General North Texas is getting lake effect snow.

[Splinty]

Plus y’all are cowboys and yahoos

And drunkards and gamblers and womanizers.

 

[Hauler]

@Lars R. Biden and others...

So here's the second PEX manifold in the attic. The attic runs of the lines are mostly run through the blown in insulation against the ceiling of the house. The other in the house has its own manifold. That manifold is behind an access panel at ground floor as it should be. This manifold is in the ceiling including the water shut off to that manifold which is problematic in its own right.

All the pipes look good and I don't see any failure of any fittings.

Because I have no hot water or cold water to this end of the house that's fed by this manifold, it's either the manifold or the main cold line I would assume and most likely the former. Or both. So to begin with I have a heating pad over the cold intake line and then wrap the entire manifold with a large blanket over that to heat the manifold and the cold water line.

All my hardware stores and Walmart and everything are closed today through Wednesday.

View attachment 28072View attachment 28073

Hard to believe that passed code.
Heating pad is a good idea.

Turn you faucets on periodically.

 

[Hauler]

Just heat the room below that area and leave your attic entry door open for heat to enter

You will be fine...what temp is the air in that attic currently?


I don't like those shark bite fittings...I prefer a copper one piece manifold and all expansion Pex Fittings...probably sounds like gibberish but Expansion fittings are far superior to other Pex fittings

Shark Bite or DIE!
Those things are awesome.

 

[Jdog93]

Hard to believe that passed code.
Heating pad is a good idea.

Turn you faucets on periodically.

 

[Hauler]

Snowed like a mother for about 30 minutes
Now it's just ice falling from the sky.

Supposed to get 10" tonight, which would give us about 18" overall on the ground.

Right now I'm leaning towards the under.

 

[Hauler]

TWC reporting possible tornado in Florida Panhandle

 

[Splinty]

Hard to believe that passed code.
Heating pad is a good idea.

Turn you faucets on periodically.

The main water line to the manifold was frozen and all the hot water sides (which are towards the soffits and their vents) were frozen too.
I now have functioning hot and cold water to everything except one pipe that's still thawing. No leaks spotted.

Yeah def will run faucet.
We of course regularly do that for our external taps when we're going to have a hard freeze. I was at the hospital last night but will be home tonight to manage things.

The houses aren't built for this kind of extended cold day after day after day so stuff like this happens.

The last time we had a cold stretch like this pics piping didn't exist. So it'll be real interesting to see what the results are with modern construction materials failing in this climate. May see some code changes.

 

[member 1013]

The main water line to the manifold was frozen and all the hot water sides (which are towards the soffits and their vents) were frozen too.
I now have functioning hot and cold water to everything except one pipe that's still thawing. No leaks spotted.

Yeah def will run faucet.
We of course regularly do that for our external taps when we're going to have a hard freeze. I was at the hospital last night but will be home tonight to manage things.

The houses aren't built for this kind of extended cold day after day after day so stuff like this happens.

The last time we had a cold stretch like this pics piping didn't exist. So it'll be real interesting to see what the results are with modern construction materials failing in this climate. May see some code changes.

You guys won’t do Shit!

cowboys and yahoos

 

[member 3289]

Any Texans have Verizon Wireless?

I'm hearing there's no service in North Texas.

 

[member 3289]

TWC reporting possible tornado in Florida Panhandle

We can handle it. Our society doesn't completely shit the bed like Texas when there's a little inclement weather.

 

[Miesha's Taint]

 

[Splinty]

All right I'm fully functional again. The most important item the bidet finally came back on with the hot water

 

[Hauler]

The main water line to the manifold was frozen and all the hot water sides (which are towards the soffits and their vents) were frozen too.
I now have functioning hot and cold water to everything except one pipe that's still thawing. No leaks spotted.

Yeah def will run faucet.
We of course regularly do that for our external taps when we're going to have a hard freeze. I was at the hospital last night but will be home tonight to manage things.

The houses aren't built for this kind of extended cold day after day after day so stuff like this happens.

The last time we had a cold stretch like this pics piping didn't exist. So it'll be real interesting to see what the results are with modern construction materials failing in this climate. May see some code changes.

Pex is better in cold than copper. Both freeze, but pex has some give. It's usually the joints and fittings that fail. Copper just bursts.

Regardless - it's not the type of water line used, it's the placement. I know you guys don't get extended cold snaps often, but if you do that installation is nearly guaranteed to fail.

 

[Hauler]

We can handle it. Our society doesn't completely shit the bed like Texas when there's a little inclement weather.

I'm going to need a video of you holding an American flag in the middle of the street while flipping off the tornado.

 

[MMAPlaywright]

This sucks.

Power has been out since 5 am. It is 33 degrees (and dropping) in our house. We just got settled into a friend’s second house. They are stuck in Austin at their other house... which has no electricity! This house is nice and warm, and my wife, our dog and I are staying the night here. Oncor, those fuckfaces, are now saying power could be out until Wednesday.

Also, we might get up to six more inches of snow tomorrow night.

I ain’t built for this shit.

 

[Splinty]

Pex is better in cold than copper. Both freeze, but pex has some give. It's usually the joints and fittings that fail. Copper just bursts.

Regardless - it's not the type of water line used, it's the placement. I know you guys don't get extended cold snaps often, but if you do that installation is nearly guaranteed to fail.

I realize that. But pex runs through the attic are apparently not uncommon, unlike the other materials. The more I read the more I'm seeing people placing these manifolds in their attic trying to keep short runs to an attic water heater.
An attic flood with no one home for a day is probably a lot more expensive than even a foundational pipe burst of any material.

Obviously you and I are on the same page...it may be once in 10-20 year failure but here we are...
My friend is custom building and I sent him my drama to prevent his builder doing anything but insulated runs and ground level manifold access.

And yeah I see an elbow on the hot water that makes me nervous. Other than pipe insulation, anything else you'd recommend? I see thermostatic controlled heated tape for fairly cheap. Could have a small heating element like that with the insulation.

 

[ThatOneDude]

Any Texans have Verizon Wireless?

I'm hearing there's no service in North Texas.

No service when the power goes out, when power comes back the towers come back and we have service.

 

[ThatOneDude]

I realize that. But pex runs through the attic are apparently not uncommon, unlike the other materials. The more I read the more I'm seeing people placing these manifolds in their attic trying to keep short runs to an attic water heater.
An attic flood with no one home for a day is probably a lot more expensive than even a foundational pipe burst of any material.

Obviously you and I are on the same page...it may be once in 10-20 year failure but here we are...
My friend is custom building and I sent him my drama to prevent his builder doing anything but insulated runs and ground level manifold access.

And yeah I see an elbow on the hot water that makes me nervous. Other than pipe insulation, anything else you'd recommend? I see thermostatic controlled heated tape for fairly cheap. Could have a small heating element like that with the insulation.

That's how my pex is run

 

[ThatOneDude]

@CornPop no one died! Yet.


View: https://streamable.com/a51y3n

 

[Splinty]

That's how my pex is run

Is it run exposed at the appliance like my mine?
All the freeze is at the uninsulated area facing the soffit vents. So if run in the attic through that insulation and then manifold downstairs I don't think it would freeze.

 

[ThatOneDude]

Is it run exposed at the appliance like my mine?
All the freeze is at the uninsulated area facing the soffit vents. So if run in the attic through that insulation and then manifold downstairs I don't think it would freeze.

Yea, some is under the blown in insulation.
My freezes are runs that go in exterior walls. Aka behind my fridge and master bath shitter. I got the toilet running again by keeping a small space heater in there with the door closed, finally melted it and we have water and so far no leaks.

 

[MMAPlaywright]

Galveston this morning

 

[Splinty]

@CornPop no one died! Yet.
View attachment 28084

View: https://streamable.com/a51y3n

My neighbor killing it...





I also found out about half dozen of my neighbors have frozen pipes. All sound very similar to my setup where they have cold water on one end of the house but the hot water is not working like the hot water is in the attic probably.

Several have a different builder than I do so it looks like this is a pretty common thing where the house is just aren't built for this cold.

 

[Splinty]

Lakes freezing over in texas wtf

 

[Miesha's Taint]

Apparently @Splinty slipped and fell.