@@RogerWakefield none of it is my favorite, I can say all of the trades will be busy for the next year and homeowners insurance rates will probably increase ,
Living in Canada it’s just odd for me too see exposed pipes on the outside of homes like that. In Canada all are pipes are like 5 feet into the ground below the frost line so they can’t freeze and all plumbing comes into the basement from the floor. Water heaters are inside usually in the basement same with electric panels inside nothing is in the outside of the homes
Same in Wisconsin, sometimes you have piping for an outdoor garden hose but I was always taught to disconnect it/shut off the valves going to it before winter
Get down into the southern US and we rarely if ever see these temps. I live in south Florida, water main is right outside my house. No one puts those things inside most of the time since this is a stupidly rare event to happen. That being said, we do build the roofs to take wind loads I doubt Canada rarely if ever sees.
@@sparkplug1018 Don't worry , yes we also have high wind loads and it's worse if there's a heavy snow load. I don't understand why anyone would put exposed water pipes , and water heaters, in the attic what's the matter with running them under the floor slab if you have no basement, and water heaters in a utility closet close to the bathroom or kitchen.
@@sparkplug1018 and cost. I bet it is cheaper to just stuff them in the attic instead of putting them below slab. But for those things that may happen once every I don't know how many decades, that possibility is often overlook for reasons of price and convenience. And on the plus side, repairing those lines in the attic is way easier with all the drywall stuff underneath already torn down than digging under the slab to get to any line.
@@sparkplug1018 We get the craziest weather in Canada one day could be 20 Celsius next day -35 Celsius with snow. Calmly sunny one day hurricane wind the next day. Foot of snow one day next morning 5 Celsius everything melting
It's amazing the amount of homeowners that don't know where their water main shutoff is. I think it should be a requirement when you purchase a house to have that shown to you
Texas forgets that insulation also helps your A/C in summer. Everyone wondered why our house had so much insulation in Central Texas. Paid for it self in electric bills.
One of the first things I did when I bought my house here in DFW last year was double the insulation and work on fixing air leaks around the house. I'm convinced it's a big factor in why we didn't have any freezes in my house despite only having 2 hrs of power for every 16 hrs off for three days. It was still incredibly cold but I think it kept the house just above the point of pipes freezing. I did it to insulate from heat, not even considering cold at the time, but no regrets. Money well spent.
@@norightturn7047 Ya, I know I was fortunate. My mother in west Texas had no energy or water for a week (Thursday before the storm, to the Thursday after). I'm grateful to my relatives nearby for looking after her because it was such a nightmare and absolutely nothing I could do from DFW
Does not mean much when they shut off our power, turn off our water, and it's a record cold for the area that rarely sees anything below freezing. No heat to warm the house, no water pressure to run water to keep pipes from freezing, and insulation can only help for so long. Our power and water were out for 4 days.
The amount of people who make tiktok videos while the house is flooding is astounding. They need to be shutting their water off. I've known how to shut water off since I was a kid, it's not that hard.
By the age of 12 I was turning off water mains to throw in new receivers for leaking tubs and sinks. By 16 I was laying foundations too make double wide trailers and setting up electrical for fans. The more you know the better off you are in a case of emergency you don't want to wait till it's too late and if you can fix stuff you'll save money and time in the long run.
I live in Houston and my whole neighborhood pipes busted, luckily I’m a apprentice for a plumbing company so I fixed my own busted pipes. And like you said Texas is not meant for cold weather but it does get me upset how many people own homes but don’t know how to shut off the water.
We are not built for weather THIS cold. I'm not too sure what could've done for the underground lines, but the above ground lines that fed the power plants should've been insulated. I hope they had to pay for full repairs out of pockets, with insulation installed and charged without their consent.
Were people not told to shut the water off to their house when this happened? You'd think they could deal with no water for a few days to save these issues
Yes, I know about all that. There are so many people who know so little about how a house works that they're basically incompetent to be homeowners. I have Asperger's syndrome, live in low-income rented housing, wanted to be a plumber but couldn't have a career because of my disability, but I STILL know how a building works and am able to give even my property manager a few pointers every now and then not only about plumbing but also about electricity, the elevator mechanism, and building structure.
@Roger Wakefield. I really feel sorry for Texans and anyone who has to go thorough these problems anywhere. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to learn our lessons. Learning where the shutoff valves are at the water meter and at the house (teach everyone in the house where it's located and mark the valve) and how to shut off the water at either place. If the weather is really cold and you think there's the possibility of loosing power (or losing power) consider shutting off the water to the house and draining ALL the pipes (and knowing how to do it) to lesson the chance of water IN the house. A water break outside the house has less of a chance to cause flooding problems in the house. Unfortunately, Texas had many problems compounding their plight (once in a lifetime deep freeze, loss of power, frozen water mains). I'm guessing that Texas doesn't bury their water mains very deep like in other parts of the country that has a "frost line"? Hope you and your family stay safe and well. Please don't get flushed.
@@bobshanery5152 sadly even if they SAY that's the case, it's not true. All of the maintenance and management LEFT my appartment complex and the state (to Oklahoma) trying to escape the snap only to get stuck. We were left to fend for ourselves and the fire department had to hack down the maintenance closet in order to get access to the line and turn it off. At that point the main pipes had already burst flooding the first floor apartments compounding the issue of lines that burst inside apartments themselves. It was a living nightmare since we had lost power for like 3 days too.
We had to run to our well and turn it off. We live in a small farm town out west of Houston. The only line that popped was outside under the concrete. As country folk we had all the tool to fix it ready and available. Cracked through the concrete and used PVC from previous repairs. My heart goes out to my fellow Texans.
Mr. Wakefield. Thanks for the videos. I am not a native Texan but from northern Nebraska. Initially, I was amused with the issues people were having since it was old hat to me. On Tuesday of the storm I had a friend who is with a senior care facility call me for help. He had a plumber on site but could not get to the parts they needed. This brought the situation into focus and instead of amusement it was sympathy. Taking the phrase Texans helping Texans to heart I went to Ferguson for parts (grew up driving in the stuff) KUDOS to them for opening up for me (NOT a plumber) to help out. When they opened the front door they actually had broken pipes in the warehouse as well. Thanks to Mike at Furgeson in Austin for helping out
When I bought my house the first think I did was find the electrical disconnect, gas shut off valve, water shutoff valve for inside & outside.I’ve never had a pipe burst thank god but I’ve come home to a broken furnace during -21F temp in northeast Ohio. That time it was just a blown capacitor cost me $8 to fix but I missed the supply store closing by 45 minutes. The temp in my house was 68F that night by morning it was 36F.
A toast to Rodger Wakefield uploading a video on how to turn of the water to you house! The amount of piping and sheet rock saved by that information may never be known.
I was a plumber on the Jersey Shore for 13 years (I'm now a plumber in Southwest Florida for 3yr.) and we would have to deal with this. Some winters were better than others. I wish I could be there helping out Texas. You guys are in my thoughts be safe out there.
What I had heard from a lot of folks that I know that live down in Texas is the water line would burst they would run out to try to shut it off at the outside shut off but the shut-off was still frozen solid could not get the water to shut off. And by the time the valve had thawed to shut it off the damage was done
They probably go for that damn pex pipe garbage because it's cheap and easier to fix than regular pvc. Nah I'm just kidding they probably going to use schedule 80 pvc because that's the strongest and thickest pipes you can use for a water line unless you want to be drinking metal. The problem with the pipes is the fittings like elbows, joints and slips are all made of schedule 40 which isn't as strong as schedule 80 pvc causing them to crack its usually never the pipe that breaks but the fittings holding the pipes. The only reason I know this is I worked at a home improvement store and being a gardener for 20 yrs you learn how to get water from point a to b.
sadly, a few changes in how things are built could have prevented a lot of that. plus, of course - if your pipes have frozen, turn the main off BEFORE it thaws.
Unfortunately my brother forgot to tell his son why he turned all the faucets on... his son turned them all off and thankfully my brother is a plumber but now he has to pay to fix it all 😥
Meanwhile people that usually get -5 degree weather to Texans "First time here eh?, did you at least pull your wiper blades from your windshield before it snowed? "
I remember as a growing boy and young man we go out every winter and wrap our pipes in rural GA. Sometimes we come across cracked pvc pipes and had to cut and replace them to be able to have running water. It taught me a lot when it came to plumbing. Very valuable now but then climbing under a house on my back in the freezing weather was a very dirty job. Lol thanks Roger!
I commented on a video last week about my water heater in my garage having a few freeze breaks. Update: I was lucky compared to a lot of people. Only the copper lines directly behind the water heater had breaks, both the cold intake line and the hot out line but only about an inch break in each. Plumber didn’t even spend a full hour onsite and I’m leak free with hot water again!
My parents ran a generator on both phases of the electrical panel to run lights and (gas) instant hot water heaters at our house.. also ran the heater in the garage, and opened the attic door to allow hot air into the attic and keep the average temperature above freezing, AND dripped faucets.. we just spent the past few months remodeling, so we were not playing games with the Potential to freeze.. in the peninsula on Lewisville lake!
@@OdysseyWafflezand that generator, I had to do a full rehaul..completely torn apart and put back together, and then I had to make male to male extension cables to backfeed into the electrical panel and power the house. Sum of the story, I've worked actively for everything my family has. We're lucky to have friends in many industry sectors that make remodels and improvements significantly more financially feasable.
We are in north central Texas and our pipes froze on and off. We drained them and shut the water off when our power went out and we thought we were going to have to leave, but outside of that we let our pipes drip 24/7 and we had no pipes break at all. It really works.
I feel sorry for all these people, but as a home owner, you need to know how to do some basic things, like turn the water off. Ive showed my kids how to do it in case I am not home, for emergencies
I work at an apartment complex in College Station and we had 56 units of 2-4 residents have busted pipes and 54 units get collateral flooding from those units. For a total of 350ish residents have flooded apartments. We were running 12 hours a day shutting off water between units for 2 days straight and I didn’t have any water proof shoes. It was no fun!
It's sad to think that when people see water flowing from there ceiling, that the first reaction is filming it. I'm from Minnesota, I called all my friends in Texas and walked them through on how to shut off there water
Do houses not have main shut offs in Texas? I live in Maryland and in my house right where the main waterline comes in they threw a quarter turn ball valve inline. I mean it’s like a maybe $10 part and can basically save you thousands from damage
They do, either up near the house, or down near the street where the meter is. But we rarely have reason to shut water off to the whole house as the local shutoffs to fixtures in given rooms is more than enough for what we need in nearly all cases as we're usually just replacing the fixture or appliance.
So crazy! Can’t believe how many people in these videos didn’t shut off the main water valve. I’m in Amarillo Texas - we’re a little more prepared here for colder weather (bc we definitely experience all the seasons) than our fellow Texans down south. It got cold (-15 at the lowest) but luckily no burst pipes. I checked on 2 of my others family’s homes here in town - no problems. We dripped our faucets and opened cabinets to circulate warm air. I was worried more about my old HVAC unit...lit a fire on a Fri and kept it going through Wed to help heat our home.
I live in West Virginia and been a plumber for most of my life and I deal with this almost each year. At least one or two calls a year dealing with frozen pipes and caved in ceilings. It's horrible!
I live in Dallas. I had water and electricity the whole time. I am fortunate that I did not experience any of this. I kept my faucets open on both sides and monitored the pipes with a thermometer. I feel awful for everyone that people have to deal with this scale of damage and that some people had no power for days.
Had two breaks. One inside the wall under the sink. And one in an outside faucet. Was able to shut the water off quickly and repair the lines with minimal damage.
@@3L5Ancho you have to remember being the only car in the garage it would mess with the air currents.. wind has only 2 options up or down.. not much wind can go down.. most is going up.. freezing the pipe first.. remember the pipe isn't far from her car.. that's why it happened to where her car was parked not anywhere else
As a property manager we make sure every tenant knows where the water shut-off is and part of the move-in we make sure they can actually turn it. We are in the Midwest and twenty below is not unheard of, but even in warm weather ice makers can jam and flood and washing machine hoses burst.
I finally just got water back on at my apartment here in Austin. Haven't had running water in 2 weeks. During the power outage we were without power for a little over 3 days. Got down to about 40 inside. It was just crazy.
I'm a native of Texas. My family moved to MN in '93. Frozen pipes are common here. Our first couple years here, our pipes froze under the house. The issue was that it would freeze on the street side of the shutoff we had, and the main shutoffs are buried in the streets and sidewalks. You need a long tool to reach down and turn the valve, but nobody besides the city carries them. We didn't know any better at the time, and were always taking shifts with a blow dryer in the winter months, which for here is half the year. Good luck to you guys down there!
I am in Wisconsin and I remember about 3 years ago where we had an extremely hard winter. Despite our mains being buried 6-8 feet underground in the area I live, the city still sent out notifications requesting all residents to leave a tap slowly running to prevent freezing of the mains as the frost that year got 9 feet down. It's amazing what a little continuous flow can do to help prevent freezing. We only had 2 breaks in the city that year, which is actually about average for winter and old mains failing.
I live in Wisconsin and we are definitely prepared every year for this kind of weather but we are even having problems here too. I feel for all the Texans out there that aren’t prepared
Yeah haven’t heard of any problems around Appleton. But we also only hit -10ish I believe. It was colder ~5 years ago we had multiple days off of school because the wind chill was in the -30s
@@ELITEViRuZz milwaukee is getting hit by the great lake effects hard this year. Having 5' snow mounds around my driveway was so annoying. Running out of room to place the snow that keeps falling. Luckily, every thing is starting to melt which started a few days ago.
@@ezekieo32 Hey now you southern Wisconsinites know what it's like to be up north here with snowbanks the size of buildings! This year actually has been the least snow I've ever seen up here. Crazy how that equates to you guys getting more, and Texas getting some as well. Either way, I hope for warmer weather for the both of us. 40° feels like 80° when you're coming off of winter weather. 😆
Round Rock TX here, we learned our lesson from a previous freeze down here where we lost our Tankless water heater due to freezing. This time we let all the faucet drip and cabinet doors open and no issues this time.
Austinite here. I was without power for 5.5 days, and my pipes were frozen for at least a couple of days, and on two occasions. I knew where the cutoff valve was, but didn't need it. I used a combination of alcohol poured in the outdoor faucet (to raise the freezing temperature) and a towel soaked in hot salt water wrapped around the faucet to very slowly (over two days, as noted) thaw the pipes out. No leaks or otherwise broken pipes, thank goodness. Watching these clips made me feel really lucky.
I work in multi family in VA for the past 30 years. I have definitely seen my share of busted pipes. The Texas busted pipes are very bad. We have a artic freeze in my area about 5 years ago, busted fire sprinkler lines in apartment complex i work at. We had 25 units with 6 inches of water per unit. I feel your pain
What's horrible is when you live in an apartment complex and it's not your water running down on you and nobody knows what to do now granted I wouldn't know what to do but 99% do not that is what I would consider kind of comical but that's just me LOL :-) :-) keep your feet dry LOL
My buddy stayed in an apartment building where one of the tenants pissed someone off and the person came back at like 2am, took the fire hose from the hallway of the top floor and turned it on and ran. The water flooded 18 floors of apartments, destroying everything.
The other day my 2 year old nephew escaped his room and jammed everything he could down the toilet and it flooded into the downstairs apartment. No one knew until the neighbor was banging on the door after it had been flooding for an hour. He also grabbed a full flat of eggs from Costco and decorated the living room with them.
This is so sad to see and I feel for every one of these people. This makes me feel even better that I work for a small company that is designing a smart system that has leak detectors and will shut off your water main as soon as even a drop is detected. We have saved not only many homes already, but also conserved tons of water doing so. I only wish that we could put that system in more homes down south to help protect their homes. You work so hard for your home and to watch it get destroyed is devastating. Keep your heads high and I pray everyone stays safe, warm and has a quick recovery.
My old house had the main line to the shower burst. Worst part was it was the hot water line. We cut the water heater off to stop the supply and turned the main off as well. When we checked why it burst we found it was salvaged pvc pipe and wasn't joined properly. Luckily we got to it quick enough to prevent any major damage. Quick trip to the depot and we had it fixed.
I think texas should consider doing cold weather drills where home owners winterize their plumbing (turn water off, drain the supply pipes, until temperatures return to normal). Also if your house is flooded, turn off the power outside at the power meter, you can get electrocuted very easily.
Unless you know what you are doing, you should never remove the meter to disconnect power. It is very easy to get electrocuted and there is no real protection at that point. Disconnect power at the main disconnect, usually the main panel.
@@aman7196 The utility company will usually require a disconnect switch ahead of the meter so that the someone can open the switch to kill the load before pulling the meter. Pulling a meter under load can result in an electric arc. This varies by local code. But usually homes are required to have an emergency shutoff switch ahead of meter for floods and firefighters. I know my house previous houses in Ohio had them, and I currently live in Florida has them. I'm not sure about Texas though.
With temps that low, first thing I would have done is shut off the water to the house and find the lowest spigot and drain the pipes in the house. Then go take a short trip to a warmer place that has power and water that isn't freezing. Failing that, at least shut off the main if there's a leak. Crazy that people are too occupied with filming the destruction of their home instead of stopping it from getting worse.
Moved down from central IL about 4 years ago. When the power was off for about 2 hours, my brain kicked in to IL winter mode. Faucets dripping. Closed all the doors to my pretty much interior rooms and stayed in those. Put all my blankets on my bed. Got through 40 hours of no power with no leaks. Other apartments in my building not so lucky. No water for about 10 days. And no hot water for about 15.
hey Roger, I'm in San Antonio and spent the week without water. I work at a major home improvement retailer and spent the week helping local Texans with spray foam, quick seal, everything they could get their hands on for even a quick fix until plumbers can get to them to for a legit repair. I still have neighbors without water and my store is SLOWLY getting plumbing materials in, but we've now moved from pipes and lines to the clean up. It's crazy
I opened cabinets and had water dripping and never lost power, but my pipes in my laundry room still froze. I was smart enough to immediately shut off the main water line and drain my faucets. Wish I would have just bought enough water and filled up my tubs and shut and drained the pipes before the storm even hit. Wish I had PEX pipes instead of copper. Oh well, live and learn.
I'm a restoration tech in PA so I deal with the aftermath of broken pipes quite often, especially in the winter. The worst one I encountered was an old house that was split into 4 apartments. The water heater burst and was running for a few days before the realtor was able to check on the property. With the steam and time that passed mold had started growing on everything. The walls looked like they had carpet in them from the heavy mold growth. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that property anymore.
When I replaced my plumbing lines, I put shutoff values everywhere. I even have two before the line even gets to my house (not counting the value box).
I live in Tennessee this time of year our toilet gets a lot of condensation. Enough so I keep thinking the toilet is leaking. Is there anyway to prevent this?
If your water heater isn't too far from the toilet, you can install a blend valve. This will cause the toilet to be filled with lukewarm water and your condensation problem will vanish.
You have some serious moisture problems. I live in Tennessee and it's so dry inside I spark when I touch anything. There's no way my toilet would sweat. Do you have unvented propane heat?
Condensation happens because the surface is below the dew point (or someone is taking steamy hot showers). Rick suggested a blend valve to get some hot water mixed in with the feed valve (in which case, you may want to run hot tap until you get hot water, just like with a dishwasher) to at least get a lukewarm temp, or get a few dehumidifiers.
@@ZeldagigafanMatthew this time of year in Tennessee the interior humidity is in the teens to low 20 percent range. I don't see how anything could sweat. I feel like I'm a lightning storm walking through my house with all the static sparks..
Looking at this, I suddenly feel good living in Canada where freezing cold weather is expected, I know things like that isn't going to happen unless the plumbing hasn't been done properly. And as for the pickup truck sliding, yeah, that's why we put winter tires here 😂
You have to have your faucets drip people in the warmer places, or these things will happen. I know this because I live in a place with freezing temps and we have to make sure our INSULATED pipes don't freeze by doing the same thing.
@YouDontKnowMe humm, it's been 0 here and I don't have any pipes burst..I don't leave the water dripping either.. are you saying no pipes burst in dallas? No where? Every single house has insulated pipes? Amazing.
@YouDontKnowMe I've got pipes that are exposed to below freezing temperatures for weeks at a time sometimes and they don't freeze. You all must use that cheap foam from Lowe's for pipe insulation.
@YouDontKnowMe Why do you think I'm fighting? Complex? I'm just amazed you all had so much trouble with pipes. The power goes off every bad winter here in the mountains of East Tennessee..we have trees fall across power lines in almost every winter storm. Then you come along and say everything is insulated. I don't understand. Does the insulation suck? Is it installed wrong? Why does 80 percent of the nation have no issues with cold but you all almost needed the national guard?
@YouDontKnowMe actually we never have had building codes up until about 2012. Absolutely none. But I get your point. You'll never see piping outside the walls around here unless it's got electric pipe heating tape. Why didn't you drain the pipes, I know hindsight is 20/20 sometimes. Just shutting off the water and turning on all the faucets, drain the water heater will make a tremendous difference. I have rentals that set all winter empty sometimes and that's all I do. Every once in awhile I'll have a fitting to crack
@YouDontKnowMe by the way thanks for taking the time to explain this. I guess strange weather really throws people off their game. We'd probably be like that if we had several weeks of above 100 degrees. I own a HVAC company, things get wild around here when it gets around 98. There's plenty of houses that doesn't have the AC capacity to maintain a cool temperature if it gets above 100 around here. People freak out..
Roger, I'm guessing you're all working beyond normal hours with this going on. Makes me wish I knew anything about plumbing, because I'd love to give Texas a hand.
When it comes to those kinds of leaks, there is a lot of structural damage and whole sections of buildings have to be replaced. If you can do any of that then you can get a job there.
This actually made me tear up. There were so many people that lost so much and the news on this was basically zero. Most people in the north here only heard it got cold and there were maybe some power issues. This was an entire disaster. So many homes lost. Memories. That’s just awful. I hope those people are doing better now. :(
I'm not in Texas but I do agree when buying a house anywhere you need to know how to turn off the water and empty the lines I go on holiday for more than a few days here, no matter the temperature I shut off the water and at least de-pressurize the lines (open a tap on the lower level). Why? I came home after a weekend to find the toilet tank seal had deteriorated and started dripping causing ceiling damage on the level below. If the water was off, all that would need cleaning was a couple liters of water.
Well where I'm at in South Carolina we had a freeze a couple years ago and plumbers were charging $100 a pop throwing in shark bites and a chunk of packs now me on the other hand probably ran 25 calls in three days and fixed every one of them properly but still not as bad as what y'all got I haven't seen negative two and 37 years that's when I used to live up north in Chicago and that was before wind chill
Well we can all agree 90% of the houses in Chicago are made for negative letters so in theory it should not freeze there but Chicago is definitely not Texas LOL
Anyone here watch "The 8-Bit Guy"?? He lives in Dallas and has had to leave TH-cam for possibly the next year since his house is ruined from all of this... I am from the UK so have no idea what caused all of this but still, best of hopes to all these people.
Blessing Texas: psv off well head froze open, head of irrigation control leak, one pvc valve leak in barn and one busted pvc to water hose fitting separation. We faired much better than some of our neighbors. Went 52 hours without power
@@navrajjohal9053 Yuuup!! I am always perplexed at construction in Texas, where slab on grade gets to below the frost line...around me, the frost line is 4ft down so you might as well just add the basement! (And keep those waterlines from freezing as often :)
Had the watermain break on my street couple years ago covered a couple streets in about 6 inches of solid ice and was shooting water up three feet, had never seen it before. Wish I still had the video
In my experience I have found that most people have no idea where their water shut off is. I've asked where it's located before and got blank stares as they have never felt the need to know where it's located
Where I’m from we are used to weeks of weather in the negative and yes our plumbing system is different but it’s all about planning for it and expecting the worse and hope for the best.
Maybe it's not true but when I was a kid and it would get really cold outside my dad would turn every faucet on both hot and cold just a little bit so the water was always flowing and then also flush the toilet frequently. Would that have worked or is that just a myth?
I'm so thankful I've watched my dad do plumbing repairs at my house. Thankfully the water shut off for my house is under the kitchen sink. I feel so bad for Texas and everything they went through. I'm up in Oklahoma.
I live in Wisconsin and I have to leave my water drip because all my plumbing is in a crawl space. Had my sink drain freeze so I had to go under and thaw it with a torpedo heater.
As a guy who lives in northern Alberta, Canada, I see so many frozen/burst pipes per winter. The craziest ones are when the sewer freezes under a mobile. Often it requires a full replumb and a thaw of a small affected area so you dont release sewage under the mobile. Ive seen some crazy water main bursts and water distributuon systems of all materials blow apart. Giant floods. Ice all over the inside of certain areas. Crazy things
In New England those temps come to us too. Our water networks are 6 or more feet below grade and water piping is located in the heat envelope of a house or structure.
I can't fault the plumbing issues much, since it was a freak thing they were not expecting to ever have (remember Georgia got shut down during an ice storm, because the roads were not treated for the kind of freak weather they got) But the power grid, that is inexcusable, they deregulated to cut corners on purpose, that was their fault.
They also have their own independent power grid, so utilities in surrounding states couldn't even ramp up production to meet the demand. Utilities sell power onto the grid when they have excess generating capacity available, but we can't sell it to Texas.
Treated roads only rust your vehicle. They have almost stopped here in East Tennessee because many times it makes things worse by melting the snow and then it freezes again in clear ice. You all just had the perfect ice storm back then
It's wild how many people with destroyed pipes don't even try and shut off their water main...
My first thot. Turn off water before thaw at this point.
They just video water destroying their home!
Crazy isn't it? Which was your favorite?
First thing I do when I see a water leak is haul azz to the cutoff.
@@RogerWakefield none of it is my favorite, I can say all of the trades will be busy for the next year and homeowners insurance rates will probably increase ,
One of the first things I taught my wife to do when we got our new house is how to shut the water off if there’s a leak and I’m not home.
Taught all my boys too. 15, 12 and 8
I bought a house 18 months ago that’s about 100 years old. Searched high and low for my stopcock, turned out it’s in the pavement outside my house. 😅
Dude thats sexist
Same....and flagged it
@@magiccarp3710 hardly
Living in Canada it’s just odd for me too see exposed pipes on the outside of homes like that. In Canada all are pipes are like 5 feet into the ground below the frost line so they can’t freeze and all plumbing comes into the basement from the floor. Water heaters are inside usually in the basement same with electric panels inside nothing is in the outside of the homes
Its the same here in Sweden
A basement in Texas is just an indoor pool. We live just a few feet above sea level.
@@lockabar wait there's basements in Texas??? I know we dont have any here in Houston
Same in Wisconsin, sometimes you have piping for an outdoor garden hose but I was always taught to disconnect it/shut off the valves going to it before winter
@@jvinclarence3977 I know I live in Baytown. All I meant to imply is that if you tried to dig a basement here it would fill with water quickly.
Living in Canada it always baffles me seeing water softener's, hot water tanks, etc etc outside. Also the pvc water lines.
Get down into the southern US and we rarely if ever see these temps. I live in south Florida, water main is right outside my house. No one puts those things inside most of the time since this is a stupidly rare event to happen.
That being said, we do build the roofs to take wind loads I doubt Canada rarely if ever sees.
@@sparkplug1018 Don't worry , yes we also have high wind loads and it's worse if there's a heavy snow load. I don't understand why anyone would put exposed water pipes , and water heaters, in the attic what's the matter with running them under the floor slab if you have no basement, and water heaters in a utility closet close to the bathroom or kitchen.
@@johncford3957 Comes down to convenience most of the time, since freezing temps are rarely if ever a concern we put it wherever it’s easier.
@@sparkplug1018 and cost. I bet it is cheaper to just stuff them in the attic instead of putting them below slab. But for those things that may happen once every I don't know how many decades, that possibility is often overlook for reasons of price and convenience. And on the plus side, repairing those lines in the attic is way easier with all the drywall stuff underneath already torn down than digging under the slab to get to any line.
@@sparkplug1018 We get the craziest weather in Canada one day could be 20 Celsius next day -35 Celsius with snow. Calmly sunny one day hurricane wind the next day. Foot of snow one day next morning 5 Celsius everything melting
It's amazing the amount of homeowners that don't know where their water main shutoff is. I think it should be a requirement when you purchase a house to have that shown to you
why? they can afford another house or just waiting for that insurance money :D
It'll be one of the first questions I ask
Texas forgets that insulation also helps your A/C in summer. Everyone wondered why our house had so much insulation in Central Texas. Paid for it self in electric bills.
One of the first things I did when I bought my house here in DFW last year was double the insulation and work on fixing air leaks around the house. I'm convinced it's a big factor in why we didn't have any freezes in my house despite only having 2 hrs of power for every 16 hrs off for three days. It was still incredibly cold but I think it kept the house just above the point of pipes freezing. I did it to insulate from heat, not even considering cold at the time, but no regrets. Money well spent.
@@aseriana That's a lot more electricity than I had. I had 32 minutes of electricity in 3 days.
@@norightturn7047 Ya, I know I was fortunate. My mother in west Texas had no energy or water for a week (Thursday before the storm, to the Thursday after). I'm grateful to my relatives nearby for looking after her because it was such a nightmare and absolutely nothing I could do from DFW
Does not mean much when they shut off our power, turn off our water, and it's a record cold for the area that rarely sees anything below freezing. No heat to warm the house, no water pressure to run water to keep pipes from freezing, and insulation can only help for so long. Our power and water were out for 4 days.
@@kilowolf5488 The power company made it know they were shutting power off. People could have weathered their homes and had no water leaks.
The amount of people who make tiktok videos while the house is flooding is astounding. They need to be shutting their water off. I've known how to shut water off since I was a kid, it's not that hard.
Just goes to show where their priorities are.
By the age of 12 I was turning off water mains to throw in new receivers for leaking tubs and sinks. By 16 I was laying foundations too make double wide trailers and setting up electrical for fans. The more you know the better off you are in a case of emergency you don't want to wait till it's too late and if you can fix stuff you'll save money and time in the long run.
@@rich4050 Pretty sure that's child abuse.
@@StolenPw At least he knew what to do, unlike these TikTok fools
@@StolenPw child abuse how? For knowing how to turn off water?
I live in Houston and my whole neighborhood pipes busted, luckily I’m a apprentice for a plumbing company so I fixed my own busted pipes. And like you said Texas is not meant for cold weather but it does get me upset how many people own homes but don’t know how to shut off the water.
We are not built for weather THIS cold. I'm not too sure what could've done for the underground lines, but the above ground lines that fed the power plants should've been insulated. I hope they had to pay for full repairs out of pockets, with insulation installed and charged without their consent.
Were people not told to shut the water off to their house when this happened? You'd think they could deal with no water for a few days to save these issues
Yes, I know about all that. There are so many people who know so little about how a house works that they're basically incompetent to be homeowners. I have Asperger's syndrome, live in low-income rented housing, wanted to be a plumber but couldn't have a career because of my disability, but I STILL know how a building works and am able to give even my property manager a few pointers every now and then not only about plumbing but also about electricity, the elevator mechanism, and building structure.
These are some of the worst freeze breaks I've ever seen! What do you think?
I'm just Glad I shut my water off before things began to thaw out and THEN I discovered my breaks.
@Roger Wakefield. I really feel sorry for Texans and anyone who has to go thorough these problems anywhere. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to learn our lessons. Learning where the shutoff valves are at the water meter and at the house (teach everyone in the house where it's located and mark the valve) and how to shut off the water at either place. If the weather is really cold and you think there's the possibility of loosing power (or losing power) consider shutting off the water to the house and draining ALL the pipes (and knowing how to do it) to lesson the chance of water IN the house. A water break outside the house has less of a chance to cause flooding problems in the house. Unfortunately, Texas had many problems compounding their plight (once in a lifetime deep freeze, loss of power, frozen water mains). I'm guessing that Texas doesn't bury their water mains very deep like in other parts of the country that has a "frost line"?
Hope you and your family stay safe and well.
Please don't get flushed.
I own a plumbing company in Altus Oklahoma and this is the worst I have seen yet
Absolute worst..I have never seen so many lines breaking in multiple areas
how do they not know how to turn off there water are they insane
People are too preoccupied with pulling out their cell phones to record instead of finding the main shut off
The snowflakes have a hard times...
Parents taught me as a kid where the water, gas and electric shutoffs are on thier home. How do people not know this as homeowners?
@@koristrange9655 A lot leave there houses and dont think about it. Other times its an apartment and they cant access the mains
@@bradleysanchez9435
Generally apartments have 24/7 emergency service for something like this and on site maintenance.
@@bobshanery5152 sadly even if they SAY that's the case, it's not true. All of the maintenance and management LEFT my appartment complex and the state (to Oklahoma) trying to escape the snap only to get stuck. We were left to fend for ourselves and the fire department had to hack down the maintenance closet in order to get access to the line and turn it off. At that point the main pipes had already burst flooding the first floor apartments compounding the issue of lines that burst inside apartments themselves. It was a living nightmare since we had lost power for like 3 days too.
We had to run to our well and turn it off. We live in a small farm town out west of Houston. The only line that popped was outside under the concrete. As country folk we had all the tool to fix it ready and available. Cracked through the concrete and used PVC from previous repairs. My heart goes out to my fellow Texans.
Mr. Wakefield. Thanks for the videos. I am not a native Texan but from northern Nebraska. Initially, I was amused with the issues people were having since it was old hat to me. On Tuesday of the storm I had a friend who is with a senior care facility call me for help. He had a plumber on site but could not get to the parts they needed. This brought the situation into focus and instead of amusement it was sympathy. Taking the phrase Texans helping Texans to heart I went to Ferguson for parts (grew up driving in the stuff) KUDOS to them for opening up for me (NOT a plumber) to help out. When they opened the front door they actually had broken pipes in the warehouse as well. Thanks to Mike at Furgeson in Austin for helping out
When I bought my house the first think I did was find the electrical disconnect, gas shut off valve, water shutoff valve for inside & outside.I’ve never had a pipe burst thank god but I’ve come home to a broken furnace during -21F temp in northeast Ohio. That time it was just a blown capacitor cost me $8 to fix but I missed the supply store closing by 45 minutes. The temp in my house was 68F that night by morning it was 36F.
A toast to Rodger Wakefield uploading a video on how to turn of the water to you house! The amount of piping and sheet rock saved by that information may never be known.
Texans : wow we have a water leak, Lemme make a tiktok video before turning off the water 👯🕺🏿💃
I was a plumber on the Jersey Shore for 13 years (I'm now a plumber in Southwest Florida for 3yr.) and we would have to deal with this. Some winters were better than others. I wish I could be there helping out Texas. You guys are in my thoughts be safe out there.
What I had heard from a lot of folks that I know that live down in Texas is the water line would burst they would run out to try to shut it off at the outside shut off but the shut-off was still frozen solid could not get the water to shut off. And by the time the valve had thawed to shut it off the damage was done
Makes sense.
They don't have their valves buried underground?
@@jaymatthews9324 no not all of them
But if the valve was frozen solid then wouldn’t the water not be flowing in the house?
I wonder how the plumbing is going to change around Texas after this winter.
Happened before will happen again. They don't change anything.
Lol.
They probably go for that damn pex pipe garbage because it's cheap and easier to fix than regular pvc. Nah I'm just kidding they probably going to use schedule 80 pvc because that's the strongest and thickest pipes you can use for a water line unless you want to be drinking metal. The problem with the pipes is the fittings like elbows, joints and slips are all made of schedule 40 which isn't as strong as schedule 80 pvc causing them to crack its usually never the pipe that breaks but the fittings holding the pipes. The only reason I know this is I worked at a home improvement store and being a gardener for 20 yrs you learn how to get water from point a to b.
fat chance
piss poor building codes and running pipes where it can easly freeze makes zero sense.
sadly, a few changes in how things are built could have prevented a lot of that. plus, of course - if your pipes have frozen, turn the main off BEFORE it thaws.
Same but from Michigan
Unfortunately my brother forgot to tell his son why he turned all the faucets on... his son turned them all off and thankfully my brother is a plumber but now he has to pay to fix it all 😥
Meanwhile people that usually get -5 degree weather to Texans
"First time here eh?, did you at least pull your wiper blades from your windshield before it snowed? "
I remember as a growing boy and young man we go out every winter and wrap our pipes in rural GA. Sometimes we come across cracked pvc pipes and had to cut and replace them to be able to have running water. It taught me a lot when it came to plumbing. Very valuable now but then climbing under a house on my back in the freezing weather was a very dirty job. Lol thanks Roger!
I commented on a video last week about my water heater in my garage having a few freeze breaks. Update: I was lucky compared to a lot of people. Only the copper lines directly behind the water heater had breaks, both the cold intake line and the hot out line but only about an inch break in each. Plumber didn’t even spend a full hour onsite and I’m leak free with hot water again!
Heres recommendation from someone in midwest. In my household we set the faucet to drip when we know temps are dropping to keep them from freezing.
My parents ran a generator on both phases of the electrical panel to run lights and (gas) instant hot water heaters at our house.. also ran the heater in the garage, and opened the attic door to allow hot air into the attic and keep the average temperature above freezing, AND dripped faucets.. we just spent the past few months remodeling, so we were not playing games with the Potential to freeze.. in the peninsula on Lewisville lake!
You have a 1 phase and a 3 phase generator? You must be welding 12 hours a day 7 days a week?
@@knightrider1545 don't need 3 phase, just residential.. 2 phase panel
You definitely sound like a spoiled kid
@@OdysseyWafflez nope. Just fortunate.
@@OdysseyWafflezand that generator, I had to do a full rehaul..completely torn apart and put back together, and then I had to make male to male extension cables to backfeed into the electrical panel and power the house. Sum of the story, I've worked actively for everything my family has.
We're lucky to have friends in many industry sectors that make remodels and improvements significantly more financially feasable.
We are in north central Texas and our pipes froze on and off. We drained them and shut the water off when our power went out and we thought we were going to have to leave, but outside of that we let our pipes drip 24/7 and we had no pipes break at all. It really works.
I feel sorry for all these people, but as a home owner, you need to know how to do some basic things, like turn the water off. Ive showed my kids how to do it in case I am not home, for emergencies
I work at an apartment complex in College Station and we had 56 units of 2-4 residents have busted pipes and 54 units get collateral flooding from those units. For a total of 350ish residents have flooded apartments. We were running 12 hours a day shutting off water between units for 2 days straight and I didn’t have any water proof shoes. It was no fun!
It's sad to think that when people see water flowing from there ceiling, that the first reaction is filming it. I'm from Minnesota, I called all my friends in Texas and walked them through on how to shut off there water
As a Texan I agree
Blows my mind how many people can't put together that shutting the water off, will stop the water, seams logical to me.
Panic will utterly destroy your logical brain, trust me lmao
Do houses not have main shut offs in Texas? I live in Maryland and in my house right where the main waterline comes in they threw a quarter turn ball valve inline. I mean it’s like a maybe $10 part and can basically save you thousands from damage
They do, either up near the house, or down near the street where the meter is. But we rarely have reason to shut water off to the whole house as the local shutoffs to fixtures in given rooms is more than enough for what we need in nearly all cases as we're usually just replacing the fixture or appliance.
So crazy! Can’t believe how many people in these videos didn’t shut off the main water valve. I’m in Amarillo Texas - we’re a little more prepared here for colder weather (bc we definitely experience all the seasons) than our fellow Texans down south. It got cold (-15 at the lowest) but luckily no burst pipes. I checked on 2 of my others family’s homes here in town - no problems. We dripped our faucets and opened cabinets to circulate warm air. I was worried more about my old HVAC unit...lit a fire on a Fri and kept it going through Wed to help heat our home.
Austin here. Dripping those faucets absolutely saved my bacon.
Smart move.
I live in West Virginia and been a plumber for most of my life and I deal with this almost each year. At least one or two calls a year dealing with frozen pipes and caved in ceilings. It's horrible!
I live in Dallas. I had water and electricity the whole time. I am fortunate that I did not experience any of this. I kept my faucets open on both sides and monitored the pipes with a thermometer. I feel awful for everyone that people have to deal with this scale of damage and that some people had no power for days.
Had two breaks. One inside the wall under the sink. And one in an outside faucet. Was able to shut the water off quickly and repair the lines with minimal damage.
That poor girls car, what fate to have parked right where the break happened.
At least after it thaws she has a cool story.
I'm shocked that she was able to even get in the car.. that's like 3" of ice
@@robrocco5420 she must've just gone ham on that ice, or she just waited untill the car thawed the ice on it's own.
I've heard somewhere that it was staged but idk alot of stuff on tiktok is fake
@@3L5Ancho you have to remember being the only car in the garage it would mess with the air currents.. wind has only 2 options up or down.. not much wind can go down.. most is going up.. freezing the pipe first.. remember the pipe isn't far from her car.. that's why it happened to where her car was parked not anywhere else
As a property manager we make sure every tenant knows where the water shut-off is and part of the move-in we make sure they can actually turn it. We are in the Midwest and twenty below is not unheard of, but even in warm weather ice makers can jam and flood and washing machine hoses burst.
I finally just got water back on at my apartment here in Austin. Haven't had running water in 2 weeks. During the power outage we were without power for a little over 3 days. Got down to about 40 inside. It was just crazy.
I'm a native of Texas. My family moved to MN in '93. Frozen pipes are common here. Our first couple years here, our pipes froze under the house. The issue was that it would freeze on the street side of the shutoff we had, and the main shutoffs are buried in the streets and sidewalks. You need a long tool to reach down and turn the valve, but nobody besides the city carries them. We didn't know any better at the time, and were always taking shifts with a blow dryer in the winter months, which for here is half the year. Good luck to you guys down there!
Keep it up Roger!
Enjoying your horror stories in AZ
I am in Wisconsin and I remember about 3 years ago where we had an extremely hard winter. Despite our mains being buried 6-8 feet underground in the area I live, the city still sent out notifications requesting all residents to leave a tap slowly running to prevent freezing of the mains as the frost that year got 9 feet down. It's amazing what a little continuous flow can do to help prevent freezing. We only had 2 breaks in the city that year, which is actually about average for winter and old mains failing.
I live in Wisconsin and we are definitely prepared every year for this kind of weather but we are even having problems here too. I feel for all the Texans out there that aren’t prepared
Where in wisconsin is this happening? The north is just fine.
Yeah haven’t heard of any problems around Appleton. But we also only hit -10ish I believe. It was colder ~5 years ago we had multiple days off of school because the wind chill was in the -30s
@@ELITEViRuZz milwaukee is getting hit by the great lake effects hard this year. Having 5' snow mounds around my driveway was so annoying. Running out of room to place the snow that keeps falling. Luckily, every thing is starting to melt which started a few days ago.
@@ezekieo32 Hey now you southern Wisconsinites know what it's like to be up north here with snowbanks the size of buildings! This year actually has been the least snow I've ever seen up here. Crazy how that equates to you guys getting more, and Texas getting some as well. Either way, I hope for warmer weather for the both of us. 40° feels like 80° when you're coming off of winter weather. 😆
@@ELITEViRuZz yah, i'm not use to having that much snow. I HATE IT. respects to you! :D
Round Rock TX here, we learned our lesson from a previous freeze down here where we lost our Tankless water heater due to freezing.
This time we let all the faucet drip and cabinet doors open and no issues this time.
Great video, love this video
Austinite here. I was without power for 5.5 days, and my pipes were frozen for at least a couple of days, and on two occasions. I knew where the cutoff valve was, but didn't need it. I used a combination of alcohol poured in the outdoor faucet (to raise the freezing temperature) and a towel soaked in hot salt water wrapped around the faucet to very slowly (over two days, as noted) thaw the pipes out. No leaks or otherwise broken pipes, thank goodness. Watching these clips made me feel really lucky.
No one gonna talk about how awesome the thumbnail is
Thank You! Editor Grayson is a Badass!
I work in multi family in VA for the past 30 years. I have definitely seen my share of busted pipes. The Texas busted pipes are very bad. We have a artic freeze in my area about 5 years ago, busted fire sprinkler lines in apartment complex i work at. We had 25 units with 6 inches of water per unit. I feel your pain
What's horrible is when you live in an apartment complex and it's not your water running down on you and nobody knows what to do now granted I wouldn't know what to do but 99% do not that is what I would consider kind of comical but that's just me LOL :-) :-) keep your feet dry LOL
That happened to me before. Neighbor upstairs the bathroom sink clogged and it started raining water from my bathroom ceiling.
I’m a maintenance man for an apartment complex and I can vouch for everything you said
My buddy stayed in an apartment building where one of the tenants pissed someone off and the person came back at like 2am, took the fire hose from the hallway of the top floor and turned it on and ran. The water flooded 18 floors of apartments, destroying everything.
Yeap I can agree to that. In apartment's floor above had bad floor tiles and leaky pipes that it destroyed our ceilings.
The other day my 2 year old nephew escaped his room and jammed everything he could down the toilet and it flooded into the downstairs apartment. No one knew until the neighbor was banging on the door after it had been flooding for an hour. He also grabbed a full flat of eggs from Costco and decorated the living room with them.
"This is not how ice is made..."
You could have fooled me, lol
Got to leave a like for this great video
This is so sad to see and I feel for every one of these people. This makes me feel even better that I work for a small company that is designing a smart system that has leak detectors and will shut off your water main as soon as even a drop is detected. We have saved not only many homes already, but also conserved tons of water doing so. I only wish that we could put that system in more homes down south to help protect their homes. You work so hard for your home and to watch it get destroyed is devastating. Keep your heads high and I pray everyone stays safe, warm and has a quick recovery.
I feel so bad for everyone in Texas that's dealing with this. I wish I wasn't stuck in a state that's in lock down. I would have come down and helped.
you can always come... Texans welcome everyone... just don't mess with Texas, lol
@@stevennihipali3607 yeah but I live in NY I couldn't deal with being stuck in quarentine for 2 weeks when I return lol
@@rbianchi1983 yeah, that's not a good situation
My old house had the main line to the shower burst. Worst part was it was the hot water line. We cut the water heater off to stop the supply and turned the main off as well. When we checked why it burst we found it was salvaged pvc pipe and wasn't joined properly. Luckily we got to it quick enough to prevent any major damage. Quick trip to the depot and we had it fixed.
I think texas should consider doing cold weather drills where home owners winterize their plumbing (turn water off, drain the supply pipes, until temperatures return to normal). Also if your house is flooded, turn off the power outside at the power meter, you can get electrocuted very easily.
Unless you know what you are doing, you should never remove the meter to disconnect power. It is very easy to get electrocuted and there is no real protection at that point.
Disconnect power at the main disconnect, usually the main panel.
@@aman7196 The utility company will usually require a disconnect switch ahead of the meter so that the someone can open the switch to kill the load before pulling the meter. Pulling a meter under load can result in an electric arc. This varies by local code. But usually homes are required to have an emergency shutoff switch ahead of meter for floods and firefighters. I know my house previous houses in Ohio had them, and I currently live in Florida has them. I'm not sure about Texas though.
With temps that low, first thing I would have done is shut off the water to the house and find the lowest spigot and drain the pipes in the house.
Then go take a short trip to a warmer place that has power and water that isn't freezing.
Failing that, at least shut off the main if there's a leak. Crazy that people are too occupied with filming the destruction of their home instead of stopping it from getting worse.
I guess this is one of the only positives of living in Chicago...we are prepared for the cold.
Seen plenty of water main breaks in Chicago. Not immune,
Talk to us in the summer when it gets "hot" up there
@@bradlygilbert41 Chicago can have hot temperatures that are close to texas. But in chicago those temperatures arent sustained like they are in texas.
Moved down from central IL about 4 years ago. When the power was off for about 2 hours, my brain kicked in to IL winter mode. Faucets dripping. Closed all the doors to my pretty much interior rooms and stayed in those. Put all my blankets on my bed.
Got through 40 hours of no power with no leaks. Other apartments in my building not so lucky. No water for about 10 days. And no hot water for about 15.
@@eaglewi water mains break everywhere the service lines are generally the issue when it gets that cold
hey Roger, I'm in San Antonio and spent the week without water. I work at a major home improvement retailer and spent the week helping local Texans with spray foam, quick seal, everything they could get their hands on for even a quick fix until plumbers can get to them to for a legit repair. I still have neighbors without water and my store is SLOWLY getting plumbing materials in, but we've now moved from pipes and lines to the clean up. It's crazy
Had friends that did open their cabinent doors and had the water run and it still froze solid here in Houston.
I opened cabinets and had water dripping and never lost power, but my pipes in my laundry room still froze. I was smart enough to immediately shut off the main water line and drain my faucets.
Wish I would have just bought enough water and filled up my tubs and shut and drained the pipes before the storm even hit. Wish I had PEX pipes instead of copper. Oh well, live and learn.
I'm a restoration tech in PA so I deal with the aftermath of broken pipes quite often, especially in the winter. The worst one I encountered was an old house that was split into 4 apartments. The water heater burst and was running for a few days before the realtor was able to check on the property. With the steam and time that passed mold had started growing on everything. The walls looked like they had carpet in them from the heavy mold growth. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that property anymore.
Best investment.. a water key.
When I replaced my plumbing lines, I put shutoff values everywhere. I even have two before the line even gets to my house (not counting the value box).
I live in Tennessee this time of year our toilet gets a lot of condensation. Enough so I keep thinking the toilet is leaking. Is there anyway to prevent this?
If your water heater isn't too far from the toilet, you can install a blend valve. This will cause the toilet to be filled with lukewarm water and your condensation problem will vanish.
You could also try a toilet tank insulation kit, but I have no idea how well that works.
You have some serious moisture problems. I live in Tennessee and it's so dry inside I spark when I touch anything. There's no way my toilet would sweat. Do you have unvented propane heat?
Condensation happens because the surface is below the dew point (or someone is taking steamy hot showers).
Rick suggested a blend valve to get some hot water mixed in with the feed valve (in which case, you may want to run hot tap until you get hot water, just like with a dishwasher) to at least get a lukewarm temp, or get a few dehumidifiers.
@@ZeldagigafanMatthew this time of year in Tennessee the interior humidity is in the teens to low 20 percent range. I don't see how anything could sweat. I feel like I'm a lightning storm walking through my house with all the static sparks..
Looking at this, I suddenly feel good living in Canada where freezing cold weather is expected, I know things like that isn't going to happen unless the plumbing hasn't been done properly. And as for the pickup truck sliding, yeah, that's why we put winter tires here 😂
Redditors be like: “iT’S JuSt A LitTlE sNoW”
"up where I'm from..."
Man I was waiting and hoping for a vid like this! Love ya man!
You have to have your faucets drip people in the warmer places, or these things will happen. I know this because I live in a place with freezing temps and we have to make sure our INSULATED pipes don't freeze by doing the same thing.
@YouDontKnowMe humm, it's been 0 here and I don't have any pipes burst..I don't leave the water dripping either.. are you saying no pipes burst in dallas? No where? Every single house has insulated pipes? Amazing.
@YouDontKnowMe I've got pipes that are exposed to below freezing temperatures for weeks at a time sometimes and they don't freeze. You all must use that cheap foam from Lowe's for pipe insulation.
@YouDontKnowMe Why do you think I'm fighting? Complex? I'm just amazed you all had so much trouble with pipes. The power goes off every bad winter here in the mountains of East Tennessee..we have trees fall across power lines in almost every winter storm. Then you come along and say everything is insulated. I don't understand. Does the insulation suck? Is it installed wrong? Why does 80 percent of the nation have no issues with cold but you all almost needed the national guard?
@YouDontKnowMe actually we never have had building codes up until about 2012. Absolutely none. But I get your point. You'll never see piping outside the walls around here unless it's got electric pipe heating tape. Why didn't you drain the pipes, I know hindsight is 20/20 sometimes. Just shutting off the water and turning on all the faucets, drain the water heater will make a tremendous difference. I have rentals that set all winter empty sometimes and that's all I do. Every once in awhile I'll have a fitting to crack
@YouDontKnowMe by the way thanks for taking the time to explain this. I guess strange weather really throws people off their game. We'd probably be like that if we had several weeks of above 100 degrees. I own a HVAC company, things get wild around here when it gets around 98. There's plenty of houses that doesn't have the AC capacity to maintain a cool temperature if it gets above 100 around here. People freak out..
You are genuinely my favorite person on the internet right now
Roger, I'm guessing you're all working beyond normal hours with this going on. Makes me wish I knew anything about plumbing, because I'd love to give Texas a hand.
When it comes to those kinds of leaks, there is a lot of structural damage and whole sections of buildings have to be replaced. If you can do any of that then you can get a job there.
in Houston they told us not to let the water drip because it mess up city water pressure
From Scotland Sending every one in taxes my prayers 🏴 🏴 🏴
This actually made me tear up. There were so many people that lost so much and the news on this was basically zero. Most people in the north here only heard it got cold and there were maybe some power issues. This was an entire disaster. So many homes lost. Memories. That’s just awful. I hope those people are doing better now. :(
Would you recommend leaving all the taps open, like a slow drip to help prevent them from freezing Roger? or would that cause issues downstream?
That's exactly what I recommend...
@@RogerWakefield thanks! Love your channel!
I'm not in Texas but I do agree when buying a house anywhere you need to know how to turn off the water and empty the lines
I go on holiday for more than a few days here, no matter the temperature I shut off the water and at least de-pressurize the lines (open a tap on the lower level). Why? I came home after a weekend to find the toilet tank seal had deteriorated and started dripping causing ceiling damage on the level below. If the water was off, all that would need cleaning was a couple liters of water.
Well where I'm at in South Carolina we had a freeze a couple years ago and plumbers were charging $100 a pop throwing in shark bites and a chunk of packs now me on the other hand probably ran 25 calls in three days and fixed every one of them properly but still not as bad as what y'all got I haven't seen negative two and 37 years that's when I used to live up north in Chicago and that was before wind chill
Heh we've had lots of the real cold weather up here this year and more snow than I've seen in a LONG time. I'm an hour outside Chicago.
Well we can all agree 90% of the houses in Chicago are made for negative letters so in theory it should not freeze there but Chicago is definitely not Texas LOL
It was pretty bad here in Arkansas as well. Coldest weather I’ve ever seen here. It’s been crazy to say the least.
What kind of watch are you wearing Roger?
LumiNox. It is my favorite!
In certain cities the water is pressurized through an electric pump and some ppl could not let their water drip. So they got hit hard
Anyone here watch "The 8-Bit Guy"?? He lives in Dallas and has had to leave TH-cam for possibly the next year since his house is ruined from all of this...
I am from the UK so have no idea what caused all of this but still, best of hopes to all these people.
I watch the 8-Bit guy! That’s terrible news 😓
Blessing Texas: psv off well head froze open, head of irrigation control leak, one pvc valve leak in barn and one busted pvc to water hose fitting separation. We faired much better than some of our neighbors. Went 52 hours without power
I have had water leaking like this in my house and the first thing i do is turn off the water I don’t know why these people haven’t yet
Our 1965 Ranch style home came in clutch and no plumbing issues during the freeze.
Living in Germany surely has its upsides.
That's what I thought about living in Texas!
bro come to canada
@@navrajjohal9053 Yuuup!! I am always perplexed at construction in Texas, where slab on grade gets to below the frost line...around me, the frost line is 4ft down so you might as well just add the basement! (And keep those waterlines from freezing as often :)
2 parts water 1 part vodka, no freezing!
Oops,that's my spot...lol!
@@curiousfirely right ?
Had the watermain break on my street couple years ago covered a couple streets in about 6 inches of solid ice and was shooting water up three feet, had never seen it before. Wish I still had the video
3:15 she used black gas pipe on a water line.
In my experience I have found that most people have no idea where their water shut off is. I've asked where it's located before and got blank stares as they have never felt the need to know where it's located
I see all these smooth brains not prepare in advanced.
Kind of hard to prepare for something that your infrastructure isn't even fitted for.
Where I’m from we are used to weeks of weather in the negative and yes our plumbing system is different but it’s all about planning for it and expecting the worse and hope for the best.
Maybe it's not true but when I was a kid and it would get really cold outside my dad would turn every faucet on both hot and cold just a little bit so the water was always flowing and then also flush the toilet frequently. Would that have worked or is that just a myth?
That will work. If you keep it moving it won't freeze!
@@RogerWakefield sweet!
I'm so thankful I've watched my dad do plumbing repairs at my house. Thankfully the water shut off for my house is under the kitchen sink. I feel so bad for Texas and everything they went through. I'm up in Oklahoma.
Theres a guy i watch on TH-cam he works for a water park in Texas i felt bad for him cuz the hole pump room was flooded
I live in Wisconsin and I have to leave my water drip because all my plumbing is in a crawl space. Had my sink drain freeze so I had to go under and thaw it with a torpedo heater.
What you demonstrated earlier. It’s the water pressure from the ice that breaks the pipe. Amazing
As a guy who lives in northern Alberta, Canada, I see so many frozen/burst pipes per winter. The craziest ones are when the sewer freezes under a mobile. Often it requires a full replumb and a thaw of a small affected area so you dont release sewage under the mobile. Ive seen some crazy water main bursts and water distributuon systems of all materials blow apart. Giant floods. Ice all over the inside of certain areas. Crazy things
So, you are telling me you have water pipes going through your roof? That's a weird concept ngl.
In New England those temps come to us too. Our water networks are 6 or more feet below grade and water piping is located in the heat envelope of a house or structure.
I can't fault the plumbing issues much, since it was a freak thing they were not expecting to ever have (remember Georgia got shut down during an ice storm, because the roads were not treated for the kind of freak weather they got) But the power grid, that is inexcusable, they deregulated to cut corners on purpose, that was their fault.
I was in Augusta during the GEORGIA ice storm, OMG that was CRAZY ASF, i was a groundskeeper and we picked up MILLIONS of branches
They also have their own independent power grid, so utilities in surrounding states couldn't even ramp up production to meet the demand. Utilities sell power onto the grid when they have excess generating capacity available, but we can't sell it to Texas.
Treated roads only rust your vehicle. They have almost stopped here in East Tennessee because many times it makes things worse by melting the snow and then it freezes again in clear ice. You all just had the perfect ice storm back then
"Holy sh-*fart noise inserted" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
They should start building houses built like up here in the north' just incase it happens againe one day'
WOW! I've seen a lot of plumbing problems but this is on another level!Praying for you all in Texas!! Good video Roger!!!🇺🇸👍