I came home early from work today to once again begin the process of thawing the pipes. Luckily we have yet to have a burst pipe (knock wood). It appears that the work we had the mason doing on the front of the house may have contributed to the condition.
I remember when we first opened the old door in the basement (going up the stairs to the street) it had a mattress and what appeared to be a bunch of other "junk" in it. Now I am beginning to understand what it really was: lazy man's insulation.
We removed that and opened up the wall to do the masonry repairs to subsequently finish out the steps up to the street. Well, the job is unfinished, which has lead to a combination of interesting effects.
The transom going down to the basement, working in concert with the front of the house, is a giant wind funnel. This funnel has been ramming subzero air into the basement wall, which contains the water main, for about a week now. The funny part is if I hadn't gotten so hyper efficient and shoveled off the front stoop it would probably have provided enough wind insulation that they might not have frozen again.
I have heaters down there right now to no avail. It's supposed to warm up some tomorrow. Let's all send a little good vibe this way.
It's funny at one point today I felt like I was in "The Empire Strikes Back". Trying to unfreeze the pipes before sundown kinda felt like trying to make it back to the rebel strong-hold before the big mechanical doors closed.
... excuse me while I slice open a taun-taun to make it through the night.
Comments