Gonna be a clusterfuck
- Thread starter cowbell88
- Start date
Looks like those automated employees need to get busy repairing the water infrastructure.
Welcome to Atlas Shrugged.
Just saw they have repaired 20 water mains already and have identified at least 7 more that are leaking. There is a lot more out there they don’t know about yet from the way MLGW worded their release.
Did I really need to read anything past "Memphis" to get this gist?
In other news, Olive Branch hotels are at max capacity.
I know so many people with busted pipes desperately trying to find plumbers and it’s even more than February 2021. Even some of my plumbing froze in the attic that supplies my hot water heater (it’s pex thankfully). I didn’t have anything freeze up in 21.
I’m sure the hotels in the surrounding cities will be slammed. Germantown, Collierville, olive branch, Southaven, etc….
A ton of people are like, "why does my water not work, and why are my pipes frozen?". I'm sitting over here like, did you not see it coming? I dripped every one in my house, including showers.
I had one pipe freeze (toilet water supply pipe for an upstairs bathroom). I got up there with a blow dryer and thawed it, and then insulated it better, and had no further issues. A few years ago I had a pipe burst and it resulted in a 80k home insurance claim, so I'm pretty obsessive about it now.
First time in almost 20 years in this house that my upstairs froze on night 1. It has happened before with 3-4 nights of very cold, but not 1. Hair dryers, space heaters and heating pads wrapped on pipes got it flowing a little, but it wasn't until temps crept up Saturday afternoon that it started working completely.
I had mine running and it still froze and it was insulated well. I’m always obsessed with not having frozen pipes.
I stuck a little heater up there and let it thaw it out and it only took about 10 minutes. It was where the pex supply line comes from the first floor wall into the attic. Froze right above the floor of the attic. It’s on the north side of the house and the wind was blowing so hard out of the north that night it froze it.
Count yourself lucky and get that PEX out of the attic or add a way to condition that space. Had a friend in Dallas have his PEX in the attic rupture last year. Effectively "totaled" his house. He's been living in the backyard in a 5th wheel since March as they rebuild.
Looking back at all my homes in the south, it's terrible building practice to put mechanical in an unconditioned attic. Whether it's pipes, ductwork, or the actual hot water heater and HVAC system it's asking for trouble. Not to mention we loose tons of efficiency with ductwork/hvac in the 130° attic during the summer as we try to cool our houses.
Anyone building new should look into conditioned attics. Insulation up on the roof and an extra little bit of cooling/heating in the attic to keep it warm in the winter and cooler in the summer. Costs are minimal, you get lower ac bills in the summer, you never have to worry about pipe bursts, and the entire attic becomes climate controlled storage. Modern underlayment and shingles can handle the extra heat.
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My issue was North side as well. All that plumbing for upstairs is exposed in the attic with just a foam wrap around the pipes except in places that there wasn't foam...I have a little work to do re-wrapping some places.
If the pex ruptured it wasn’t installed right.
We had our master shower freeze a bit. It was still flowing but barely. We drip and winterize properly. It did the same thing in 2020. We got it thawed in both scenarios with no damage thankfully. I’m insulating that junk the next time I open that wall.
My brother had a full on burst in the attic. Thankfully my dad was in construction until 2009. You can’t find a plumber or HVAC guy ATM.
Not sure about all this. Pex is meant to shrink/expand. And any pipe can rupture.
I don't disagree entirely, but what's the other option if you live on a slab? And even if so, it doesn't really matter that much.
Disagree with this. I think it's much better idea to have an attic where air flows freely. Soffit vents, ridge vents on top, cable vents, maybe a whirly bird or a fan. Not to mention that if you are supposed to have baffles if you have insulation right under a roof, such as an upstairs room. Certainly not worth blowing additional air/heat into an area you don't use.
Debunking the Myth of Freeze-Proof Pipes
During the February 2021 polar vortex, even experienced plumbers still falsely believed that PEX is immune to bursting when frozen. When confronted with these real world failures they have raised any number of mistaken explanations ranging from “it wasn’t the ice, someone must have used a heat gun on it” to “that must be a different kind of PEX, my PEX will expand better.”The fact is that PEX bursts when it freezes, just like copper and CPVC. No material can overcome the incredible power and pressure involved in freezing. The only reliable way to prevent a pipe from bursting when frozen, is to prevent the pipe freezing in the first place.
https://www.flowguardgold.com/en-us/blog/debunking-the-myth-of-freeze-proof-pipes
It will burst over time if you let it freeze and thaw over and over but pex is a lifesaver for the one time you have pipes freeze. Once you have frozen pipes it’s up to you to figure out where the problem is to fix it before it happens again.
Pex can burst the first time it freezes. The fittings and the crimps also burst/leak due to freezing temperatures.
Very common. My first house--in Flowood--had it in the attic, and my house in the Houston area had two in the attic. Really sucks when there is a leak (happened with both houses).
I didn't have any frozen pipes this time. Lowest temperature at my house was 2 and it was below freezing for 4 days, 2 of those days well below freezing (daytime high of 11 and 16). First time above freezing was a couple of hours ago this morning. Only time I've had a frozen pipe was when the temp was below zero a couple of nights, and that was for a bathtub on an outside wall. The wall was insulated normally, but the space between the tub and wall was not, so I stuffed some fiberglass insulation in the void and have had no issues since then. My crawl space is encapsulated and attic insulation is at R-60, walls 13 plus insulating board.
My builder wanted to do that but I had him put it in the garage instead. Much easier to service and nothing catastrophic should it spring a leak.
I wish that I would have become a plumber’s apprentice back in the day instead of going to engineering school. I’ve done well for myself, but the plumber I use lives on the water in a house that’s twice as big as mine and owns a half million dollar boat and several expensive cars. I’ve been on his boat a few times so at least I’ve recouped some of the money I’ve paid him over the years…
I’ve told several young people that electricians, plumbers, and HVAC careers are gold mines.
Yep I told my son to learn one of these, and then go get a business/marketing degree (or something similar) to learn how to monetize it.
Yep, been telling my 13-yr old son the same.
The plumber and I are the same age (50ish) and he started as an apprentice when I started college. After 4-yrs he bought a van and tools and went to work for himself. Now he has 4-5 crews that work for him (mainly new construction) and when he’s not diving the rigs, he takes the emergency calls himself and pockets that high margin cash.
I'll address the ruptured PEX with a reply to DCD. Decided to call my buddy John (A builder himself) that had the leaks in Texas last year to get all the details. He is rebuilding and doing a conditioned attic by the way, but his town has adopted 2022 IRC already which requires fire retardant over the spray foam insulation apparently in conditioned attic spaces if you use it for storage... which to building pros is a retardant idea in of itself.**
I will post a link with a lot of nerdy stuff about conditioned attics and how it improves efficiency if you want to learn about it from someone that's not a know it all a**hole like me. But here's the gist of why it makes it better and actually more efficient in most cases to condition the attic, especially in the south.
1. Ventilated attics are extremely leaky into the house. You are going to be very hard pressed to get good air sealing around all of those can lights, registers, deling fans, etc. Conditioned attics are airtight.
2. Air ducts/plenums etc tend to be leaky as well. The leaks creates negative pressure in the attic sucking the conditioned air out of the house into the attic and out of the ventilation in the roof/eaves.
3. The high temperatures of the attic in the summer and cold in the winter can cause up to 20% loss in efficiency as the ductwork heats or cools the air passing through to condition the house.
Think of it like a car. Imagine sitting in a parking lot in the summer and you'r ac and vents ran on the outside of the car and you left the windows cracked. You'd keep the car much cooler by rolling up the windows putting the AC inside if the car even if it means cooling 25% more volume inside the car.
Building Science Corp on Conditioned Attics
Build Channel Conditioned Attics
My water heater is in my garage. It’s a lot easier to clean up a water leak in the garage than inside a house. I’ve been through that, too-what a mess. I never understood the reason of putting water pipes (much less water heaters) in attics. Disaster coming sooner or later.
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