Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
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- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
Minus 40 Dew? You’re not exaggerating just a bit are you? 
We only made it to minus 2 here. I’ve seen it colder.
That reminds me of another one of my awful stories though. When I was in the New Orleans area, I was in a horseshoe pitching league. We pitched in a local city’s playground but had to pay for everything ourselves and maintain the pitching pits.
We got the city’s permission to put in a small storage building and could even put in running water as long as we covered all expenses. When we were running the water line I suggested bringing it up out of the ground inside the building, not outside. It had a dirt floor so no problems. Oh no, outside is how we always do it here. We’re bringing it up outside.
Most winters it does not get cold enough long enough to cause any problems, but occasionally it does. It had a couple of years before and caused all kinds of broken water lines and low water pressure. Some main water lines were running over canals with no insulation. Several of these froze and broke. I’d had to go to a friend’s house to get water out of his swimming pool to flush the toilets, water pressure was that bad it wouldn’t even fill a tank. And of course my fairly new in-laws were visiting. It was an adventure.
You’ve probably guessed it. The next winter we had another of those cold snaps we never have down there. I assure you I was not one of the people out there repairing that water line.
In case someone caught it, running water doesn’t easily freeze. The water in those main transmission lines going over the canals was not what froze and burst. They had Tee’s coming off with a blind flange so they could tap into those lines if they wanted to. It was the still water in these Tee’s that froze and burst the lines.
We only made it to minus 2 here. I’ve seen it colder.That reminds me of another one of my awful stories though. When I was in the New Orleans area, I was in a horseshoe pitching league. We pitched in a local city’s playground but had to pay for everything ourselves and maintain the pitching pits.
We got the city’s permission to put in a small storage building and could even put in running water as long as we covered all expenses. When we were running the water line I suggested bringing it up out of the ground inside the building, not outside. It had a dirt floor so no problems. Oh no, outside is how we always do it here. We’re bringing it up outside.
Most winters it does not get cold enough long enough to cause any problems, but occasionally it does. It had a couple of years before and caused all kinds of broken water lines and low water pressure. Some main water lines were running over canals with no insulation. Several of these froze and broke. I’d had to go to a friend’s house to get water out of his swimming pool to flush the toilets, water pressure was that bad it wouldn’t even fill a tank. And of course my fairly new in-laws were visiting. It was an adventure.
You’ve probably guessed it. The next winter we had another of those cold snaps we never have down there. I assure you I was not one of the people out there repairing that water line.
In case someone caught it, running water doesn’t easily freeze. The water in those main transmission lines going over the canals was not what froze and burst. They had Tee’s coming off with a blind flange so they could tap into those lines if they wanted to. It was the still water in these Tee’s that froze and burst the lines.
