My BBQ hobby kept us alive.
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Being in the south in winter here in Tennessee is a bit more harsh than Texas so we are a little more prepared but not by much. We have colder temps and more snow for sure. Here when we have prolonged frigid temps they advise us to drip water and wrap pipes and such. That's probably a rarity in texas as they usually don't see that issue. Weather like that still shuts us down. We haven't been able to leave home since last Saturday. Our roads are impassable. We never lost power though which is the game changer. Every 2 years our electric company comes through our rural area and trims trees from power lines. It's a great service that keeps us from losing power during ice but more importantly tornadoes which we are close to the season for. March, April and may are tornado months. As far as pipes we had all ours changed out to pex last year which gives us alot of peace as far as busted pipes. It costs ALOT of money to outfit a state to be prepared for extreme winter weather especially when it's a rarity. Would be the equivalent of building a building to withstand an 7.0 earthquake when the particular state rarely experiences a disaster like that.
With all that said lol my heat pump has been steady running for over a week on aux heat. I'm taking donations lol
With all that said lol my heat pump has been steady running for over a week on aux heat. I'm taking donations lol
My next door neighbor's water heater burst a seam in the attic and water crashed down into the living areas.
They turned off the main and hauled ass to a relatives house that still had power, leaving the mess for later.
THEIR next door neighbor got paranoid and turned off their main to prevent a pipe rupture but turns out they turned the first neighbor's main BACK ON which caused even worse damage to house one.
After a while they figured out the mistake and turned both mains to off.
They turned off the main and hauled ass to a relatives house that still had power, leaving the mess for later.
THEIR next door neighbor got paranoid and turned off their main to prevent a pipe rupture but turns out they turned the first neighbor's main BACK ON which caused even worse damage to house one.
After a while they figured out the mistake and turned both mains to off.
Deep freezers run at 0 or below.
Pro's advise leaving freezers shut for two days and hope power comes on.
After that if the meat has started to soften, it's cook it or toss it.
After day two we packed snow into ice chests and put the expensive stuff in them and left the coolers outdoors.
We saved some chicken, pork, burger meat and 4 steaks.
During our ugly cold spell here, we burned over half a cord of wood in the fireplace. Our fireplace is NOT the efficient type, but it made a huge difference--kept it burning about 14 hours a day. Miss Linda was starting to get concerned about the wood supply, as we burned every stick I had cut, split, and stored in the garage. Wasn't really a problem as I had another half a cord of birch piled outside (under the snow) not yet cut and split. I'm lucky that way. hauling logs all winter give me access to as much firewood as I want. Every time I go home for a couple of days, I load up the 3/4 ton with wood.
We also have a backup gen set and lots of gas for it in case of a power outage.
Gen sets are not expensive and can make a huge difference in a power outage. We rewired our house power breaker box so I can plug the gen set right into it and run essential things in the house, like freezer, fridge, stove, microwave, and electric heaters. For the price, they can be a life saver. Well worth the investment.
Gary
We also have a backup gen set and lots of gas for it in case of a power outage.
Gen sets are not expensive and can make a huge difference in a power outage. We rewired our house power breaker box so I can plug the gen set right into it and run essential things in the house, like freezer, fridge, stove, microwave, and electric heaters. For the price, they can be a life saver. Well worth the investment.
Gary
See thats the regional differences some of us (at least me) didn't know... our water heaters are in the basement or on main floor if no basement. I can see why there were issues now with your cold weather.
Ryan
Ryan
As a "retired" finish carpenter and home builder from a farm in the northeast corner of the Finger Lakes in Central New York who is now living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina I see big differences in home construction due to regional geology and prevailing weather.
In CNY where the frost-line depth is 48-54" you are already half way or more to basement depth by the time you excavate the footer trench and account for the home being somewhat raised above grade level. So full basements are pretty much the norm and homes on slabs or crawlspaces the exception.
Here in NC where the frost-line is 12" or so full basements are far less common unless the building site has a fair bit of slope to it. I've seen relatively few homes on level sites with full basements. And water lines buried between 12-18" deep are very susceptible to freezing in even short cold snaps.
And, at least in my former neck of the woods, water lines in unheated spaces were insulated, basement walls were insulated to the frost-line, if the basement wasn't heated the underside of the first floor was insulated, etc.
The thickness of wall framing and the insulation values required by code are higher in northern areas despite the prevalence of high energy consumption for the combined heating and cooling loads here in NC when the entire year is considered.
And building on a slab generally forces the choice of either losing living area to mechanical systems (HVAC, water heaters, etc.) or moving them to attics. Construction on a slab also makes HVAC ducting move to the attic space which is the least energy efficient place you could put it. Personally, even though I'd still have to deal with attic ducting, I'd opt for a mechanical room myself but clearly I would be the exception to the rule, too.
In our part of NC, ice is the big issue and as little as a lousy 1/4" can cause literally tens of thousands of power outages. Which is piss-poor as everyone knows there will be ice storms every year......but I digress.
Knowing that an ice storm was imminent twice in the last two weeks, including one with the potentiol for almost 1-1/2" in our area, I went through something of a "battle drill" each time to get ready for the possibility of a week or more without power:
Fill the gas cans and load test the generator for a few hours, fill the portable propane tanks and check the portable heaters, make sure the big propane tank had enough in it to run the propane fireplace and stove for at least a week and fill the bathtubs with water jugs and 5 gallon pails so the generator isn't having to fire off the 360' deep well pump....if the water line to the house doesn't freeze anyway.
So my wife thinks we scared the evil flying ice monkeys away with our preparations as we didn't loose power either time. But the reality is that as little as a two degree difference on any of the 4-5 days of freezing rain might have left is in the dark and cold as it did many others in our region. For my part, I'm just grateful that after 40 odd years of dealing with this kind of thing we have the resources, storage space and opportunity to prepare in this fashion.
Best regards to all,
Lance
In CNY where the frost-line depth is 48-54" you are already half way or more to basement depth by the time you excavate the footer trench and account for the home being somewhat raised above grade level. So full basements are pretty much the norm and homes on slabs or crawlspaces the exception.
Here in NC where the frost-line is 12" or so full basements are far less common unless the building site has a fair bit of slope to it. I've seen relatively few homes on level sites with full basements. And water lines buried between 12-18" deep are very susceptible to freezing in even short cold snaps.
And, at least in my former neck of the woods, water lines in unheated spaces were insulated, basement walls were insulated to the frost-line, if the basement wasn't heated the underside of the first floor was insulated, etc.
The thickness of wall framing and the insulation values required by code are higher in northern areas despite the prevalence of high energy consumption for the combined heating and cooling loads here in NC when the entire year is considered.
And building on a slab generally forces the choice of either losing living area to mechanical systems (HVAC, water heaters, etc.) or moving them to attics. Construction on a slab also makes HVAC ducting move to the attic space which is the least energy efficient place you could put it. Personally, even though I'd still have to deal with attic ducting, I'd opt for a mechanical room myself but clearly I would be the exception to the rule, too.
In our part of NC, ice is the big issue and as little as a lousy 1/4" can cause literally tens of thousands of power outages. Which is piss-poor as everyone knows there will be ice storms every year......but I digress.
Knowing that an ice storm was imminent twice in the last two weeks, including one with the potentiol for almost 1-1/2" in our area, I went through something of a "battle drill" each time to get ready for the possibility of a week or more without power:
Fill the gas cans and load test the generator for a few hours, fill the portable propane tanks and check the portable heaters, make sure the big propane tank had enough in it to run the propane fireplace and stove for at least a week and fill the bathtubs with water jugs and 5 gallon pails so the generator isn't having to fire off the 360' deep well pump....if the water line to the house doesn't freeze anyway.
So my wife thinks we scared the evil flying ice monkeys away with our preparations as we didn't loose power either time. But the reality is that as little as a two degree difference on any of the 4-5 days of freezing rain might have left is in the dark and cold as it did many others in our region. For my part, I'm just grateful that after 40 odd years of dealing with this kind of thing we have the resources, storage space and opportunity to prepare in this fashion.
Best regards to all,
Lance
So sorry to hear that, but I’m sure glad you had a back up plan. So far here in Florida we haven’t really been touched by this front other than this AM. It was 52 degrees. I know that seems like beach weather to you, but we are bundled up & have the heat on. I know what your thinking, we are a bunch of wimps, but it’s what you get used to & that is cold to us!
Al
Al
In Texas we have "right to work" laws and no union carpenters/builders allowed.
Any fool with a hammer and saw can be a carpenter/home builder and there are some really crappy housing developments in Texas as a result. (which is not to say that there are some very well built rigs out there too, IF you can afford them).
Same freedom from restrictive "rules", especially Federal rules, gives businessmen the "freedom" to do sub par work and pocket the profits, the lack of weatherization to the natural gas pumping gear that caused the black out here is just one other example and then the liberty to blame wind and solar power instead of the true cause, which was the lack of investment to upgrade the system as it would have cost them some money.
One upside is that we learned we can fly to Cancun without a reservation for $338! Sweet.
Any fool with a hammer and saw can be a carpenter/home builder and there are some really crappy housing developments in Texas as a result. (which is not to say that there are some very well built rigs out there too, IF you can afford them).
Same freedom from restrictive "rules", especially Federal rules, gives businessmen the "freedom" to do sub par work and pocket the profits, the lack of weatherization to the natural gas pumping gear that caused the black out here is just one other example and then the liberty to blame wind and solar power instead of the true cause, which was the lack of investment to upgrade the system as it would have cost them some money.
One upside is that we learned we can fly to Cancun without a reservation for $338! Sweet.
There are darn few union carpenters doing home construction in Upstate NY although a few residential electrical and HVAC contractors run union shops. The big difference is in better construction codes and, possibly, generally competent codes enforcement officers for whom the professional education and certification standards are increasing all the time. The "ground truth" is that builders will build what the trio of codes, code enforcement and homeowners desires demand of them.
For example things as simple as building everything from homes to power grids to survive at least a 100 year event is no longer "good enough" (assuming they ere built that well to begin with....)
The reality is that what constitutes the 100 year event is changing. Many parts of the country have seen a number of 100, 500 and even 1000 year events in the same locales over the last 15 years or so. If a 36" culvert washes out in a 100 year event we, in a world affected my rapid climate change, can't put a 36" back in and expect it to last for long.
Clearly as weather swings become more extreme we need a bigger culvert and that kind of reasoning needs to pervade the process of all new or repair construction. Temperature highs will get higher and lows will get lower. We need to account for that as we navigate forward.
I wish you all the luck in the world in your recovery. I'm truly happy for you that you got through it OK.
Best regards,
Lance
For example things as simple as building everything from homes to power grids to survive at least a 100 year event is no longer "good enough" (assuming they ere built that well to begin with....)
The reality is that what constitutes the 100 year event is changing. Many parts of the country have seen a number of 100, 500 and even 1000 year events in the same locales over the last 15 years or so. If a 36" culvert washes out in a 100 year event we, in a world affected my rapid climate change, can't put a 36" back in and expect it to last for long.
Clearly as weather swings become more extreme we need a bigger culvert and that kind of reasoning needs to pervade the process of all new or repair construction. Temperature highs will get higher and lows will get lower. We need to account for that as we navigate forward.
I wish you all the luck in the world in your recovery. I'm truly happy for you that you got through it OK.
Best regards,
Lance
I made a comment about the building codes in another thread . I appreciate you speaking the truth . Hope they get it figured out .
Apparently some states have little to none of such things.
Some have too many, but that would be safer than little to none.
Bear
Ok, for some reason I was thinking it was sub zero temps all day long.
So glad to hear that you made the best of it and stayed safe at home. While Cruz bugged out to Cancun. What a douchebag move on his part. (And I like the guy normally).
So right. I've never heard of putting a water heater in the attic. Seems strange. Be pretty messy if the heater springs a leak.
Gary
Isn't that the truth! I used to be a plumber... glad I didn't have to put any in an attic!
Ryan
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Glad you figured out how to keep warm to bad some others didn't and paid with their lives. It's terrible that a lot of people weren't prepared for it and couldn't go anywhere to get supplies once the ice started but seems with every disaster there are those that are far from prepared. Glad you were were prepared even if it took some non normal things to survive it. We don't get that frigid down right cold stuff here very often either and I've never seen below zero in FL or at least not where I have lived. The norm here is to drip water any time we get a hard freeze to prevent pipes/faucets from bursting. You may need to stock pile some extra wood just in case but hopefully you never have to go through that again. We went for over three weeks without power after hurricane Michael and it was a pain but wasn't freezing or roasting type temps. We did have multiple generators running including one for the 408' deep well. In FL I've never seen a hot water heater in the attic but they do put hvac units up there sometimes. As far as union or non union carpenters it shouldn't really matter if there are building codes and good inspectors checking things. Down here we don't have to worry about things like snow loads but have to worry about winds from hurricanes.
I was driving on I-10 yesterday and saw a few caravans of electric trucks headed west going somewhere to help not sure LA, MS, or TX. I also saw a good number of industrial sized generators heading east which didn't make any sense to me but who knows.
I was driving on I-10 yesterday and saw a few caravans of electric trucks headed west going somewhere to help not sure LA, MS, or TX. I also saw a good number of industrial sized generators heading east which didn't make any sense to me but who knows.
Out West, it's not very common, but I've put plenty of W.H. in attics above living spaces.
They have to have a 3'' tall drip pan with two 1'' drain lines piped into a sewer line one of the drains is higher than the other as it is supposed to act as an overflow in case the first line gets fouled with debris.
And it's very common to install W.H's in ceiling spaces in commercial buildings mainly when doing tenant improvement work such as adding mop sink rooms, restrooms, break rooms and kitchens in high rises.
I know there are plenty of code variances throughout the states, but I'm fairly sure that the whole country has to stick to the "universal plumbing code"Written by IAPMO members which are Chief plumbing inspectors, pipe trades parts builders, engineers and union officials from across the country it's held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My father was a union plumber for 60+ years and an IAPMO member for 20+ years and the chief plumbing inspector in S.F. He still teaches pipefitters and plumbing apprentices at the union hall in S.F. two nights a week at 80 yrs old. Both my older brother and me were union plumbers or fitters as well. But we are both retired thank God you wouldn't catch me dead in S.F. these days that city is the butt hole of CA. Nope, I won't go to S.F. for nothing these days what a sad excuse for a city/ crap hole of a city.
Robert it was bad here in New Braunfels also., I drove thu Austin last Tuesday coming home from Ft Worth and it was one lane on I35 most of the way. Going thru Austin on the elevated downtown was scary. Austin had the ice and snow early on. When I did get home the snow must have followed me because we got hammered here too. Only one busted water pipe and now today all is good and back to some kind of normal.Believe me, I feel your pain. We are just northwest of Austin and it's been a rough week. Things finally started turning around yesterday morning and I think our heads are above water...no pun intended. We lost water Sunday that didn't come back on until yesterday and had the rolling power outages for several days. We never were without power long enough for the house to get cold or the freezers to get warm, but it was certainly scary. Several of my wife's coworkers in Austin stated they they lost water yesterday when the reserves ran out and indications are they may not get it back till Monday. At least we had snow to boil for coffee and to melt for flushing toiletsVery best of luck to all those still dealing with it...because it's not over yet.
Robert
Today there are six houses on my block with carpet and ruined furniture piled up on the curb.
I ordered two 75lb boxes of kiln dried oak splits from Amazon, $75 a box delivered to my porch, I had tried to buy from local chainsaw drivers but can't even get a call back.
When Lowes or Homedespot get stocked up I'm going to buy some more jumbo bags of B+B kiln dried oak, pecan and hickory.
I had not had the chance to cook with any of the B+B before using it for heat but it smelled divine out of the chimney.
I ordered two 75lb boxes of kiln dried oak splits from Amazon, $75 a box delivered to my porch, I had tried to buy from local chainsaw drivers but can't even get a call back.
When Lowes or Homedespot get stocked up I'm going to buy some more jumbo bags of B+B kiln dried oak, pecan and hickory.
I had not had the chance to cook with any of the B+B before using it for heat but it smelled divine out of the chimney.
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