Frozen water main - suggestions?

The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
I'm sure there is a sense of relief that this is coming to an end, congratulations. Did they dig up the old pipe and figure out where the problem was?
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I'm sure there is a sense of relief that this is coming to an end, congratulations. Did they dig up the old pipe and figure out where the problem was?

it was old. :D

just a quick recap - the pipe was 3/4" galvanized and 50+ years old - probably had less than a child's pinky for the water to flow.
i'm going to guess that it froze and some "rust" broke away and clogged. as previously mentioned, some of the pipe ran over a rock and was 16" under ground.
It looks like they actually built terraced gardens to get more dirt on top of the pipe.

Need a vid of Jumping the Trench!
 

rick81721

Lothar
Can we come over and bury a time capsule?

I could use some burying space - my retirement "project" is starting to pay off

blogs-the-feed-breaking-bad-money-barrels.jpg
 

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'm sure there is a sense of relief that this is coming to an end, congratulations. Did they dig up the old pipe and figure out where the problem was?
The consensus from the neighborhood contractors, who did the heavy lifting on this, is that because the pipe is laying on ledge-rock, it still hasn't thawed. Think gigantic ice cube. Just talked to a neighbor who can't get grass to grow above that same bit of rock. When the rock heats in summer, after the grass has shown some promise, it kills the grass roots from beneath. Ledge rock is a stone m'f*cker, y'all.
After just shy of 12K, I no longer care what caused the failure. I only care that the insurance adjuster finds it in his heart to cover some/any/a lil bit of all this. If not, I'm gonna dig up a 7 foot section of the trench and lay down in there for a while, after someone covers me up.
On the plus side, our mud-room, a ridiculous extravagance we dove into last fall, thinking we had $2 in our pockets, is just about done. The heated floor is a HUGE hit with the cats. And us. So there's that :)
 
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mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Same here
Sorry you had to ride this difficult wave.
Home ownership is over rated.

Sometimes I walked pass those cardboard box folks in city and said I wonder if they dream of a bigger box.

Be happy you got water heat and love in your life
 

gtluke

The Moped
it was old. :D

just a quick recap - the pipe was 3/4" galvanized and 50+ years old - probably had less than a child's pinky for the water to flow.
i'm going to guess that it froze and some "rust" broke away and clogged. as previously mentioned, some of the pipe ran over a rock and was 16" under ground.
It looks like they actually built terraced gardens to get more dirt on top of the pipe.

Need a vid of Jumping the Trench!
when galvanized loses water pressure it gets worse, it scales really bad and decent size flakes break off. The initial blockage could have been ice, then it could have been galvanized flakes after that.
When I moved into my house I was on a community well. We've talked about it being the source of heartbeat road. The water main was a 2" galvanized pipe and the city wouldn't hook up to it for this reason. So they installed their own pipe and billed us all $11,000 a piece.
Hopefully that makes sean feel a little better ;)
 

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So they installed their own pipe and billed us all $11,000 a piece.
Hopefully that makes sean feel a little better ;)
I thumbs-upped that, but holy cow! That's horrible. I'm beginning to think home inspections are kinda like going to Starbucks, ordering a frappucino and calling that a colonoscopy. There's almost nothing useful in 'em.
 

gtluke

The Moped
I thumbs-upped that, but holy cow! That's horrible. I'm beginning to think home inspections are kinda like going to Starbucks, ordering a frappucino and calling that a colonoscopy. There's almost nothing useful in 'em.
There's no way that an inspection could know though. In my situation the owner did disclose this info in the listing, so I knew going in that this would eventually happen.
I was hoping that we would get some money from selling the three properties that we owned but we couldn't find a buyer for any of them. I owned 1/62 of three one acre plots of land in Towaco and somehow they were all unsellable.bogus.
One plot was next to my neighbor and was even offered to him for free and he had to pass on it because to legally own it he would have to do title searches on 62 titles, and pay a lawyer to draw up documents with the potentially 62 owners to release their share, and then hope that all of them agree. One person's or bank could halt the entire process. Ownership of the water company and property is on a lot of our titles.
 

Fat Trout

Well-Known Member
I'm beginning to think home inspections are kinda like going to Starbucks, ordering a frappucino and calling that a colonoscopy. There's almost nothing useful in 'em.

Clearly your recent craziness takes the cake. However as I look back at the 14 years I've had my house I don't think anything could have properly prepared me for the weird and mind blowing Sh!T I've run across across. Things the prior owner(s) did inside, outside, BS with the town, variances, town codes, stupid town codes, paper roads, inspectors, and supid/ confusing things on my title that were kicked down the road by prior owners/lawyers.
I'm terrified of ever buying another home. If I do it will consume me in a beer fueled paranoia fest.

As i looked at the empty box for the water heater i just had to drop coin on I thought about how nice a house that box might be. I kinda wish my home inspector told me to run away as fast as i could and never buy a house ever!
 

ktmrider

Well-Known Member
Wow I'm sure glad you are over the hump so to speak , what a shitty experience for you , I ripped out a bathroom a few weeks ago to find that the entire rear of the home had to be mitigated for mold , which meant excavating the entire rear of the home but we had to get a crane to lift the excavator to get it to the rear of the house , a 9000 tile lob turned into a 120k project . I know 11 k sucks but it's a tiny amount of money if you really think about it . I wish you all good mojo for your place now . Hopefully you will enjoy the next few years worry free .
 

gtluke

The Moped
How does one come to own 1/62 of a plot of land?

62 houses in my neighborhood. I'd love to know the history but I assume the original owner of the land must have built the water system as a selling point to sell the plots of land. There used to be two wells but they got rid of one a long time ago.
My wood shed is built out if the ceilings joists of the water tank. The guys in the neighborhood did the demo of the property themselves to save us all some cash.
 
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