Plea for help with main water supply problem

[Greenie67]

Hi, New to this forum and looking for any advice anyone can offer please, as we are now at a total loss as to what could be causing our supply problem.

Basically, we have no water supply to the house. This started on Tuesday 21st Dec, when temps reached minus 15. I went through all the usual options, i.e. heating pipes, putting hot air into the air space under the floorboards, pouring hot water onto the pipes. 7 days on we still have no water, even though it has been quite mild for the last 3 days. Couple of neighbours also lost their supply, but they managed to get theirs thawed out by last Thursday, by going through the same methods I applied.

Water company came out today and checked mains supply from the street, and that is running fine. Plumber also came out and confirmed that we have no water coming in from the main pipe. He took the internal stop tap off and there was no water there.

We are at a loss now as to what has happened to our water. Everyone I have spoken to reckons that even if the pipe was originally frozen, it should have started to thaw by now, but we havent even had a drip from our taps since this started. The problem is obviously between the stopcock in the street and the stop tap in the house. Any suggestions as to what else could be causing this would be much appreciated as we are getting increasingly frustrated.

Thanks for any advice - all suggestions welcomed.
Ian

 

[pauls]

there could also be a blockage in the main pipework somewhere.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

or your on a water meter and the ice has knackered it seen it happen

 

[kirkgas]

i bet with a user name like Greenie67 he/she is scottish and doesnt have a water meter

 

[Greenie67]

Hi Guys, and thanks for the quick responses.

We are not on a water meter. If the pipe is blocked, is there any way of checking, short of digging it up. Is it possible it could be blocked with ice, even though we have been having a thaw for the last 4 days and the house is a new build, so the pipework should be buried to regulation depth (it is the heavy gauge blue plastic we have coming into the main).

Kirkgas, just curious, but why would my user name imply I am Scottish?

 

[Gill16]

I have exactly the same problem and I have not got a meter either. My home is a new build and we have had no water since yesterday I have also had a plumber out and they have comfirmed no water but no burst as there is no hissing in the taps, I am waiting on the water authority arriving but I am not a priority as I am the only one without water. I would be keen to hear any suggestions as I am getting frustrated too.

 

[GirlRacerRed]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one suffering at the moment. I too live in a new build and after being away for 4 days have come home to find no water in the mains pipe. The water authority has confirmed that the street mains is still running, the neighbours have no problems so it is just between our pavement stop tap and the internal stop tap in the kitchen.

we have no idea where the mains water supply runs into the house as I cannot get hold of Barratts as they're on their Christmas break. does anybody have any ideas where builders would route the mains water pipe? for cost efficiency I would suggest the water pipe runs directly from the pavement in a straight line under the house but my husband thinks that that is a stupid concept and how would we be able to find a burst pipe under the house without digging up the ground floor....

any ideas boys and girls?

 

[metaldust9]

new builds are thrown up,and all about making as much money as possible ,so would think its down to ice somewhere in the main,either not at the right depth or not filled right, round it when put in

 

[Gill16]

Is this just a waiting game to see if it clears?

 

[GirlRacerRed]

I think so Gill16. my husband is aiming the hairdryer at the mains pipe under the sink every 10 minutes or so, and we've got a car parked and running on the drive over where we suspect the mains pipe to be buried. but other than that, there's not a lot else we can do.

just been to buy some bottled water too.

 

[Greenie67]

Any ideas how long these things take to thaw then if that is the case. We have had 4 days of fairly mild weather now (4-5 degrees). At what point do you accept that ice can no longer be the problem and that it must be something else blocking the pipe? If ice blockage is the problem, what is suprising us is that nobody else in our street has lost their water. I am starting to think the pipes are not down deep enough, but unfortunately, without getting them dug up, there is no way of proving that.

Is there any modern technology that enables fibre optic cameras to be put down the pipe to locate any blockage?

 

[Gill16]

Has anyone had any luck defrosting their pipes?

 

[marsaday]

We used hairdryers, hot blankets layed on the pipe coming into the house. had no effect.

Finally defrosted today - with a loud crack in the pipe somewhere.

So taken 2-3 days to thaw and been without for 8 days.

 

[Greenie67]

Hi Marsaday. Thanks for the info. In a way it is re-assuring that it can take so long. We have been without for 8 days, our plumber is even starting to think it could be a crushed or broken pipe, due to ground movement. We have gone back to plan A and have the heaters and hairdryers back on the pipes.

Whereabouts are you and what have your temperatures been like for the last few days?

 

[marsaday]

yorkshire and temps have got above 4C i think.

 

[spanner]

Well as I thought the water pipe is short of sufficient depth. Or its quite obvious after having no water after this time of cold weather, the supply pipe from your ferule or the mains are not at corrected to prevent freezin cold temperatures. If this is a new build you should still be within a limit to contact a local housing auhority and just explain your del emma!!Or move you into a posh nosh hotel at least every winter for 3hree months,,would sound ok to me!!

 

[GirlRacerRed]

well good people, I now have running water. don't know when it happened today as we've been out since 10am (went to the swimming pool for a bath!) and hubby came home and decided to flush the toilet without thinking. everything is flowing thru nicely. Severn Trent water for some reason didn't log our original call yesterday and so won't be out to inspect the external stop tap until tomorrow. no idea what has caused all this but it seems to have righted itself now.

hope everybody else gets water soon

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!-

If you suspect a block in the main between the outside stop tap and the internal rising main stop tap. Get a rough idea of how long the pipe is, goto a roofing supply company and get some copper wire strapping the same length or a bit longer.

Turn off in street, remove inside stop tap, double over end of wire, then feed down pipe. After you have threaded what you think is enough wire down the pipe, turn on water supply slowly while moving the wire backwards and forwards. It should begin to flow or at least tell you roughly where the problem is.

What you are doing is treating the incoming main like a blocked waste pipe.

 

[neeleyveeley]

Hi I just registered on the site as I have the same problem here and am looking for some advice or information.

We had water until Christmas Day then boxing day morning nothing - all our neighbours still have water however! I've ruled out a leak as we just have no water at all not a gurgle plus we can see no signs of any water coming up in the ground. I've been trying to look at the differences in our houses and the only one I can see is that we had a new imprinted concrete drive approx 18 months ago. I had a plumber out today who looked at the road in case the stopcock was disturbed but this was buried under a silt and so should be in the original condition, we then tried to flush water back the wrong way via the washing machine connection via my neighbours hose pipe and still nothing at all. Lots more head scratching I can tell you.

At the moment my options A) wait and hope it is ice but as time goes on and its warmer (6degC) today and 4 degC for the past 2 days, B)to be to dig up (££££'s???) around the supply pipe and try to first run water back or see if the main supply is the problem at the road side, other than that if anything has blocked the pipe other than ice I'm not really sure of the options or who to contact - are there specialist company's that can trace a blockage above ground? How much would that be and if they did find this can they just take out a section of the driveway and repair it afterwards? Other option the plumber mentioned was to re-route this pipe and come in through the front of the house then in the wall to the kitchen where the boiler and all the pipes can be connected?

The current pipe does seem to have a fairly straight run from the main stopcock, then along the drive, side of the house and into the back corner of the house into the kitchen.

Any ideas or re-assurance would be most appreciated as I'm thinking this could be a very expensive Christmas.

Thanks

 

[spanner]

Quite natually, he/she may have one on the Whiskey though!!

 

[spanner]

i bet with a user name like Greenie67 he/she is scottish and doesnt have a water meter

Quite natually, he/she may have one on the Whiskey though!!

 

[PlumbBobBob]

what you on about spanner?

 

[spanner]

what you on about spanner?

Happy new year Stevee, Sorry mate but the remark from Kirkgas, was fillin me in there!! Got a question ??
A 1.5 or 2.0bar shower pump, would ther be a way to work out the flow in ltrs p/m or whats the answer please!!?

Cheers mate.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

you should be able to find out from the manufacturers website. happy new year to you too spanner.

 

[neeleyveeley]

Our pipe must have been frozen as it finally cleared in the middle of the night - water still icy cold be at least it's running with no signs of a problem at the moment Just taken 5 days to sort itself and over Xmas was not a good experience.