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| The 8-Bit Guys house in Texas |
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| james_s:
--- Quote from: Ian.M on February 21, 2021, 04:49:49 pm ---If you don't have plumbing/RV antifreeze, a good handful of salt dumped into each sink, bath or shower trap, and a couple of handfuls dumped into the toilet and any larger interior floor drains will provide freeze protection down to about -20 deg C. Even if there isn't enough salt in solution to stop the traps freezing it will be slushy ice that cant burst them. However its not great for long-term winterization and isn't suitable for winterizing appliances as the strong brine solution may slowly corrode metal parts. --- End quote --- Just make sure you don't have metal pipes before you use salt, a metal P-trap and drain tail are fairly common in older homes and most US houses have a garbage disposal in the kitchen, and houses from the 1950s and earlier often have iron drain pipes, salt will quickly corrode any of these things. I spilled a grain of air dryer crystals (calcium salt IIRC) in the sink at our cabin a few years ago and it rusted a spot on the stainless steel sink. |
| JohnnyMalaria:
--- Quote from: themadhippy on February 21, 2021, 09:58:34 pm ---Talk about over exaggerating,an inch or 2 of nice clean water and the place is "ruined".Try 3+ foot of mixed flood/river/canal/sewage water,that's how you ruin a building and make it nigh on impossible to get flood insurance again. --- End quote --- Your frame of reference is different. I've lived half my life in the UK and half in the southern US. Hardly anything about houses is the same. A building made of brick, concrete and plaster is very different than one made of wood, drywall and fibreglass insulation. Damp and mold are extremely serious issues for houses in the US. I learned that the hard way when I bought my first house in the US. Houses here simply aren't designed to last 100 years. It makes properties cheaper but everyone accepts the risk and finite longevity of the property. |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: themadhippy on February 21, 2021, 09:58:34 pm ---Talk about over exaggerating,an inch or 2 of nice clean water and the place is "ruined".Try 3+ foot of mixed flood/river/canal/sewage water,that's how you ruin a building and make it nigh on impossible to get flood insurance again. --- End quote --- An inch or two of clean water that sits in a house for any length of time is enough to "ruin" it in the sense that it's going to have to be completely gutted. Carpet and flooring will be destroyed, drywall will often start growing mold that is virtually impossible to stop, requiring it to all be removed. It's common for particle board to be used as a base under laminate flooring and that will swell up like a sponge so all of the flooring has to be ripped out and replaced. Most kitchen and bathroom cabinets are made of particle board so any at the floor level will swell up and start falling apart. It may not look nearly as bad, and it won't be as gross to clean it out, but the financial cost of dealing with 3' of sewer water vs 2" of clean water is probably not as significant as you think. They're both going to require the interior to be stripped down to bare studs. |
| nctnico:
--- Quote from: james_s on February 21, 2021, 10:20:15 pm --- --- Quote from: themadhippy on February 21, 2021, 09:58:34 pm ---Talk about over exaggerating,an inch or 2 of nice clean water and the place is "ruined".Try 3+ foot of mixed flood/river/canal/sewage water,that's how you ruin a building and make it nigh on impossible to get flood insurance again. --- End quote --- An inch or two of clean water that sits in a house for any length of time is enough to "ruin" it in the sense that it's going to have to be completely gutted. Carpet and flooring will be destroyed, drywall will often start growing mold that is virtually impossible to stop, requiring it to all be removed. It's common for particle board to be used as a base under laminate flooring and that will swell up like a sponge so all of the flooring has to be ripped out and replaced. Most kitchen and bathroom cabinets are made of particle board so any at the floor level will swell up and start falling apart. It may not look nearly as bad, and it won't be as gross to clean it out, but the financial cost of dealing with 3' of sewer water vs 2" of clean water is probably not as significant as you think. They're both going to require the interior to be stripped down to bare studs. --- End quote --- For a typical US build house that is. As JohnnyMalaria stated there is a huge difference between how houses are build in Europe versus the US. In Europe a typical house is built to be there for 100+ years. You can throw water and wind at it but worst case you need to replace some roof tiles, windows / doors and/or wall paper. |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: nctnico on February 21, 2021, 10:31:17 pm ---For a typical US build house that is. As JohnnyMalaria stated there is a huge difference between how houses are build in Europe versus the US. In Europe a typical house is built to be there for 100+ years. You can throw water and wind at it but worst case you need to replace some roof tiles, windows / doors and/or wall paper. --- End quote --- Well that's kind of irrelevant since we're discussing an event in Texas which is an area that is full of typical US houses. There are lots of 100+ year old houses in some parts of the US but outside of the cities most areas were pretty sparse 100 years ago and inside the cities land is so valuable that most structures get demolished and replaced due to obsolescence long before that. I think some of it is probably cultural too, I like old houses but most Americans would prefer to live in something new, and I have seen lots of people buy a perfectly good older house, then either tear it down and replace it with something big and modern but more cheaply built, or gut it and replace all of the old but high quality wood cabinets with modern looking stuff that is built of cheap particle board. I suppose houses don't have to last 100 years because most will end up being replaced for other reasons. |
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