Soldering iron and tips

[Terry Toenges]

Thanks Fred. I'll keep that in mind. I received the soldering station but haven't used it yet. We've been having some work done on the house and some remodeling done so things are in disarray and have things piled in places that are normally clear for me to work in. The last cold spell, we had five places burst in our water pipes under the house  so that complicated things too.

[Fred Klein]

Terry,

Sorry to hear about the pipes - what a bummer. Hopefully, there was not too much damage to the house and only the pipes were affected. Best of luck.

[Terry Toenges]

We were without water in all of the house except for cold water from the kitchen sink. Our main water pipe is underground to the kitchen. When it comes up to the sink, it branches off to the rest.
It's an old house from around 1918 that has been added on to over the years. When they did, they added various water piping to the bathrooms and laundry room in a very long and circuitous route under the house that didn't make much sense to me or the guy who did our repairs. We don't have a basement and the foundation sits on stacked rocks. In some places, there is maybe 12" space underneath and other place maybe 18" space.
When it first thawed, we heard water rushing under the house and got the water turned off at the main back in the alley.
Danny, the guy who did our repair, located the leak and had to cut a hole in the floor to get to it. Fortunately, it was close to where the dishwasher was so he cut a hole under there and his son was able to reach under and fix it.
He turned the water back on and we heard another whoosh. This time it was close to where the fridge sat. There had already been an access hole under there, so he moved fridge and lifted the hole cover. He had to dig away some dirt so his son could get halfway down the hole to reach that leak.
Turned on again and we heard it by our small bathroom. A closet adjoins that bathroom so he lifted the carpet in there and cut a hole in the closet floor. They had to move some more dirt and his son had to crawl all the way in the hole to get to that one.
Tried it again, and more whoosh. This time toward the front the house. We just had a new porch built last year by Danny so now he had to cut a hole in our porch so his son could crawl down under there. His son found two wet spots under there so he got those two leaks fixed.
The pipe ran from the kitchen to the front of the house, under the porch to the other side of the house, then back to the far corner in back where the laundry room and the water heater is. Then out in all different directions underneath.
We couldn't understand why they didn't run it from the kitchen straight to the laundry room instead of around the perimeter of the house underneath.
It's a thing good his son was not rotund like Danny and I or we might still be digging to make enough room under there.
We're lucky we didn't get any water damage in the house and we now have access holes throughout the house just in case.

[rich1998]

Wow, sorry to hear that. My daughter and her husband in South Central Texas kept the water running for some days with no power. She moved from Mass some years ago and knows. Many had broken pipes.

Rich

[Terry Toenges]

We've lived here since '97 and never had any pipe issues until now.

[rich1998]

Same with my daughter. Never had weather this bad. I hope your trains survived.
Take care.

Rich

[Fred Klein]

Terry,

I'm happy to hear you didn't get damage in the house - well, maybe a little what with having to cut the access holes. Here in Florida it only gets below freezing every great once-in-a-while where the temperature drops for a long enough time to cause any damage. Thankfully, we've always managed to run the water a little when that happened and we've avoided any damage. Most of the time, when it gets to freezing, the temperature only gets maybe down to about 28 or so and then for not long enough to freeze the pipes solid.

Now the plants are another matter. We had a cold snap about 1-1/2 months ago that got down to about freezing right at dawn but it was enough to wipe out all of the tomato plants in my wife's garden.

Anyway, glad you're doing OK and hope your soldering station works out well for you.