Attention Basement Shoppers
- coalkirk
- Member
- Posts: 5185
- Joined: Wed. May. 17, 2006 8:12 pm
- Location: Forest Hill MD
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1981 EFM DF520 retired
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Jotul 507 on standby
- Coal Size/Type: Lehigh anthracite/rice coal
The water may not be shut off. The plumbing service entrance is probably below the surface of that basement glacier and of course would be frozen solid. I’m assuming this home is on public water? Maybe turned off at the water meter well outside. In any event it’s quite a cluster f**k.
I am amazed at how cold it must have been to freeze that volume of water below grade inside a house. When we get our "cold weather" (0 at night, teens during the day) I leave the bilco door propped open for the outside cats to get some shelter. Their small bowl of water at the bottom of the steps never freezes, not even a skim of ice after a week of those temps. The underground reservoir for the stream froze this year for the first time ever but it was only about 1" thick. And that reservoir in the middle of the yard, has no shelter around it.
Just imagine the amount of BTU's it will take to melt all that.
Just imagine the amount of BTU's it will take to melt all that.
-
- Member
- Posts: 3555
- Joined: Tue. Sep. 04, 2007 10:14 pm
- Location: Dalton, MA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: H.B. Smith 350 Mills boiler/EFM 85R stoker
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/anthracite
Somewhere in the process one of the basement windows was broken, so there's no shortage of cold down there. I think if the water hadn't been shut off it would still be flowing out the windows and building up as ice in the yard. The frozen runoff wasn't real thick, leading to my speculation about how it may have been shut off.
Mike
Mike
- coalkirk
- Member
- Posts: 5185
- Joined: Wed. May. 17, 2006 8:12 pm
- Location: Forest Hill MD
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1981 EFM DF520 retired
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Jotul 507 on standby
- Coal Size/Type: Lehigh anthracite/rice coal
The foundation will surely be damaged. I too was surprised that the water froze solid in this basement. Of course Titleist1 and I both have that tropical where the palm trees sway Maryland perspective. My son's in-laws live in northwest Wisconsin and 2 years ago his well line froze under his driveway. That line was 7' in the ground!
-
- Member
- Posts: 3555
- Joined: Tue. Sep. 04, 2007 10:14 pm
- Location: Dalton, MA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: H.B. Smith 350 Mills boiler/EFM 85R stoker
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/anthracite
Yes, we probably should put the pic in a "Welcome to the Berkshires" brochure. I'm sure when the folks from upstate NY, NEK, northern NH and of course the Mainiacs thaw out they will have their own stories to tell.coalkirk wrote: ↑Fri. Feb. 02, 2018 10:07 amThe foundation will surely be damaged. I too was surprised that the water froze solid in this basement. Of course Titleist1 and I both have that tropical where the palm trees sway Maryland perspective. My son's in-laws live in northwest Wisconsin and 2 years ago his well line froze under his driveway. That line was 7' in the ground!
Mike
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
Exactly what I was thinking. I was up in Alaska at a kids camp, and in the course of conversation with the maintenance guy regarding the logistics of living there, he told me he had had a test drill hole run down next to a horse stable/barn where the floating slab floor had shifted. They hit clear ice at 32' and it went another 30' There are places on this Earth God never intended humans to live...
- Lightning
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 14669
- Joined: Wed. Nov. 16, 2011 9:51 am
- Location: Olean, NY
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
- Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite
I wouldn't think that it's frozen solid all the way to the floor, but I suppose anything is possible. I would think more likely it has a frozen layer with liquid underneath. My above ground swimming pool doesn't even freeze solid but the top and sides (nearly to the bottom) does become ice.
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
All I can say is, WOW!
Mike, if you put the Ol' 85R down there for a while that would thaw it out.
-Don
Mike, if you put the Ol' 85R down there for a while that would thaw it out.
-Don
-
- Member
- Posts: 3555
- Joined: Tue. Sep. 04, 2007 10:14 pm
- Location: Dalton, MA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: H.B. Smith 350 Mills boiler/EFM 85R stoker
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/anthracite
Yes, Don, if that ice is really thick I should probably offer them some kind of coal-fired solution. I'm thinking a good blast of steam might do the trick.
Mike
Mike