Winter woes

[Mark]

It's been a long winter. Seems like more cold and snow than the last couple winters.

Did any of you have any problems with your home this winter? Did you freeze up or have a carport collapse for all the snow (sorry Maureen ).

No major problems with our home. If the wind was blowing hard and just right, the cold water would freeze to my kitchen sink. It never stays frozen for long, so I never think to do anything about it.

How about you?

Mark

[77shovelhead]

No trouble here in N.E Ark. But I did burn 250 gal. of propane in 3 months, just keeping the thermostat at 50 deg.

[Maureen]

LOL, snarking at Mark big time right now! Yeah, we had our share of snow a few years ago.... and yeah, lost the carport!

Overall, we've been pretty mild out here. Got hit pretty good today with snow. First time I had to actually shovel snow this year... WOO HOO! But, the roads are horrid! Took me almost 3 hours to travel 45 miles home tonight.

We really can't complain at all. The snow that's falling now, is building up the snow pack for water this Summer.

Seven feet of snow 2 years ago, flooding last year, we really deserve this break... big time! Temps have been really cold this Winter though!!!

Don't forget!!! Daylight Savings time March 11th! National check you water shut off day is creeping up on us also!

Maureen

[Yanita]

Good morning all,

Here in Eastern N.C. the winter has been real mild, or I think anyways. We have had several cold snaps, but nothing major, no ice storms or snow, and little rain in comparison to years before.

Spring is on it's way here! I noticed yesterday while planting a few small shrubs that several of the trees are getting little buds on them, and the camillas are in bloom. Daffodils are passing in my yard but in full bloom in many other areas.

It won't be long now folks and we will all be enjoying the spring weather, and delving back into those "projects"!

Have a great day!

~Yanita~

[Greg]

Here in the snow capital, the season started very S L O W, but we made up for it. North of us had 13 feet over a week & half. Spring could be a wet one if it get too warm too fast. Greg

[klm9707]

Only problem here is the skirting. It is up above two of the doors. Glad we have 3 doors right now or we would be trapped! Hope the other one makes it until spring. Had the installers come to look at it but they said that everyone is having the same problem right now. No help for us. Hate to go through this for the next 30 yrs. But all else is fine. Temps made it up into the 30's today. Yaaaay! Hey wait a minute... am I overlooking spell-check? Cant find it. Excuse any mistakes.

[Maureen]

Hi klm9707,

Frost heave is always an issue if you live in areas where this is common. However, we have heard of the skirting blocking doors over the last few years. In my opinion, that's not normal at all.

There should be no reason set up crews in your area should not know how to set up a home to prevent this. There are many ways of preventing your skirting from moving during frost heave.

As for spell check, if you're logged in, you'll see a red line under a mis-spelled word. Right click, and it should give you a spell check.

Keep us posted!

Maureen

[Yanita]

Hi,

When I lived in Vermont there were some winters that it got to below 38* for a long periods of time. When you have winters like that the frost can and does go as deep as 6 feet or more. We had frost heaves sometimes that would raise areas as much as 18 inches. Not sure how anyone could modify there skirting set up to accomodate that much moving.

We had a full 6 inch slab under our home and it broke, and was reinforced with rebar.

~Yanita~

[Maureen]

Oops, negate that mention for spell check! So Sorry, I had just installed an update to Firefox, and that has a built in spell checker!

The queen of typos is now in heaven!

But, it does seem that that Mark has the spell check working on the board now!

Yep, I only know freezes down to about 4 feet. Maybe someone else in your area will chime in with a fix. Out here in Nevada, pea gravel works well in a trench.

Maureen

[NancyKay]

Well I woke up last month to frozen pipes. Called Mr. fix it to unthaw them for $125. They then told me my heat tape did not work, and gave me an estimate for $185. and I saw heat tape in the store for $24.99! so if I can get up the nerve to install it myself, which I probably won't cause I don't know what I'm doing, but I've been letting my water drip almost the whole month of Feb. Then one night, I FORGOT! pipes froze again. So smart me, who doesn't know what she's doing.......borrows my brothers turbo heater, almost like the guys who thawed them before had. I thought yeah, I can do this myself. So I'm out there with the heater, blowing it on the pipes.....also had all my faucets open inside.....so after about 1/2 hour.....I see water coming out of my drain pipe, which is NEXT to the main water thing I was thawing. The water was back on, and since all the faucets were open, all the water was running......and I had melted/ ruined the seal on my drain! so some water was coming out and some water was going down. Once I ran in and shut the faucets off, it stopped. It was not melted, and there was no hole or anything, but it must have messed up the seal inside or something. So now everytime I wash clothes, take a shower, do dishes, anything.....some goes down, some comes out....I'm waiting for warmer weather to fix it. it gets froze on the outside so that kinda "seals" it. hahaha....but here I am, solving one problem and creating another.

[Yanita]

Hi NancyKay,

Sorry to here of your winter woes.

My best advice to you is go to the article link at the top of the page. Read "Thawing frozen water lines" and "Frozen sewer lines" each contains info that would help you greatly!

Have a great day!

~Yanita~

[Maureen]

Hi NancyKay,

So sorry to hear about the problems you've had this year! Your best bet is to educate your self where you're home is concerned. If your educated, then you can do simple repairs yourself, and if you have to hire someone, you know the correct way to repair it.

Between this board, and Mark's book, you can learn everything you need to know! Mark furnishes us with newsletters and articles when he has the chance. If the book, articles or newsletters don't answer your question, then you need to jump on the board and ask away!

Even if you hire a job out, if you know what you're talking about, repair people take a step back and listen to you! Education goes a long way. I do most of the repairs around here, but there are times that I hire out a lot of jobs! Yanita does the same thing. Because we know what we're talking about, and what we want done, things get done correctly, for the most part.

Maureen