San Antonio

Well, don't feel too bad. Many problems around the state are from the fact that they don't require lines to be buried deep enough to avoid surface freezes. One of those things that need looking at, as much for cities on the whole as residential!

 

How deep does a water line need to be to avoid surface freeze

 

Went out to the farm, every pipe, (the whole house filter housing, and pipes that feed 2 hose bibs, all under my trailer trash house) will have to be replaced.

 

Dayum that blows

 

Oh no it's mt home all over again

 

I'm just going to do a new main cut off to get the cattle water troughs back up running, not fixing anything else on the trailer to discouraged my renters from staying any longer, cause I know thier lazy assez will not fix it.

Under standard Texas real estate transactions, when I bought the farm, it was a lease back, and the former owners/ now renters are technically responsible for all the maintenance/repairs until the lease is up.

 

The last hard freeze was back in 2009 I lived in mt home outside of Kerrville and every pipe in the well house froze and busted like that I even had an electric heater to keep the temp up but it didn't work

 

GENERAL RULE:
The general depth of underground water pipes is 12 inches below the frost line in your specific geographical area.

Given you probably have 4" of soil before you hit rock, you need to be 16" minimum. And, that's the minimum. Army COE has published articles about INSULATED/Shielded pipe at shallow depths, but not widely accepted.

I know when they replaced my failed water line not long after we moved in, the young man had to do the whole thing by shovel because the equipment "didn't show up", and he tried to get to what he said was the Texas minimum - 12", because "we only have frost on the surface".
This is why you see so many city lines rupture under city streets here - they simply don't go far enough to "hide" from ground freeze, and the exposed risers are a conduit for the cold to the pipes below.

Infrastructure. It's hard.

Good news here though - they got enough pressure going to refill the water heater, so we could at least do dishes easier! Only a boiling stove water rinse!

 

Have to agree with Maner - except it sucks!

 

Thanks Kurt

 

Lucky me the chickens all survived and now I'm selling eggs like there gold i locked them in the chicken coop with 2 heat lamps hanging from the ceiling it was warmer in there then it was in my house i had fun melting snow on the stove to give them water when the water stopped

 

You get a generator

 

Great!
Congdon (Chicken) Farm was busy this morning when I got there. Don't know why the wife doesn't always just go. I got three flats of 2 1/2 dozen each for less than $10. They didn't have a limit, but that was plenty to give to the neighbors with plenty for us.
Since I know it's hard to bury your water line, I'll send you a message later about repair ideas to help insulate it. Would not cost much extra.

 

Thought he said he at least got one set aside.
He can use it to power the egg mine at least!

told the wife that one is on my list tonight, and she didn't shoot me with her Christmas gun (last year!). Thanks to Covid, and lack of ammo (other than what I got her), she hasn't been to her friends range out here once!

 

Been doing lots of research On them

 

I think I said in the "Scott List" that I think my ideal would be natural gas powered, with a gasoline back up option. I don't want to store a lot of gas, and we have never had a gas outage - a leak in the yard! - but no outage. That would be ideal for us, as I could probably afford a whole house kW unit.

Carol asked about battery back up for the solar, and my reasoning instead (FYI);

• current solar panel array covers almost all of the South face roof.
• that array ALMOST covers the normal use during a summer day. So, the bill got reduced very much. Any extra, they pay us back.
• I could add panels in areas that would increase the "length of solar day", but would not increase the payload much. (would still cut cost)
• For about the same as the battery, which we would have a hard time "filling" with spare power....
• For about the same as upgrading the solar, I could do the back up, and (if I trust natural gas), never worry about weeks like this for power.
• So, short of landscaping and the hot tub she will make me get..... it's a wash on money I planned to grab from retirement this year anyway.