Into the Crawlspace an Antioch Adventure
February 15, 2025
Facing another week of arctic temperatures, I found myself becoming increasingly concerned about the new well pump.
What was the heater doing? Was it still working? Was the pump going to be destroyed and cost me another $1200? These questions and others flooded my brain in a non-stop barrage of worry.
At its zenith I made a decision to place the order for a YoLink hub and external temperature gauge. I would have it delivered to the Antioch house and head out after work to check on things.
Antioch Insights
The trip out was uneventful, I was a bit surprised by how much snow there was in Antioch, much more than we saw down in Oswego. As always when I stepped in the house I was greeted with what initially felt like a nice consistent warmth.
First thing I did was check on the pump outside. Thankfully everything was running, and it felt like the heater was keeping it close to fifty degrees inside. My relief was short-lived however when I went inside to check the faucets.
The kitchen sink faucet barely had any cold water coming through. The bathtub initially had zero water pressure but after about thirty seconds came roaring through. No issue with the toilet, but the bathroom sink had zero cold water flowing. Great.
With nothing else to do I left the water in the kitchen and tub running on full blast, eventually scaling it back to around a pencil thin flow of water. I honestly was somewhat at a loss as to what to do.
Around this time I noticed that it actually felt a lot colder inside that I initially thought. The thermostat for the boiler was set to 68, but the inside temp was showing 55. I immediately cranked the thermostat up to 80 and left it there through the night. The thermostat would only increase to around 61 by morning.
Now I am normally someone who runs hot, I am a frequent blanket kicker off-er. Not that night. I slept in my clothes it felt that cold. By morning, I had hatched a plan.
Boiler Service
I would call the company that installed the boiler back and 2013 for a service call. Our first house had a boiler and I knew the importance of keeping the lined bled of air, however looking at this system I realized I had no clue how to go about checking that. So a service call was scheduled.
I went about my day working remotely until the service technician arrived. The check went without any big gotchas being discovered. I learned that these lines had essentially auto-bleeder to prevent air buildup.
The thermostat was determined to be off by around seven degrees and was recommended to be replaced. I made a mental note to look into the YoLink thermostats. Before leaving the technician raised the boiler temperature by ten degrees which seemed to help a bit.
The technician said we might be losing temperature as the pipes run in the crawlspace due to the pipes not being insulated. With the bathroom sink cold tap still not working I decided it was time to visit the crawlspace.
Crawlspace Adventure
Keep in mind it was five degrees outside, I was in sweatpants and a flannel shirt, and only had a sweatshirt to layer on top. Talking with my wife we thought I might be able to use the hair drier on the bathroom pipes to maybe melt some of the ice.
So off to Ace Hardware I went to get an extension cord, and a second extension cord with a work-light on the end. After clearing away the snow from the back outside crawlspace entrance, I removed the window frame to go inside.
Having seen my neighbor Paul earlier, I made sure to take my iPhone with me in the event that I got stuck. At 6’4” and 275 I am not a small person. The crawlspace entrance looked tiny.
I quickly realized that I would need to put both armors out straight over my head and squeeze my way in while avoiding pipes and other detritus. Once inside there was no room to sit up, barely enough to crawl on my hands and knees.
What I saw didn’t fill me with joy. A mix match of different plumbing materials and piss poor attempts to add foam insulation to a pipe. What purpose I ask does adding foam insulation around one section of a pipe do when all the rest is left exposed? It does nothing.
Insulation was missing under the floor, no wonder the floors were so cold, and largely missing along the outside walls between the foundation and the floor. The to-do list was slowly growing.
Back to the matter at hand, I thankfully was very close to the bathroom sink pipes. I went to plug in the hair dryer to the work light end only to find I couldn’t plug it all the way in because of a plastic lip around the outlet.
Fabulous. Work-light was unplugged, dryer plugged into the extension cord and the iPhone flashlight was enabled. I can only imagine how I looked holding the dryer up in one hand and the iPhone in the other going back and forth over the pipe.
After around fifteen minutes shaking my head I found myself wondering – “Is this doing anything?” and “How would you know since you are here by yourself?” It’s in those moments when you have a clarity of what you should have done.
I should have checked that I could plug the damn dryer in. I should have moved the webcam into the bathroom pointed at the faucet, so I could check to see if any water was running with my iPhone. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Thus I decided to head back inside and take a look. Getting out was equally challenging but I emerged relatively unscathed. Heading inside and being met with a dry faucet only further increased my annoyance.
Prepping to Return to the Crawlspace
But I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I really didn’t want to leave for home with the faucet not working, so I decided to work on removing the plastic barrier that was preventing me from plugging in the dryer to the work-light plug.
Out came my utility knife and I explicitly thought – “Be really fucking careful, you could easily cut your finger…”
The first hard cut away without issue. Cutting away the second half required more effort and as the knife cut through with a significant amount of force I was unable to move my right index finger in time.
As soon as it made contact I knew I would need stitches. It was deep, in the shape of the letter “J” and it was bleeding profusely. I immediately wrapped it in a paper towel and applied pressure.
Typing with one hand I let my wife know I was going to the ER with a cut and started the thirty-minute ride to the ER. Long story short, I ended up getting five stitches. My crawlspace adventure was over, and I accepted defeat that I would not be getting the sink working.
Aftermath
Returning to the house I went into the bathroom to try the faucet one more time only to find it roaring to life with water. WTF but thankful it was working. I then got started on installing the YoLink Hub and outside temperature monitor.
Thankfully both were insanely easy to configure. I also decided to re-install the original heater into the pit (now with two heaters) adjusted down to the lowest setting. Figuring that if one heater died at least there would still be something heating it.
What I would find was that the monitor clearly showed the second heater kicking on and off keeping the pit between 49 and 58 degrees. Exhausted I headed back to Oswego.
I returned around a week later the night before I needed to go up and see my son the next day. The house felt warmer and the water was still running. I will be going up tomorrow to install the new thermostat before going to see my son again on Thursday.
If all goes as planned I will then have an inside thermometer I can monitor and control remotely. Small steps that hopefully will make a big difference in the end.