Plumbing question

FarmboyBill · #1 05/31/12, 08:43 AM

If a copper line breaks due to freezing. Will that be the only break in the WHOLE line, or could there be others??

**Cabin Fever** · #2 05/31/12, 08:46 AM

Your question will probably have to be answered by a Southener. We here in the Northland rarely have any experince with frozen water pipes.

vicker · #3 05/31/12, 09:05 AM

Yeah, cause y'all know better.

foxtrapper · #4 05/31/12, 09:06 AM

There can be other spits from freezing.

vicker · #5 05/31/12, 09:07 AM

FFB, it could very well be the only one, or there could be more. Only a full inspection will answer that one.

jwal10 · #6 05/31/12, 09:14 AM

If it got really cold there are more....James

HeelSpur · #7 05/31/12, 10:47 AM

Fix that leak and turn the water back on, thats how I find out.

HermitJohn · #8 05/31/12, 11:12 AM

Its the same whether copper, steel, or cpvc. You find any obvious splits, repair them, then turn on the water and you probably find more.

Each to their own, but unless this is rare occurance in a well protected system, I'd be transitioning to cpvc. Its whole lot easier to work with. And lot cheaper.

samm · #9 05/31/12, 12:03 PM

I'd repair the leak ya know about then turn on your water
and see if ya got any more. check the meter to see if it's
running if ya can't see all your pipe to make sure
there ain't any more leaks. then I'd look into
replacing it with pex

samm

FarmboyBill · #10 05/31/12, 01:20 PM

Well, its real easy to fix, as its around 4in down the side from the top of a water heater. Its gonna cost a grand to have the water meter out back, and I dont know what shape the 2 wells are in. My boy said he could bring out a tote fulla water and we could run a pump in to test the lines.
If I get the place.

FarmboyBill · #11 05/31/12, 01:21 PM

The water heater had water comeing out of the drain at the bottom. Does that mean anything as to it being still good or not??

FarmboyBill · #12 05/31/12, 01:24 PM

If your house had a bathroom, with tub, sink and stool, & at another room around 20ft away, a BIG invalid walk in shower, for old folks, and BOTH had water heaters on gas, and the water was from the county water line. Which do you think would be cheaper. Running water until it gets hot whether you use the sink in one, or the big shower in the other,
OR,
running them both and useing the gas for 2 hot water heaters??

CountryWannabe · #13 05/31/12, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

If your house had a bathroom, with tub, sink and stool, & at another room around 20ft away, a BIG invalid walk in shower, for old folks, and BOTH had water heaters on gas, and the water was from the county water line. Which do you think would be cheaper. Running water until it gets hot whether you use the sink in one, or the big shower in the other,
OR,
running them both and useing the gas for 2 hot water heaters??

Are you sure they are interconnected? I have seen two tanks serving different bathrooms installed because the main tank doesn't hold enough hot water to take a decent shower or fill a bath for a good long soak...

Mary

Alice In TX/MO · #14 05/31/12, 03:01 PM

I'd be putting in on demand water heaters.

meanwhile · #15 05/31/12, 03:33 PM

We are working at a place where a copper line froze. When the plumber came out, he said that if that one line froze, and it was inside the house (the heat was off) then he bet other copper lines would be broken too. But - he did not find any more breaks. He said "usually" there will be more.

Good luck.

FarmboyBill · #16 05/31/12, 04:01 PM

Well Alice, If I had an inline heater, where would I put it. If i put it in with the big shower, the pipe to the bathroom is around at least 2ostraight feet. not counting any lifts up or down. That water would have tyo come out before I felt any hot. Same if I put it near the bathroom.

CW Im sure they arent connected. That was my question. Would you leave it the way it is, and run two and have twice the amount of gas to keep both running, OR would you disconnect one, and run the line to the other, hooking both places to one heater, and where it is the furtherst just running the water till it gets hot?
In other words, Which is worse, a bigger gas bill, or a bigger water bill. Can u answer that question for old bill lol?

MO_cows · #17 05/31/12, 04:17 PM

We bought a foreclosure house that had stickers everywhere saying the plumbing had been "winterized". Well, not soon enough. When we turned on the water there were multiple leaks. It was copper plumbing. We probably fixed 6 or 8 leaks where the pipe had split from the water expanding into ice. This house is 100 years old and has settled to where there isn't a crawl space under it anymore. So, we had to take the floors up from above to get to some of the pipes. DH had one of his most brilliant moments - we were able to take out the cabinets and take up the flooring underneath them and save two nicely tiled floors in the kitchen and bath.

Fix one leak, turn the water back on, then look for the next one. Or, cut it off at both ends and run pex tubing and take the copper to the recyclers and cash it in.

wharton · #18 05/31/12, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

Well, its real easy to fix, as its around 4in down the side from the top of a water heater. Its gonna cost a grand to have the water meter out back, and I dont know what shape the 2 wells are in. My boy said he could bring out a tote fulla water and we could run a pump in to test the lines.
If I get the place.

No reason to plague yourself with water testing anything. Find a place in the system to adapt a schrader valve, and a pressure guage into the line and test with air. There are a few antique plumbers in these parts that still want to water test, but air is a thousand time easier, and fast. If you can hold whatever your highest incoming water pressure will be, for fifteen minutes, you are good to go.

frankva · #19 05/31/12, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meanwhile

We are working at a place where a copper line froze. When the plumber came out, he said that if that one line froze, and it was inside the house (the heat was off) then he bet other copper lines would be broken too. But - he did not find any more breaks. He said "usually" there will be more.

Good luck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wharton

No reason to plague yourself with water testing anything. Find a place in the system to adapt a schrader valve, and a pressure guage into the line and test with air. There are a few antique plumbers in these parts that still want to water test, but air is a thousand time easier, and fast. If you can hold whatever your highest incoming water pressure will be, for fifteen minutes, you are good to go.

Code is air test here. Might find a pro to come give you an opinion with an air test for reasonable...

jwal10 · #20 05/31/12, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

The water heater had water comeing out of the drain at the bottom. Does that mean anything as to it being still good or not??

No, a water heater runs cold from the top down into the tank and hot comes up through the top. Only way to drain tank is out the valve at the bottom. You need pressure to get water out the cold pipe....James