Frozen yard tap-ideas please

S

Steeleydan

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 May 2008
Messages
1,302
Location
Yorks/Notts/Lincs borders
Visit site
Iam rather puzzled at the moment that the water tap on our yard is STILL frozen. It comes from our tap at our back door(that fine and not frozen) under the lawn, through the middle stable attatched to wall and lagged and the tap is then on an outside wall on yard and its still frozen, everywhere has thawed although the top inch or so is soft, lawn and field feels hard, am I going mad or could it be really still frozen under ground? Or do you think it could of burst and leaking under ground?
Surely all water pipes are under the ground and none of our water in house is frozen. Iam puzzled to say the least.
 
It could well be frozen underground if it wasn't laid deep enough. Here, only the top inch or two of ground has thawed. But it could be that the pipe coming through the stable - and lagged - is frozen (lagging keeps the cold in - as well as out!) I'd remove the lagging and arm yourself with some bottles of hot water - trickle them slowly along the pipe - or use a hair dryer on them.
 
If you had a burst pipe underground I suspect that you would be noticing very low pressure on your house taps.

If it's at a time when you can be about for a bit, I'd be tempted to turn your stable tap on slightly, and just leave it like that - only don't forget it! Ours was frozen long after the thaw started, and so I poured one kettle of boiling water over the tap itself, one onto the ground where the pipe emerged (sorry, worms), left the tap on, about 30 mins later it started to drip, and then fired up completely. But that may just have been beginners' luck!
 
... once you do get it going keep it going every day!!! made some lagging from bale wrap and bedmax bags and wrap this round the tap itself every time im finished using it. I take a huge flask of boiling water with me and free it off every morning. I have had running water every day evan down at -10 and below.. once it freezes it freezes further and further back. It might sound like a pain but i thought it was worth it to have water by the stables.
 
Steeleydan said:
Iam rather puzzled at the moment that the water tap on our yard is STILL frozen. It comes from our tap at our back door(that fine and not frozen) under the lawn, through the middle stable attatched to wall and lagged and the tap is then on an outside wall on yard and its still frozen, everywhere has thawed although the top inch or so is soft, lawn and field feels hard, am I going mad or could it be really still frozen under ground? Or do you think it could of burst and leaking under ground?
Surely all water pipes are under the ground and none of our water in house is frozen. Iam puzzled to say the least.
Click to expand...

we just wrapped and wrapped! it always looked like there was an animal under there!! just blankets, bubble wrap and then one horses lghtweight rug :) a handy thing is to fill big trugs night before o you dont have to do any in morning x
 
There are some good ideas thank you. Tommorow Iam going to try the turning the tap on thing and see if it gets going.
Janet George our ground sounds like yours the top inch is soft and then hard, we have puddles that just cant soak away, are you back hunting yet? We clipped today in anticipation of going Saturday, but after a discussion we are leaving it, horses had no fast work for 5 weeks and not hunted for 5 weeks, only managing to hack on roads tracks too greasy. Decided need a few canters first.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top