How many bursts can you have?

[Dr_Rick]

Well being based outside Glasgow was never going to result in fun after this recent cold snap.

So we had hot water running out of a door frame and two light fittings. Plumber has just been and fixed 5 bursts and one popped joint on a pipe that appears to have been fixed by the previous owner before.

This afternoons task is to install some insulation and lagging on the 15ft of pipework that for some bizarre reason was left exposed to the elements in a roof space. Damn these old houses!!

There's going to be an insurance claim me thinks.

Dr Rick

[Globs]

Sometimes you get long splits too.

This is the straight and skinny:



so it's the initial complete (solid across the pipe area) freeze that does the damage, no further cold is harmful.

[Simpo Two]

Globs said:

so it's the initial complete (solid across the pipe area) freeze that does the damage.

One could argue that it's the thaw that does the damage

[Globs]

Simpo Two said:

Globs said:

so it's the initial complete (solid across the pipe area) freeze that does the damage.

One could argue that it's the thaw that does the damage

I suppose it depends if it's the pipe that's valuable (irreplaceable due to position, buried under concrete etc.) or the thing it's resting on (someone's loft). I think quite a bit of damage was done by the cold snap - very sudden, severe and protracted meaning lots of stuff was left unprotected, and lots of protected stuff lost heat eventually and froze anyway.

I did discover this year that polypipe splits quite readily, but speedfit pipe is a little tougher but can still burst as local holes erupting. Neither I expected to have a problem with..

[Simpo Two]

As from your graph the expansion seems to be less than 1%, is it beyond the wit of man to make pipe out of something that can expand 1% to absorb the increase in volume? Special 'freeze-proof' pipe?

[Gingerbread Man]

Simpo Two said:

As from your graph the expansion seems to be less than 1%, is it beyond the wit of man to make pipe out of something that can expand 1% to absorb the increase in volume? Special 'freeze-proof' pipe?

Plastic doesn't seem to slit like copper does. It's fittings can come apart though.

[Globs]

Simpo Two said:

As from your graph the expansion seems to be less than 1%, is it beyond the wit of man to make pipe out of something that can expand 1% to absorb the increase in volume? Special 'freeze-proof' pipe?

It's over 9%.

[Globs]

Gingerbread Man said:

Simpo Two said:

As from your graph the expansion seems to be less than 1%, is it beyond the wit of man to make pipe out of something that can expand 1% to absorb the increase in volume? Special 'freeze-proof' pipe?

Plastic doesn't seem to slit like copper does. It's fittings can come apart though.

I have a 9" split in a plastic pipe.

[Gingerbread Man]

Globs said:

Gingerbread Man said:

Simpo Two said:

As from your graph the expansion seems to be less than 1%, is it beyond the wit of man to make pipe out of something that can expand 1% to absorb the increase in volume? Special 'freeze-proof' pipe?

Plastic doesn't seem to slit like copper does. It's fittings can come apart though.

I have a 9" split in a plastic pipe.

Would have been worse in copper!

[Globs]

Gingerbread Man said:

Globs said:

Gingerbread Man said:

Simpo Two said:

As from your graph the expansion seems to be less than 1%, is it beyond the wit of man to make pipe out of something that can expand 1% to absorb the increase in volume? Special 'freeze-proof' pipe?

Plastic doesn't seem to slit like copper does. It's fittings can come apart though.

I have a 9" split in a plastic pipe.

Would have been worse in copper!

I'm not sure, copper is easier to fix as you can solder a plate over the crack, plastic you need to get all around the pipe. The speedfit pipe seems better TBH.

I think rubber pipe/hosepipe seems ok as it flexes enough.

[Simpo Two]

I was thinking rubber too. Plumb your house in rubber. Boing!

[poo at Paul's]

I have had a joint pull apart, a compression fitting with an isolator vaslve on it.

Run of copper was only about 8ft, and it pulled it out of the fitting completely by over an inch!

The contraction really is surprising!

Again, this was unlagged, but a relatively new built extension, where pipes in the loft are carefully lagged, then when they decend into the bathroom, hidden in boxing in on an ouside wall, (with a hole in it for an overflow, they are completely unlagged! Its stupid, the rising main comes through from the garage, and it is lagged in the garage, comes though into this boxing in that is hidden behind tiles, and there is no lagging!


Made a right mess and still sorting it.