When I heard about cities saying everyone should run water nonstop. I thought instant flood but assumed all the plumbing would be fine.
I don't run my water to save the pipes. The landlord has some weird heaters on them. So, as long as the pipes TO the house aren't frozen, we're good.
Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool
It is the pipes from the road to the house/apartment and apparently the sewer laterals that they are trying to prevent from freezing. Anything between the street and residence is the property owners responsibility. So if a pipe freezes and the municipality needs to come and fix it. The property owner is on the hook for the cost. So running the water is to prevent the property owners from incurring extra cost.
The problem is that areas that are clear of snow (streets, sidewalks and driveways). Since they are clear they don't have the insulation factor of the snow. So the frost line is now right about at the 8ft point, Since most water and sewer lines run into homes just below the basement floor, they are normally about 8 feet.
The water is being run at just a small stream from a single faucet in the homes, so nothing the sewers should not be able to handle. Except when the sewer itself is also froze which is under the road also not having snow insulation. They pulled the manhole cover and it was just solid ice. The brought in their big tanker truck and blew the lines out with hot water. Luckily it was the main and not my lateral so I won't be charged.
Only the effort of hauling about 600lbs of water up from the basement and outside.
I am to run the water until April 15th unless we have a quick melt and we hear otherwise sooner. Our bills will not be based on usage this quarter but set to what we used last year.
The world needs ditch diggers too Danny!!!