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water in main froze - how long to thaw???

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  TheEplumber 
#1 ·
My husband was ripping out a clump of bamboo and accidentally broke our water main. The pipe was exposed for the evening and the next day when he went to repair it there was some ice in the pipe - he removed that, repaired the line and then covered the pipe back up (he had a backhoe rented and had to return asap so he wanted to cover bill back in his hole).

Well, of course he goes to turn the water back on after his repair and it won't work - he's thinking that there was more ice in the line that he didn't see and now it's stopping the water from flowing. Question is - will it ever thaw or does he need to open the hole back up and throw boiling water or something on it????

We've been having highs in low 40s and it's been getting down to the low 20's at night (the forecast looks pretty steady over the next few days) - the ground is pretty frozen so since he covered it back up does that mean it will insulate the cold and keep it frozen for a long time? Anyone had to deal with something like this - how long did it take to resolve and what did you do?
 
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