold it can get under the floor. Now because the stop tap is located in this room (which is always warm) but the floor underneath is at this moment in time -10 or more (it's been -16 at night for the past week now) I'm guessing that it's the pipe directly beneath the floor which is frozen.

I really don't fancy having to rip out the toilet, vanity unit, sink, tiled floor, skirtings, floor boards etc just in case the problem lies elsewhere (closer to the water meter near the road) especially when it was only fitted out last year
having said all that, if it's burst then i will have too anyway.

dhutch touched on the subject i was hoping for, is it possible to wire it up to the national grid and heat it up that way? Think i'd rather get someone in to do it if it can be done.

[Edited on 7/12/10 by chris mason]

quote:

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Originally posted by will121
is it just your house not whole street? i would think unlikely to be frozen in the ground, more likely to be if within void under floor (do toy have suspended floors?) or within water meter chamber, i would look here first if possible, i have stuck a pipe onto meter chamber from car exhaust and ran it to warm it before

[Edited on 7/12/10 by will121]

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Caant you get some sort of heater outside and blow the warm air through the air bricks in to the void under the cloakroom....

surely this would thaw the pipework....

Jim

If the pipes have frozen isn't there a good chance they've split? So if it is under the floor boards, pipe warm air in and then you'll have mains presure water spraying under the floor with no way to turn it off... or am Imissing something?

quote:

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Originally posted by adithorp
If the pipes have frozen isn't there a good chance they've split? So if it is under the floor boards, pipe warm air in and then you'll have mains presure water spraying under the floor with no way to turn it off... or am Imissing something?

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Chris,

sound like you need to head the void up if the ground under the air bricks/bathroom is soil or building ruble i would be boiling pans of snow on the cooker and pouring the hot water down a pipe pushed through the air bricks into the void closest to the pipe, even if the water soaks into the gound it is likley to increase ambient temperature ( ps seal the other air bricks to retain the heat).

must be worth a try

Regards agriv8

Chris,

Is the incoming pipework to the stop cock plastic of metal? In my experience they're often plastic.

If it's metal you might try heating the pipe from the stop cock using the heat gun. Applying the heat directly to the pipe might at least allow the heat to draw along the pipe and thaw it. I guess even dribbling boiling water onto the pipe might work if not a bit messy.

Also (from past experience) when you say there "should be a mains stop valve at the boundary" do you know where it is and that it works? My BIL suffered a lot of water damage a couple of years back with a frozen and burst pipe before the house stop cock. He knew where the mains stop was and had no trouble getting the manhole cover up, but the stop valve was foobarred and wouldn't close!

Thanks for the reply guys,

So far i've tried everything available to me or what's listed above.

Heating the pipe with the heat gun, warmed the pipe up nicely about 12" from the point it disappears under the floor, so assuming it worked the same in both ways then it was warmed nicely 12" under the floor and no doubt a bit longer than that too. No joy though

Seeing as the temps outside haven't got above -10 all day i've had the air bricks covered over, while this won't do a great deal i'm hoping that the radiator pipes that run approx 2' away from the water pipe will generate enough heat to help the thaw.

Other than that i'm going to sit it out and keep having an hour here and there warming the pipe.
Fingers crossed i have some running water by the morning.

Just a thought Chris...any plumbing work needs doing in the rest of the house? Great time to replace that dripping tap or fit that isolation valve you've been putting off for ages

Finally got through to Severn Trent Water, they claim when the estate was built (15 years ago) the water pipes were not sunk deep enough in too the ground and as a result they are now freezing, oh and it's our problem not theirs

So just wait for the thaw and see if i can claim a new Spa, bottle and sell the water, Renishaw water coming to a supermarket near you soon.

[Edited on 7/12/10 by chris mason]

so they think its frozen under the garden? I was going to suggest leaving an iron sat on it. (the internal pipe, that is)

Think you're going to have to start digging anyway

[Edited on 7/12/10 by JoelP]

i have had the same problem at my house. the stop cock on my house is at front of property and sun doesnt get round there in winter to warm ground up. i purchased a metal bucket, placed lots of holes around and made a small fire in there. doesnt need to be big.placed the bucket roughly in line where pipe is and cleared the frozen pipe in 15 mins. people look at you strange though as they walk past. must think i am trying to set house on fire!!!
steve

1.10am the water come back through the pipes, no signs of any leaks outside or under the house as far as i can see, just a case of waiting and seeing.

Seems strange how Severn Trent water said there wasn't a problem with the supply and it was just our frozen pipes, yet they managed to thaw while tempretures are below -10 in the early hours of the morning.

Still it's back on now

Leave a tap trickling inside the house to keep a flow of water through the pipe and it might not freeze again. Unless you are on a meter