Weather. Snow. Lack of.

[Bob Williams]

Looks like East Lindsey is going to be the first to get the next Siberian delivery during the night and tomorrow early hours. We have been lucky so far, no snow for 2 days, but very cold. The next lot is coming from due East, right across the Lincolnshire coast. My BIL and SIL live way up in the Peaks, Derbyshire and are snowed in solid. SIL just had a new knee at the same time as my Gert had the new hip. The sisters must be genetically programmed to self-destruct after 70: ?? there is a younger sister who has hip and knee problems too.

Very icy in the Close, I have been out this morning as I ran out of sandwich filling.

Front door view:

Little Toyota Yaris belongs to a disabled elderly lady 4 doors to the right: she has been out, done her shopping and returned. Tough old lass from Derbyshire.

Backyard view, can only get half of it in, I cleared the paths 2 days ago which shows that we have had just that first fall.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

It’s getting damn cold again here now, no snow at the moment but plenty more forecast for the evening through to the early hours.

Bloke opposite is clearing his car, in all honesty he’s not clearing it yet. That’ll take a while.

[PlaneMan]

Warmer here today, everything is very slowly melting.

I can’t wait to get out, I’m getting cabin fever!!!

[Richard]

Yes warmer for me as well, it is a positive 1.5C this morning and I really want to get out and sort out the revised route for the boiler condensate pipe to avoid future freeze up problems. The temporary solution works well enough as a very temporary solution if you accept zero points for style. Though perhaps the creative use of a couple of bricks to sort out the drain angles might be worth a decimal part of a point. I do not feel the urge to go too far afield until the threat of hidden ice with a covering of water has been lifted. It is worse than just black ice.

[PlaneMan]

Just been to remove the top layer of frozen snow from the car, came off in big sheets once I got underneath it. Side windows almost completely clear with little effort, rear windscreen is totally clear with one tap.

Front windscreen only has the last ice layer. Biggest problem is foot or more of still frozen snow surrounding the car, that could take a while.

[JayCeeDee]

Just been out to check the front – first customer due later after two dog-free days. The car windows are clear of ice, as is the road, car itself is clear of snow. Temperature is about 3 or 4 and the only slip factor is when you move too quickly on the melting mush – it compacts and then becomes slippery – the pavement and gutter are similar.

Expected temps later is 4 or 5 with some drizzle, then light rain. Hopefully back to normal tomorrow with the wind moving to the south.?

 

Edit – just have to hope the drains can cope!!!

[The Duke]

Got to get the car out today currently 0, so a tad warmer.

got a kids party back home 2-4 then 3 tickets to the football. Tho my 9yo already has a cold, so im not sure what is going to happen about the footy. It should be a good’n with Rafa returning. But i can see now her not wanting to go. ?

[Richard]

Well it is an almost tropical 2.3 degrees now so I took out the recycling to its bin and unscrewed the frozen solid boiler drain, a meter and a half of 32 mm pipe filled with ice is a surprisingly heavy item. The permanent replacement will wait for warmer weather.

[PlaneMan]

Managed to get out after some snow moving, not as bad as I thought but getting back into my spot was a nightmare as some idiot neighbour had dug their car out and instead of putting the snow in a sensible place had just dumped it where I’d cleared a path for my car. There is now a wall of snow around their spot. ?

[Bob Williams]

I had a neighbour do that to me in our old village Nolan. I was working at the time as a Workshop foreman and living back with my parents, who were about the age I am now. The big Recovery truck down had a snow shovel bolted on, after my boss had been digging out his lane to the farm. I took it down to our house, completely buried his car and garden, right up to his front door. I was incensed by the fact that he was stopping my parents getting out, not just my car. There was a bank and a total of 9 steps up to our front doors at the bottom of the dale….

He did not confront me about it, he was the kind who did things behind my back and then denied it, but it took him several days to remove the lot, by barrow, most of it to his back garden. His lawn died and his plants did nothing that year, but he moved in the summer. His kids were evil little buggas as well, the whole neighbourhood was glad to see that family go.

We did not get more than a dusting of snow overnight, gone by now. Hovering around 2°c here atm, a very slow thaw which is good, otherwise the Close will be flooded, there is so much ice on the road. It flooded in March 2010, after that long, hard winter. Problem is going to be the previous long periods of rain. The ground is waterlogged and the runoff will take ages to disperse. Much worse elsewhere of course: look out for flood warnings after the thaw.

Stay warm and well Guys!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

Raining a lot now.

Thing is the lazy arses in my cul de sac don’t understand that the snow still has a crust on it, which means if you haven’t broken that crust up the snow will not thaw anywhere near as quick as if you have. I’m the only one with a clear path and a car that has moved.

I managed to ‘dig’ my car out by using my crutches, a broom, the rain and my quite recent acquisition of a pair of 5 10 mountain bike shoes. The shoes are amazing, grip like limpets, really warm, built like builders boots but they are BIG.  Got mine for £50 on sale at Go Outdoors.

 

[Tippon]

Richard wrote:

I have not ventured out except to revise the temporary boiler drain installation to ensure the water has the fastest rout out into the drain. The old pipe has about 5 feet of ice blocking it now, so that has to go if the weather ever improves and I can set up a better fix. Much more of this and I will be going stir crazy.

Almost identical situation here over the last few days. I dug our recycling out from under a neighbour’s car on Thursday morning, and ventured to the back garden in the evening to check the boiler pipe and drain from the bathroom sink. The boiler pipe was fine. Frozen, but only about half an inch into the pipe.

The drain from the sink was knackered though. Somewhere in the history of this house, a DIY bodger has ‘had a go’. I’m bad, but this person was bloody awful. The sink in question is in a separate room with just a toilet, and has a downpipe for the toilet directly outside. The downpipe has a port for a sink drain to be connected, and at first glance, it looks like that’s what’s been done. Instead though, they’ve added about ten feet of pipe clipped along the wall to the nearest available open drain. The pipe sags near the middle where it wasn’t clipped on properly, so the usual gunk has built up, and then the water has frozen behind it. The pipe’s sagged more under the weight and more water has built up and frozen etc. until the pipe came away from the wall and blocked completely.

Luckily, the sink is the only place where the water can come out, but with the length of pipe inside the house too, there’s about 12 feet or more of water, ice, and gunk between the sink and the blockage. As the weather here has stayed below freezing until today, I haven’t been able to do anything with it.

The water in the sink went down on its own earlier, so I’m hoping that the pipe has defrosted enough for the water to pass, otherwise, it’s in the house somewhere! ?

[Richard]

Tippon, I hope that the water has drained outside now. The weather has warmed up here and most of the ice is departing. I went out and completed a new install this morning, but I found the bending and cutting to be harder than I expected/hoped. The old pipe work had a vertical fall of about 3 feet, followed by a horizontal run of about 4 feet or so, before it dropped into the drain. It appears that with night time temperatures of minus five or six any overnight trickles from the boiler froze in the horizontal leg until it became totally blocked and a number of pints, if not a gallon or to backed right through the system into the boiler, which then objected. Following this morning’s activity there is a 45degree angle to the down leg with just a 6 inch horizontal drop into the drain. Hopefully better flow and less chance to cool should ensure minimal future issues.

Is your plan to take the wavy line pipe back and graft it into the existing stack pipe? I hope it is not a high level section or, if it is that you can use a stable tower to complete the work. Maintaining a good, constant fall and an obstruction free run with proper supports should avoid future issues, dips and troughs are a very bad idea. I wonder if Bill Bodger provided the correct ventilation to his epic waste pipe run. Will you get a skilled person to do the remediation? Ladders, troublesome work and time consuming tasks are no longer a suitable set up for me to enjoy. The installation might not be compliant with current regulations as I found the following two quotes. Connection into the soil stack does require a specialist part or two, so it is wise the check what is needed before starting work…

(a) Modern regulations require waste water from above ground level to join into the stack pipe, however with the replacement of baths etc where the original waste fed into a hopper, this method may be reused. (b) Every appliance feeding waste water into a stack must have its own waste trap to provide a water seal.

[Bob Williams]

Most snow and ice gone now from the Close, but at around 11:00 today the one remaining piece of ice in the middle of the road gave me a really good laugh. We have one really stupid, mouthy neighbour, disliked by everyone and partnered with a female equivalent. I was looking out of our large front window as I was busy ironing*, when he stepped out of his front door, his OH screaming invective at him as he walked backwards into the road, screaming back. Not having rear vision, he failed to see the last remaining sheet of slushy ice, fell back his full length. His OH was unsympathetic, calling him stupid, with several colourful adjectives attached. He got up and observed my amusement, then, probably based on previous experience, slunk away. Had he a tail, it would have been between his legs.

*SWMBO is still unable to stand for long and I actually like ironing. I find it therapeutic. And I always do my own anyway: I have never met a female who can iron male shirts and trousers properly.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

Thank goodness the folks round where I live have a little more civic sense than in some places. We did not have the amount of snow that some had and only a few cleared their drives. All of those who went out to clear the couple of inches of snow on their drives cleared it to the side of their own properties. Still it all gone now I am happy to say. The ice finally melted from the old condensate pipe and I used a bit cut from it to complete the newly routed more direct version.

[Tippon]

@sawboman Thanks for the advice 🙂

My wife’s on holidays, and my mother didn’t take my daughter until later than usual this week, so it was dark before I had a chance to check outside today. As the house is on a hill, the back ground level is upstairs, if that makes sense. It makes it easier for maintenance work, but as the dogs have free run of the garden, I didn’t want to risk finding a present in the dark. I checked the room under the bathroom, and there was no sign of moisture, so I’m taking that as a good sign.

The sink has a U bend directly under the plug, so if I’m understanding your quotes correctly, it should be fine. I’ll probably get a plumber in though, as I have a few small jobs building up, and I’m struggling to get them done at the moment. They’re relatively small jobs, but fiddly, like changing the washers on the kitchen tap, and replacing the innards of the toilets.

 

[Richard]

Tippon, That does sound like a sensible way forward, though do your homework first and get a plumber who does not feel you are the lottery payout office. It is never worth the call out fee for small jobs but what you want done is a chain of smallish jobs so perhaps half a day’s work. One call out and half a day’s pay should see most of them done. I had some tricky work done under the kitchen sink done a few weeks back with my hand eye coordination and general lack of flexibility I found it best to call someone out, but they certainly knew how to charge as a two man team who made two visits. One day to do the main job and then to replace a stopcock that had to be specially ordered, – pipe sizes and all that.

[PlaneMan]

One of my regular routes takes my through St Andrews Major and the lanes are flanked by hedges about 8 ft tall, maybe more.  The snow drifts in the lanes were about 6ft tall and it was clear that a JCB or something had just cleared the snow away enough for a single vehicle to pass.

[Tippon]

Richard wrote:

Tippon, That does sound like a sensible way forward, though do your homework first and get a plumber who does not feel you are the lottery payout office.

I’m quite lucky here, in that I have a few friends and an uncle who are plumbers. I can get the job done for a decent price through any of them, but I’m putting together a list of all DIY jobs first while the plumbing isn’t urgent, so that nothing overlaps, and I don’t need repeat callouts.

As an example, the garage is downstairs at the front, and I’m fitting part of my old kitchen along the side wall. It will be easier to get the taps and sink plumbed in while the plumber’s here for the bathroom. There’s an old drain fitting for a sink somewhere outside the garage door, so the excess pipe from upstairs can be reused for that run.

Time to do the hard part now, and see how much cash I need to part with.

[The Duke]

Its  back , worse than last week, car totally stuck, and the schools are closed! Sock of this now.

[Author]

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