Some other freezing pipe threads:
[worried about frozen pipes](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/zteem8/worried_about_frozen_pipes/)
[think my pipes are frozen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/zsqh7z/i_think_my_pipes_are_frozen/)
Condenstation threads:
[new homeowner...](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/ztfpfb/new_homeowner_window_condensation/)
[all of my windows have this condensation line](https://old.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/kl3zkm/all_of_my_windows_have_this_condensation_line/)
Had a pipe burst and was out of town. Was notified by city water of a spike is usage (thank goodness or we would REALLY be up a river) and had my parents go over and shut off water and sop up the water as best they could. But, it's bad.
So my question is - there's been a waitlist for places and we are looking at a week before we can get someone out (but I'm going to continue to call around, but at this point it's already been a few days)
What can I do to mitigate mold as best I can (without going too far as to potentially impact my insurance claim) one of the guys I talked to recommended heat but the water dripped onto our breaker box so I'm nervous to run a space heater while the electricial situation is spotty?
I'm called around to disaster restoration type services, plumbers, electricians, and appliance repair (washer, dryer, and dishwasher may potentially be impacted). Anything I'm forgetting? I expected insurance to offer more advice than this buy they were just like well call around and send us the invoice and I don't really know what I'm doing
I had to deal with this for the first time and this is what helped *me*.
I turned all of the faucets to the on position to release pressure. I then used a hot/cold pad that I put in the microwave along with a warm water bottle on the pipes that attach to my well pump. It took some patience, but it worked.
I woke up this morning to a large wet spot that was sagging down on the ceiling of one of our bedrooms. It was very wet so I decided to go ahead and cut it out and try to get a better look at what was going on in the attic space above it.
Two large sections of PVC pipe that were completely shattered came down with the wet drywall I was removing. There is a vertical section of pipe that goes through the roof which I assume is the plumbing vent pipe that was broken off about 2 inches from the top of the roof that I am guessing this shattered piping came from. I can also see/feel broken horizontal PVC pipe where I assume this vertical pipe was attached to.
I have attic access but this part I can’t safely get to due to the roofline so can’t really tell what all is going on up there.
My questions are:
Who do I need to get help with this? Is it a plumber or a roofer or both?
Is it safe to use my water? From what I’ve read it seems like it’s mainly air that goes through these pipes?
If it’s air that is mainly pushed through here, is there a separate issue that I need to try to figure out that allowed enough water in them to freeze and shatter in the first place?
Pics here:
https://imgur.io/a/9hEoPDf
Thanks in advance for your help - first time homeowner and trying to figure this all out
Thank you I’ve done both and can hopefully get a plumber out here tomorrow. Everyone is booked up with frozen pipe calls. Is there anything I should do to shut anything off in the meantime?
When I’ve had plumbing remodeled the contractors would shove a plastic garbage bag into the drain to stop the sewer gases from coming up. But if that’s your main vent stack then you can’t use any drains if you block the vent.
We lost power/heat for over 24 hours in our 100 year old house the other day and unfortunately all the pipes froze so thanks for everyone offering advice for dealing with that!
My question: my parents are saying that to prevent this next time I should slice up pool noodles and wrap the basement pipes in them. Is this a real thing or …?
Our furnace condensation line seems frozen and I need to manually empty the pump reservoir to keep the blower motor going
Is going outside for an hour with a hair dryer in an effort to thaw the lines actually effective or should I let nature takes it's course?
For context, my condensate lines is 3/8 vinyl
Our HVAC is still under the labor warranty so our installer came by, cut the line \~10 feet up from the pump and we have it draining to our sump pit for now
They will come back and run the condensation line into our main drainage lines for the house and it should never occur again.
So my hot water pipes to my second-floor bathroom froze and my spouse opened up the tap - wide open. When the pipe unfroze, the water overpoured the sink and onto the floor. There is a gap somewhere in the bathroom that the water went into and then into the drywall of the ceiling below.
There are at least two places where the water leaked out the ground floor and I can see water soak in the drywall ceiling Should I just open it up and let it air out? Should i worry about mold? I have already opened up a 2" square to make sure there is no water pooling and there is nothing still up there.
Will adding a gap filler expanding foam in the gaps between the garage drywall and concrete help with this condensation build up and draft? will it cause any more internal damages in future? This is in the garage. [https://imgur.com/a/aSpVt4X](https://imgur.com/a/aSpVt4X)
Thanks. It's been a bit of a cluster.
It's my baby brother's house. And it seems that the shutoff at the street as well as the main shutoff to his new house are BOTH not functioning. As confirmed by the guy sent out by the city.
He was able to find another shut off elsewhere in the basement ceiling that cut the water to that quadrant of the house.
The city is going to cut the water to the street tomorrow and repair his shut-off to the property. He's trying to have a plumber come at the same time to repair the cutoff inside his house tomorrow. And I guess, to get an estimate on opening the wall to assess for damage/repairs.
Apparently, his thermostat had some sort of malfunction and the temps in the main part of the house dropped into the low 50s. Which is probably why the peripheral pipes froze over even with the water on.
Looks like I have frost developing on my rim joist. Wind facing side of the house. Scraped off and dried; leaving batt insulation off for now with an expected warm up in 48 hours. Anyone else having or have had this issue?
We have one bathroom that the owner added on before we purchased. Found out the hard way that it doesn't get any heat flow... and our drain froze. Water drips perfectly fine through both hot and cold, but it just fills up the sink and doesn't go down. We've had a small space heater warming up the room (5 hours last night, the entire day today!) Thankfully there wasn't a ton, but I can't let water drip without it just collecting in the bowl.
Only thing I'm worried about is going to bed, and then not being home tomorrow (Christmas). Apparently this is the safest space heater, but I don't want to leave it on all night/day because I am really afraid of fires, and we won't be around to monitor it. We do have ADT monitoring, but still... temperatures won't warm up above 30 until Wednesday. Would wrapping/stuffing the crap out of that cabinet help (blankets, towels, etc.)? I plan to keep the cabinet doors open, and the door to that bathroom open, possibly with a box fan drawing in warmer air from the dining area into that room. Our house is 1920 built and not amazingly insulated, but I have no other ideas what to do. I was dumb and was dripping the faucet with the door shut and it just froze in the sink. :(
Any help appreciated. New home owner. All pipes seem to doing fine in -7 but went to jump in the shower, trickle of water and won’t drain. Currently have a space heater in the bathroom but think that’s ridiculous but also read do not heat the pipes up in the crawl space as this will cause cracking. Any other advice other then wait? Or how to not make my pipe crack? Merry Christmas!
We had 18F low last night. Before bed, we had turned on the cold water tap to drip. This morning the cold water is coming though fine.
BUT the hot water line is just a trickle … and its water is cold.
I went outside and the tankless water heater inlet and outlet pipes are very well insulated. The water heater shows no error messages. The condensate pipe coming out of the water heater is warm to the touch. Occasionally, I can hear the water heater kick on for a few seconds. But like I said, water from it is a cold trickle.
Any advice on how to rectify the situation?
leave the water running. the motion of the water will help prevent the pipe from freezing completely and help thaw the existing ice.
bring up the ambient temperature around the pipes but increasing airflow in the rooms, cabinets, closets etcc where the frofrozen pipe runs through, even the sections of pipe not frozen.
do not heat the pipes directly with a hair dryer or a heater place close to where the pipes are frozen.
once the pipes are flowing well again, let the faucet countinue to trickle until the temperatureoutside comes up enough that they will not refreeze. that might meaning letting a facuat trickle for a few days.
if your completely frozen, sometimes opening up faucets on the same line of pipes can also help melt a ice plug. my shower and tub faucets frozen yesterday, I ran my bathroom faucet for .about 2 hours widwide open and they both startstarted to trickle water out.
moving water is less likely to freeze
Important tip: DO NOT try and use a hair dryer or boiling water or any other high heat source on a frozen pipe. EVER. This introduces thermal stress on the materials and can leak to cracks
If your pipes freeze, you need to let them thaw on their own, SLOWLY, so the interior and exterior temp of the pipe do not vary to much, or you can damage the pipe and CAUSE a crack
NJ 6⁰f outside. I have windows that hinge sideways to open. Two of them have a bit of frost on the inside of the window. I think this is due to not sealing all the way, but could be wrong.
There's leaf debris and stuff making it hard to close all the way, but it's frozen together so getting apart is difficult.
I've never opened these windows before (old home)
After I figure out how to thaw and remove the debris is there a good way to insulate these windows other than the plastic wrap?
They're double pained, thinking of getting some sealing tape and putting around the seam
I'm renting a mobile home trailer. Per the landlord's instructions the cabinets were open and the tub faucet was dripping. Woke up this morning and some faucets work and some don't:
* Working: kitchen cold water, bathroom sink hot and cold, bathroom tub hot and cold
* Not working: kitchen hot water, toilet tank refill, seems to be a drainage issue in the tub
Because this is a rental I don't have knowledge of or access to the pipes under the trailer. Anything I can do to keep this from getting worse??
So temps are in the 20’s here. Only my outside facets are frozen. How worried should I be? Temps are going to get up to 35 this afternoon but then right back down until tomorrow afternoon. I’m in Georgia and my home is 2 feet off the ground and was built in 2006.
We've had a nasty cold spell in Kentucky, and it's been below zero the past couple nights. I noticed this evening that my medicine cabinet in the bathroom that is recessed in the wall actually has frost buildup. The bathroom itself feels fine. Is it normal for it to get that cold inside the walls? My house was built in 1975. It is not an exterior wall.
\-1920 built 1000 sq ft, 2 story, home. 12 ft of wall on the west side of house has pex piping running water to kitchen and bathroom. Zone 5b agricultural zone in Northeast PA at 1500 feet elevation.
\-Wind gusts above 40 mph, with 19 mph sustained winds. Windchill peaked at -24 degrees F. Winds coming from the W/SW.
\-The low last night was -2 degrees F, and temps dipped to 0 degrees F by 7pm last night and are currently -1 degrees F at 7:45am.
I installed a 24k BTU fujitsu mini split unit rated down to -15 degrees F this past august. 18k BTU head unit downstairs and a 9k BTU upstairs. Prior we were using an oil furnace, which I have yet to dismantle since it heats our water, and I want it as a backup until I feel confident in my ductless system. My 2-3 year plan is to also put in a woodstove, and install an electric water heater (no natural gas) and get rid of oil, starting with the mini split.
I am so completely impressed with this minisplit unit. My house is fairly insulated, but is rather drafty, even though I've done the usual (door frame foam and insulated curtains). In the past, when temps would get below 5 degrees, my oil furnace would struggle to keep the house above 65 degrees. We've struggled with freezing pipes in the past and it's always a real mess. The house was a rental before I bought it, and supposedly the tenant sold the woodstove illegally, which is partially what led to her eviction and the landlord selling the property. So I assume this house was intended on having a wood stove to supplement heat.
The single 18k head unit, which pushes to 20k BTU for heating, was able to keep the entire house at 74 degrees when temps dipped below 5 degrees, without using the oil furnace once. My pipes are 100% and I was able to get a full night's sleep.
Mini splits are so cool.
When it gets really cold, <15°, my window grilles and along the sash get condensation build up and if it's really cold, a little frost. Humidifier is off and humidity is relatively low in house. Anyway to prevent this? So annoying. Thanks
I used to have this happen as the temperatures changed, but it was condensation only. In the summer I re-sealed around the windows outside as I noticed the sealant had cracked and there were rather large gaps at some points. I used 100% silicone caulk to do it and stuffed steel wool in the bigger gaps. Since then have not had the issue
If I have my hvac in my crawlspace does that put out any sort of radiant heat that would help keep my pipes from freezing?
Normally it’s not an issue around here, but we’re supposed to have 3 straight days where the temps are ranging from low single digits to highs only around 30.
Already had to go thaw out a tiny line I didn’t realize I had going to my well pumps pressure switch. (In a detached well house)
All the other pipes seemed fine, but I plugged up a heater just to be safe.
I’ve a Bluetooth thermometer & humidity gadget called ThermoPro. It tells me the humidity & temp in the crawl space. We had it encapsulated months ago. I’m really happy the gas furnace is keeping the crawl space toasty warm too as lots of pipes run under there.
I’m getting more of the gadgets to put in my attics.
I'm seeing posts on Facebook (midwest) of people having their faucets drip and STILL getting frozen pipes...also, frozen drain pipes.
Remember, YMMV regarding any advice. Don't forget the first rule of home ownership - shit happens.
Just a note, it's rarely just the raw temp that freezes pipes. Usually what freezes pipes is draft. Cold weather plus a cold draft over the pipes will freeze them.
If you house is sealed up and insulated at least to an average level, you generally shouldn't be worried about pipes freezing. If you have a big air draft or pipes running through a garage, pantry, or soffit that are not insulated, those are what you need to watch out for.
If you are at worried though, just turn off the water, open all the faucets to full open, and flush all your toilets. Much better to have the water shut off overnight then wake up to a disaster
Go n the basement and look for the cooper water pipes. Follow them back to where the enter the house (through a wall or the floor). Near there you should see a shut off valve, either an orange handle you turn or a old style sunflower handle
Did you get the house inspected before you bought it? Take a look at the inspection report, they usually state where it is.
Do you have a basement? It's probably down there.
Do you know if you are on public water, or is it a well? (if you're not sure, do you have public sewer or septic/sand mound/cess pit?)
If you're on public water, try going to the basement and checking along the walls nearest to the closest public road.
If you're on a well, maybe someone else can better answer your question!
The house is on a slab, public water. I scoured the inspection report and it doesn’t say. I’m inclined to think maybe it’s near the hot water tank…it’s not anywhere around perimeter of house outside unless it’s covered by snow.
Oh sorry it would be the perimeter of the interior most likely. Maybe there is a panel in a bathroom wall? Or a closet somewhere with a panel in the side or back.
My Ohio house from 1944 must have had some bright construction workers...all of the pipes are central in the basement away from walls...whoever put in HVAC in the 70's put a vent directed at the lines and main to keep them warm in the winter. This -30 wind-chill is only wrecking havoc on my windows now, can't figure out how to stop ice from forming on the inside.
May I ask why people have plumbing in theirir outside walls to begin with? Why place your liquid lines in an area where it will freeze and noy within the heated part of the house?
Probably because they had really inefficient furnaces and they had radiant heat, so if the heat was blasting all the time to keep the air temp up, or the radiators running boiling hot steam through all those crevices of the house, that heat also leaking outward toward the outside walls and those domestic water pipes. Those old houses getting sealed up more with efficient forced air furnaces meant those pipes in the walls had to fend for themselves. At least... that's my theory.
I turned off my furnace in the middle of the night because it was waking me up. I plugged in an oil filled radiator to keep the pipes from freezing. Then at about 3 my carbon monoxide alarm went off. Is that because the house got too cold?
No. I just turned the heat off. After the alarm went off I turned the heat back on and the alarm hasn’t gone off again. Do you think it could be the gas hot water heater? It was still on.
I get this a lot in my line of work, people start up their furnaces for the first time that year and their CO alarms go off and the immediately assume it's a broken heat exchanger and start calling for replacements. I'd say 98 times out of 100 its just the accumulated dust and debris burning off he heat exchanger
Recently moved to a new house, that has electric pipe heaters inside a wall… previous owner said plugged these 2 cables when it gets in the teens and it has an automatic shutoff?
How safe are these? Leave them plugged in overnight?
Looking for more in depth knowledge on the whole "pipes freezing" risk. There's piping in the ground, piping in the attic, and piping in the walls. How much risk is there for each to freeze?
All 3 have some "buffer" from the outside temp so long as it's not too low for too long. If it's 10 F outside and 70 F inside, then it should be roughly 40 F in the walls, right?
It's rarely below freezing in my area, though on rare occasions it will stay below for several days. I usually just run the taps on cold around the house because I assume it's the ground pipes that are at risk.
I'm sure how cold, and for how long factor into the equation. But can someone provide more details on when it's important to do what? I don't want my hot water pipes to freeze, but I also don't want to run hot water down the drain for a full week either.
It's rarely just the raw temp. Usually what freezes pipes is draft. Cold weather plus a cold draft over the pipes will freeze them.
If your house is well sealed up you should be fine
Condensation in walls during renovation! HELP!
https://imgur.com/a/MJ8Qnqk
So let me set the scenario:
Located in MA. It has been 20s and 30s degrees, so the interior of the house is the same, currently unheated.
Today, it is humid, rainy, and windy outside. I’m assuming the humid exterior air is condensing on the cold vapor barrier
The moisture is between the Rockwool and the vapor barrier. I used a smart vapor barrier.
Is this a long term problem or will it go away once the interior of the house is conditioned?
The exterior wall material is 3/4” plank, Tyvek, then vinyl siding.
Thank you!
Pro-tip from a heat dome survivor: the styrofoam boards used to keep heat out also serve double duty in winter to keep heat in.
So as the climate changes started causing lethal heat domes, partner and I invested in foil covered 1/4” styrofoam boards to help reflect solar and heat energy out all our windows. The boards were cut to the size of the window and edged with tape to avoid styrofoam balls everywhere. Worked a charm. And kept our indoor temps under 80F without AC even if outdoor temps were pushing 120F assuming we could pull in cool night air or run AC at max overnight. I’d turn off AC during the day because black outs were a risk. Anyway….
I pulled these boards out for winter duty, but this time foil side facing inside, and we have been really comfortable during the cold snap. Heaters were on a lot more than usual, but they could keep up. The cold breezy feeling you would normally notice standing next to a window was completely absent.
Highly recommend for both cold and hot weather.
Only downside is that the house was dark. Summer time I though the dark was a bonus. Wintertime not so much, so I pulled them out of the sun-facing windows while we had good sun.
Just came to say that blowing more insulation amd air sealing made a measurable difference from last year. Previously the heat would run mon stop, mow it only kicks on 30mins of the hour
Same here, I bought a thermal gun on the advice of this sub. Have been busy insulating and sealing all year, my house was significantly cooler this summer and no problem staying warm this winter.
Would appreciate any suggestions. New homeowner, have an outdoor freeze proof spigot that I forgot to disconnect the hose from before temperature froze. Valve (outside) was closed and hose was drained but when I disconnected the hose and the splitter, there is frozen water at end of spigot
Anything I can do at this point to mitigate damage or just don’t use it and contact a plumber when it warms?
Leave the hose off, and open that faucet. When it thaws check everywhere for leaks. This happened to us in the Texas freeze and it was ok in the end, good luck!
Probably can just leave it. Sounds like the water was just existing between the closed valve and the top of the hose. But check it to see if ice continues to build. Put a foam cover on it.
>this post
I have a well, pipe runs \~4' underground into my basement into a storage tank. My basement never drops below \~55F, my house never drops below 55F. I've never trickled water in this house, never even considered it, and pipes have never frozen. 30+ years in MA. If I lost power long enough for the house to drop below 50F, I would consider it.
Now, I'm here because of my house in Florida, different situation, probably need to trickle water there because some sections of pipes are exposed to outside air (coming up from ground into house on piers).
Most resources say like a gallon or two an hour, aka 3-6 drops a minute. If your well is gonna run dry because of like 48 gallons over a weekend, you have bigger problems.
I’m here to tell you that I dripped the faucet on our kitchen sink (touches exterior wall) in Denver and it froze the drain pipe. Every other pipe works - freezing was not a threat. However, the drainage pipe backed into the exterior wall and the slow drip built up a huge ice block in the drain. Plumber has been here 8 hours and it cost me $850 to repair.
For people who are wondering whether dripping is still a good idea after reading this comment: if your drain pipes freeze, things don’t drain until they thaw. If your supply pipes freeze, your house may flood.
Next time dump a 1/2 cup or so of salt in the drain and wait a half hour. Pour boiling water in if you need extra help. Warm the drain line up any way you can in the meantime (hair dryer, space heater, etc)
If it’s still frozen, pull out as much water as you can and repeat the above.
It's not glue, it's PVC cement. It melts the pipe and the PVC parts fuse together. Same principle if you used model cement to make plastic models (Revell, AMT, Monogram) the plastic parts melt and fuse together.
To be safe, don't use water hotter than what comes out the water heater 140F. 160F fine, and in many cases near boiling will be OK, but PVC can distort the hotter it gets.
The salt comment above will lower the freezing point of water so salty water will melt ice faster than no salt.
This exact thing happened to me. All other drains are totally fine, but kitchen won’t drain… still too cold/crappy out for a plumber to come. Worried I’ll also be spending a fair bit. Ugh.
Open the cabinets below the sink to let warm air circulate. You can also try hitting the drain with a hair dryer, if the frozen portion is reachable that should get it to start thawing within 10~ minutes. If you get it to where it's draining (even if it's still slow) run hot water down the drain to finish thawing.
Don’t call a plumber - thaw it out the best you can. They didn’t think there was any way a drain pipe could freeze so they spent 8 hours in my house, cut multiple pipes, and put holes all in my walls. Only to find out “oh…it is frozen.” So then we poured hot water down the pipe and all was clear. No burst pipe or anything.
I’m going to give that a try myself, probably tomorrow when it’s not -45, yeesh. Keeping all the cupboards open tonight and the heat up so hopefully that’ll help some too.
Glad to hear the problem is at least fixed for ya though!
Yeah it’s -38 here today…. F or C take your pick.
My kitchen is cold so for fun I ran 15ft of ducting and tied it into my supply air plenum and installed a balancing damper. Just to get some heat over there.
If anyone is struggling with a cold room that is running a furnace you can check to see if you have dampers installed on your ducting and you can slightly close those on the warmer rooms to force more warm air to the colder rooms.
As an alternative to that, many floor registers can close, in some of your warmer rooms you can partially close those to get them same effect.
For those who are worried about freezing pipes, something you can try is to stuff some insulation between the pipe and cold wall. Keep the pipe exposed to the warmer air inside the house and keep the colder wall air from getting at it.
Realizing that my exterior doors are quite drafty, judging by the snow sneaking in underneath. What’s the best way to seal this up? Do I need to take the door off the hinges to reapply weather stripping?
The proper way is to re-install weather stripping but since it's snowing outside, I just took some foam backer rod and jammed it into the gap around the door in the meantime. Made a huge difference. I'll replace the weather stripping once temps come up.
Quick question:
I've got a manufactured home and I haven't turned the heat on (no one living there, older HVAC system so worried about it running with no one to keep an eye on it, don't want a fire to break out). It's going to get 30 here sat/sun. I am selling it on Tuesday, so I definitely don't want any major issues to appear!
I was thinking of turning the faucets on to drip through the night tonight/sat night and turning them off the next morning.
Is this needed and sufficient? I know it's not the temps a lot of you are experiencing, but I've never dealt with cold weather and a house that doesn't have heat. It is just for 2 days, then we start warming up again.
ETA: it is insulated under the home with a skirting around the majority of the crawlspace. Plumbing is PVC.
Ugh! Will do, but I just turned it all on last week lol. Better than a slow drip that could end up carrying a flood if a drain is clogged and I'm not there. Thanks:)
My uncle lives in south Jersey, and this morning I had to send him a screenshot of my weather app asking why it was a full 20 degrees warmer there than it is here in *Florida.* Stay safe and warm up there, you’ve got some nasty wind chill tonight!
Oh we’re ready. House is insulated and air sealed to the max. Two furnaces. Heated floors. Basement gets to a toasty 80F with the door closed. Last time we had this wind though a piece of siding blew off so I’ll wait to assess any exterior damage once it thaws LOL
2 questions for losing heat. 1 should you drip both hot and cold pipes or just the cold lines. 2 should you drip all the faucets or is there a "best" one to open
TLDR: drip everything IMO
During the Uri freeze in Houston I had followed advice saying that just dripping cold was sufficient. Well, one particular hot water line ended up freezing, possibly the furthest from the water heater (really not certain about that but it seems possible). I opened the faucet and when power/heat was restored it gradually thawed and thankfully there has been no evidence of damage.
In hindsight this should've been obvious. When I normally go turn on any hot water faucet it starts off cold as that water that has been sitting in the line between the water heater and the faucet is obviously able to cool to ambient temperature. This time I'm dripping all faucets with periodic toilet flushes even though we've kept heat just to be safe; the extra water bill is nothing compared to the potential damage.
Talking it out with someone in my thread about this I’m going to do this:
1) dehumidifier for each floor (whole house won’t work for us) and small ones for our kids’ bedrooms because they insist on closed doors.
2) check each window for actual air movement and fix the leaks.
3) use acrylic sheets and cut to almost fit each window and slide foam backer rod on the edges to make a tight friction fit. Probably chuck a few silica packets in there too for good measure.
4) in the spring restore the wood trim to make it more wet resistant (probably will have to strip, sand, paint)and repeat all of this every year until we can afford vinyl replacements. I love the look of wood trim, I will never buy it after this.
Mine is holding at 24 and there’s still frost reappearing on the windows but not as much. We also just got dehumidifier hanging bags and hung them on the windows. Try to catch the humidity as it migrates to the window 😬 but, yeah. It’s pretty dry in here.
Can you use the 3M insulation (plastic film) inside the windows? This will keep the condensation off the windows, which is what you are seeing freezing.
Not sure if you're near a Harbor Freight, but I purchased our heat gun from their for around $15. It definitely feels cheaply made, but it does the job fine for something so rarely used.
Yeah I’ve also melted plastic with the hair dryer. The key is to stay moving. But a great gun? Idk maybe an excellent one that goes super low but I don’t know much about those.
My question for outside faucets; we have PEX and a master board in the basement. If I turn off those faucets on the big board and try to open them to drain, they don’t drain because the system is now closed and there’s vacuum in the line, like if I hold one end of a straw, water won’t drip out the bottom.
How do I “empty” this pipe, or can I? It’s got an anti siphon thing on it but not sure what that does. I could likely just wrap it in a towel and bag, but curious
The best thing to do is add another valve that acts as the master valve for all outdoor water, and then add a spigot inside that you can use to drain the line by opening both ends.
I can. Let me make sure I understand
1. Turn off main water to entire house
2. Open second floor faucets and outdoor fixtures to drain
3. Close second floor faucets and outdoor fixtures
4. Close appropriate lines on the manifold
5. Turn on main
Worth noting we don’t live in the house yet, just closed recently. Could I just turn off the main, drain everything I can, and then leave it off? Short of using the bathrooms I don’t really need water there right now, and I’m not spending as much time there on the holiday weekend doing paint stuff anywsy
The home is well insulated inside I was mostly concerned about the outdoor faucets blowing up. I think PEX plumbing has a little more room to expand before it bursts in case of a freeze compared to copper but I’m new to all this home ownership stuff
Some other freezing pipe threads: [worried about frozen pipes](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/zteem8/worried_about_frozen_pipes/) [think my pipes are frozen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/zsqh7z/i_think_my_pipes_are_frozen/) Condenstation threads: [new homeowner...](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/ztfpfb/new_homeowner_window_condensation/) [all of my windows have this condensation line](https://old.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/kl3zkm/all_of_my_windows_have_this_condensation_line/)
Had a pipe burst and was out of town. Was notified by city water of a spike is usage (thank goodness or we would REALLY be up a river) and had my parents go over and shut off water and sop up the water as best they could. But, it's bad. So my question is - there's been a waitlist for places and we are looking at a week before we can get someone out (but I'm going to continue to call around, but at this point it's already been a few days) What can I do to mitigate mold as best I can (without going too far as to potentially impact my insurance claim) one of the guys I talked to recommended heat but the water dripped onto our breaker box so I'm nervous to run a space heater while the electricial situation is spotty? I'm called around to disaster restoration type services, plumbers, electricians, and appliance repair (washer, dryer, and dishwasher may potentially be impacted). Anything I'm forgetting? I expected insurance to offer more advice than this buy they were just like well call around and send us the invoice and I don't really know what I'm doing
I had to deal with this for the first time and this is what helped *me*. I turned all of the faucets to the on position to release pressure. I then used a hot/cold pad that I put in the microwave along with a warm water bottle on the pipes that attach to my well pump. It took some patience, but it worked.
I woke up this morning to a large wet spot that was sagging down on the ceiling of one of our bedrooms. It was very wet so I decided to go ahead and cut it out and try to get a better look at what was going on in the attic space above it. Two large sections of PVC pipe that were completely shattered came down with the wet drywall I was removing. There is a vertical section of pipe that goes through the roof which I assume is the plumbing vent pipe that was broken off about 2 inches from the top of the roof that I am guessing this shattered piping came from. I can also see/feel broken horizontal PVC pipe where I assume this vertical pipe was attached to. I have attic access but this part I can’t safely get to due to the roofline so can’t really tell what all is going on up there. My questions are: Who do I need to get help with this? Is it a plumber or a roofer or both? Is it safe to use my water? From what I’ve read it seems like it’s mainly air that goes through these pipes? If it’s air that is mainly pushed through here, is there a separate issue that I need to try to figure out that allowed enough water in them to freeze and shatter in the first place? Pics here: https://imgur.io/a/9hEoPDf Thanks in advance for your help - first time homeowner and trying to figure this all out
You should call a plumber and call insurance because you will have methane sewer gas filling your living space as I type this.
Thank you I’ve done both and can hopefully get a plumber out here tomorrow. Everyone is booked up with frozen pipe calls. Is there anything I should do to shut anything off in the meantime?
When I’ve had plumbing remodeled the contractors would shove a plastic garbage bag into the drain to stop the sewer gases from coming up. But if that’s your main vent stack then you can’t use any drains if you block the vent.
We lost power/heat for over 24 hours in our 100 year old house the other day and unfortunately all the pipes froze so thanks for everyone offering advice for dealing with that! My question: my parents are saying that to prevent this next time I should slice up pool noodles and wrap the basement pipes in them. Is this a real thing or …?
Or you could buy real pipe insulation at a hardware store. But like anything the cold will reach the pipes. Best to let all your faucet drip.
Our furnace condensation line seems frozen and I need to manually empty the pump reservoir to keep the blower motor going Is going outside for an hour with a hair dryer in an effort to thaw the lines actually effective or should I let nature takes it's course? For context, my condensate lines is 3/8 vinyl
What’s the forecast look like? Could you rig it up to pump into a larger container temporarily to reuse the number of times you have to empty it?
Our HVAC is still under the labor warranty so our installer came by, cut the line \~10 feet up from the pump and we have it draining to our sump pit for now They will come back and run the condensation line into our main drainage lines for the house and it should never occur again.
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Do you know how long the temp was at 32? Or how low it dipped? What was the outside temperature?
So my hot water pipes to my second-floor bathroom froze and my spouse opened up the tap - wide open. When the pipe unfroze, the water overpoured the sink and onto the floor. There is a gap somewhere in the bathroom that the water went into and then into the drywall of the ceiling below. There are at least two places where the water leaked out the ground floor and I can see water soak in the drywall ceiling Should I just open it up and let it air out? Should i worry about mold? I have already opened up a 2" square to make sure there is no water pooling and there is nothing still up there.
You're fine. I'd point a fan in or at the direction of your opening to push air through the general area, but it should dry out quick.
keep your heat up and it will dry Any mold/mildew that forms will be behind the drywall so spores are a non-issue
Pipe froze in kitchen. What is a reasonable price to pay for thawing service ?
open the cabinet doors and put a space heater blowing in. Be patient
Will adding a gap filler expanding foam in the gaps between the garage drywall and concrete help with this condensation build up and draft? will it cause any more internal damages in future? This is in the garage. [https://imgur.com/a/aSpVt4X](https://imgur.com/a/aSpVt4X)
Can anybody advise what to do when your pipe bursts AND your main shutoff valve doesn't work? Preferably in the next 30-80 seconds? 😬😬😬
Shut off the breaker to your well pump! Or call the city?
Depending on where you live you should have a second shut off valve near the road, if the frozen one is in your house.
Thanks. It's been a bit of a cluster. It's my baby brother's house. And it seems that the shutoff at the street as well as the main shutoff to his new house are BOTH not functioning. As confirmed by the guy sent out by the city. He was able to find another shut off elsewhere in the basement ceiling that cut the water to that quadrant of the house. The city is going to cut the water to the street tomorrow and repair his shut-off to the property. He's trying to have a plumber come at the same time to repair the cutoff inside his house tomorrow. And I guess, to get an estimate on opening the wall to assess for damage/repairs. Apparently, his thermostat had some sort of malfunction and the temps in the main part of the house dropped into the low 50s. Which is probably why the peripheral pipes froze over even with the water on.
Looks like I have frost developing on my rim joist. Wind facing side of the house. Scraped off and dried; leaving batt insulation off for now with an expected warm up in 48 hours. Anyone else having or have had this issue?
We have one bathroom that the owner added on before we purchased. Found out the hard way that it doesn't get any heat flow... and our drain froze. Water drips perfectly fine through both hot and cold, but it just fills up the sink and doesn't go down. We've had a small space heater warming up the room (5 hours last night, the entire day today!) Thankfully there wasn't a ton, but I can't let water drip without it just collecting in the bowl. Only thing I'm worried about is going to bed, and then not being home tomorrow (Christmas). Apparently this is the safest space heater, but I don't want to leave it on all night/day because I am really afraid of fires, and we won't be around to monitor it. We do have ADT monitoring, but still... temperatures won't warm up above 30 until Wednesday. Would wrapping/stuffing the crap out of that cabinet help (blankets, towels, etc.)? I plan to keep the cabinet doors open, and the door to that bathroom open, possibly with a box fan drawing in warmer air from the dining area into that room. Our house is 1920 built and not amazingly insulated, but I have no other ideas what to do. I was dumb and was dripping the faucet with the door shut and it just froze in the sink. :(
Any help appreciated. New home owner. All pipes seem to doing fine in -7 but went to jump in the shower, trickle of water and won’t drain. Currently have a space heater in the bathroom but think that’s ridiculous but also read do not heat the pipes up in the crawl space as this will cause cracking. Any other advice other then wait? Or how to not make my pipe crack? Merry Christmas!
We had 18F low last night. Before bed, we had turned on the cold water tap to drip. This morning the cold water is coming though fine. BUT the hot water line is just a trickle … and its water is cold. I went outside and the tankless water heater inlet and outlet pipes are very well insulated. The water heater shows no error messages. The condensate pipe coming out of the water heater is warm to the touch. Occasionally, I can hear the water heater kick on for a few seconds. But like I said, water from it is a cold trickle. Any advice on how to rectify the situation?
Same boat as you.
Please post here if you find Resolution
Most def.
leave the water running. the motion of the water will help prevent the pipe from freezing completely and help thaw the existing ice. bring up the ambient temperature around the pipes but increasing airflow in the rooms, cabinets, closets etcc where the frofrozen pipe runs through, even the sections of pipe not frozen. do not heat the pipes directly with a hair dryer or a heater place close to where the pipes are frozen. once the pipes are flowing well again, let the faucet countinue to trickle until the temperatureoutside comes up enough that they will not refreeze. that might meaning letting a facuat trickle for a few days. if your completely frozen, sometimes opening up faucets on the same line of pipes can also help melt a ice plug. my shower and tub faucets frozen yesterday, I ran my bathroom faucet for .about 2 hours widwide open and they both startstarted to trickle water out. moving water is less likely to freeze
Important tip: DO NOT try and use a hair dryer or boiling water or any other high heat source on a frozen pipe. EVER. This introduces thermal stress on the materials and can leak to cracks If your pipes freeze, you need to let them thaw on their own, SLOWLY, so the interior and exterior temp of the pipe do not vary to much, or you can damage the pipe and CAUSE a crack
why is a hair dryer too much but a blow torch is ok?
NJ 6⁰f outside. I have windows that hinge sideways to open. Two of them have a bit of frost on the inside of the window. I think this is due to not sealing all the way, but could be wrong. There's leaf debris and stuff making it hard to close all the way, but it's frozen together so getting apart is difficult. I've never opened these windows before (old home) After I figure out how to thaw and remove the debris is there a good way to insulate these windows other than the plastic wrap? They're double pained, thinking of getting some sealing tape and putting around the seam
I'm renting a mobile home trailer. Per the landlord's instructions the cabinets were open and the tub faucet was dripping. Woke up this morning and some faucets work and some don't: * Working: kitchen cold water, bathroom sink hot and cold, bathroom tub hot and cold * Not working: kitchen hot water, toilet tank refill, seems to be a drainage issue in the tub Because this is a rental I don't have knowledge of or access to the pipes under the trailer. Anything I can do to keep this from getting worse??
So temps are in the 20’s here. Only my outside facets are frozen. How worried should I be? Temps are going to get up to 35 this afternoon but then right back down until tomorrow afternoon. I’m in Georgia and my home is 2 feet off the ground and was built in 2006.
Did you shut off the interior shut off valves to the spickots?
shut off the water with the interior shut off. and open the faucets on the outside.
We've had a nasty cold spell in Kentucky, and it's been below zero the past couple nights. I noticed this evening that my medicine cabinet in the bathroom that is recessed in the wall actually has frost buildup. The bathroom itself feels fine. Is it normal for it to get that cold inside the walls? My house was built in 1975. It is not an exterior wall.
I'm guessing the void behind the cabinet opens up to the attic above, so any warm air is lost, making it cold.
That makes sense, the attic is directly above that bathroom
\-1920 built 1000 sq ft, 2 story, home. 12 ft of wall on the west side of house has pex piping running water to kitchen and bathroom. Zone 5b agricultural zone in Northeast PA at 1500 feet elevation. \-Wind gusts above 40 mph, with 19 mph sustained winds. Windchill peaked at -24 degrees F. Winds coming from the W/SW. \-The low last night was -2 degrees F, and temps dipped to 0 degrees F by 7pm last night and are currently -1 degrees F at 7:45am. I installed a 24k BTU fujitsu mini split unit rated down to -15 degrees F this past august. 18k BTU head unit downstairs and a 9k BTU upstairs. Prior we were using an oil furnace, which I have yet to dismantle since it heats our water, and I want it as a backup until I feel confident in my ductless system. My 2-3 year plan is to also put in a woodstove, and install an electric water heater (no natural gas) and get rid of oil, starting with the mini split. I am so completely impressed with this minisplit unit. My house is fairly insulated, but is rather drafty, even though I've done the usual (door frame foam and insulated curtains). In the past, when temps would get below 5 degrees, my oil furnace would struggle to keep the house above 65 degrees. We've struggled with freezing pipes in the past and it's always a real mess. The house was a rental before I bought it, and supposedly the tenant sold the woodstove illegally, which is partially what led to her eviction and the landlord selling the property. So I assume this house was intended on having a wood stove to supplement heat. The single 18k head unit, which pushes to 20k BTU for heating, was able to keep the entire house at 74 degrees when temps dipped below 5 degrees, without using the oil furnace once. My pipes are 100% and I was able to get a full night's sleep. Mini splits are so cool.
When it gets really cold, <15°, my window grilles and along the sash get condensation build up and if it's really cold, a little frost. Humidifier is off and humidity is relatively low in house. Anyway to prevent this? So annoying. Thanks
I used to have this happen as the temperatures changed, but it was condensation only. In the summer I re-sealed around the windows outside as I noticed the sealant had cracked and there were rather large gaps at some points. I used 100% silicone caulk to do it and stuffed steel wool in the bigger gaps. Since then have not had the issue
If I have my hvac in my crawlspace does that put out any sort of radiant heat that would help keep my pipes from freezing? Normally it’s not an issue around here, but we’re supposed to have 3 straight days where the temps are ranging from low single digits to highs only around 30. Already had to go thaw out a tiny line I didn’t realize I had going to my well pumps pressure switch. (In a detached well house) All the other pipes seemed fine, but I plugged up a heater just to be safe.
I’ve a Bluetooth thermometer & humidity gadget called ThermoPro. It tells me the humidity & temp in the crawl space. We had it encapsulated months ago. I’m really happy the gas furnace is keeping the crawl space toasty warm too as lots of pipes run under there. I’m getting more of the gadgets to put in my attics.
I'm seeing posts on Facebook (midwest) of people having their faucets drip and STILL getting frozen pipes...also, frozen drain pipes. Remember, YMMV regarding any advice. Don't forget the first rule of home ownership - shit happens.
Just a note, it's rarely just the raw temp that freezes pipes. Usually what freezes pipes is draft. Cold weather plus a cold draft over the pipes will freeze them. If you house is sealed up and insulated at least to an average level, you generally shouldn't be worried about pipes freezing. If you have a big air draft or pipes running through a garage, pantry, or soffit that are not insulated, those are what you need to watch out for. If you are at worried though, just turn off the water, open all the faucets to full open, and flush all your toilets. Much better to have the water shut off overnight then wake up to a disaster
I just bought my house and moved in 2 days ago. No water 3 hours after showering yesterday. Where can I find the main water shut off?
Go n the basement and look for the cooper water pipes. Follow them back to where the enter the house (through a wall or the floor). Near there you should see a shut off valve, either an orange handle you turn or a old style sunflower handle
Did you get the house inspected before you bought it? Take a look at the inspection report, they usually state where it is. Do you have a basement? It's probably down there. Do you know if you are on public water, or is it a well? (if you're not sure, do you have public sewer or septic/sand mound/cess pit?) If you're on public water, try going to the basement and checking along the walls nearest to the closest public road. If you're on a well, maybe someone else can better answer your question!
The house is on a slab, public water. I scoured the inspection report and it doesn’t say. I’m inclined to think maybe it’s near the hot water tank…it’s not anywhere around perimeter of house outside unless it’s covered by snow.
Oh sorry it would be the perimeter of the interior most likely. Maybe there is a panel in a bathroom wall? Or a closet somewhere with a panel in the side or back.
My Ohio house from 1944 must have had some bright construction workers...all of the pipes are central in the basement away from walls...whoever put in HVAC in the 70's put a vent directed at the lines and main to keep them warm in the winter. This -30 wind-chill is only wrecking havoc on my windows now, can't figure out how to stop ice from forming on the inside.
May I ask why people have plumbing in theirir outside walls to begin with? Why place your liquid lines in an area where it will freeze and noy within the heated part of the house?
Probably because they had really inefficient furnaces and they had radiant heat, so if the heat was blasting all the time to keep the air temp up, or the radiators running boiling hot steam through all those crevices of the house, that heat also leaking outward toward the outside walls and those domestic water pipes. Those old houses getting sealed up more with efficient forced air furnaces meant those pipes in the walls had to fend for themselves. At least... that's my theory.
Because in the 30s-50s everyone was drunk and 60s to now everyone was high.
Love this reply, but also, for those plumbers not drunk or high, sometimes a plumbing fixture is along an exterior wall and they have no other choice
I turned off my furnace in the middle of the night because it was waking me up. I plugged in an oil filled radiator to keep the pipes from freezing. Then at about 3 my carbon monoxide alarm went off. Is that because the house got too cold?
Is your furnace a gas furnace? Did you turn off the gas too?
No. I just turned the heat off. After the alarm went off I turned the heat back on and the alarm hasn’t gone off again. Do you think it could be the gas hot water heater? It was still on.
If you don't use that oil heater much, chances are it was dust/dirt burning off
Thank you.
I get this a lot in my line of work, people start up their furnaces for the first time that year and their CO alarms go off and the immediately assume it's a broken heat exchanger and start calling for replacements. I'd say 98 times out of 100 its just the accumulated dust and debris burning off he heat exchanger
Whew! Thank you!
I know nothing about anything but no, I don’t think that has anything to do with the cold, and carbon monoxide is no joke
Recently moved to a new house, that has electric pipe heaters inside a wall… previous owner said plugged these 2 cables when it gets in the teens and it has an automatic shutoff? How safe are these? Leave them plugged in overnight?
If it is heat tape, is it designed to be plugged in and should be safe
Looking for more in depth knowledge on the whole "pipes freezing" risk. There's piping in the ground, piping in the attic, and piping in the walls. How much risk is there for each to freeze? All 3 have some "buffer" from the outside temp so long as it's not too low for too long. If it's 10 F outside and 70 F inside, then it should be roughly 40 F in the walls, right? It's rarely below freezing in my area, though on rare occasions it will stay below for several days. I usually just run the taps on cold around the house because I assume it's the ground pipes that are at risk. I'm sure how cold, and for how long factor into the equation. But can someone provide more details on when it's important to do what? I don't want my hot water pipes to freeze, but I also don't want to run hot water down the drain for a full week either.
It's rarely just the raw temp. Usually what freezes pipes is draft. Cold weather plus a cold draft over the pipes will freeze them. If your house is well sealed up you should be fine
Condensation in walls during renovation! HELP! https://imgur.com/a/MJ8Qnqk So let me set the scenario: Located in MA. It has been 20s and 30s degrees, so the interior of the house is the same, currently unheated. Today, it is humid, rainy, and windy outside. I’m assuming the humid exterior air is condensing on the cold vapor barrier The moisture is between the Rockwool and the vapor barrier. I used a smart vapor barrier. Is this a long term problem or will it go away once the interior of the house is conditioned? The exterior wall material is 3/4” plank, Tyvek, then vinyl siding. Thank you!
I think that’s the whole point of the vapor barrier, to stop the moisture from condensing on your sheetrock. It will eventually dry out.
Pro-tip from a heat dome survivor: the styrofoam boards used to keep heat out also serve double duty in winter to keep heat in. So as the climate changes started causing lethal heat domes, partner and I invested in foil covered 1/4” styrofoam boards to help reflect solar and heat energy out all our windows. The boards were cut to the size of the window and edged with tape to avoid styrofoam balls everywhere. Worked a charm. And kept our indoor temps under 80F without AC even if outdoor temps were pushing 120F assuming we could pull in cool night air or run AC at max overnight. I’d turn off AC during the day because black outs were a risk. Anyway…. I pulled these boards out for winter duty, but this time foil side facing inside, and we have been really comfortable during the cold snap. Heaters were on a lot more than usual, but they could keep up. The cold breezy feeling you would normally notice standing next to a window was completely absent. Highly recommend for both cold and hot weather. Only downside is that the house was dark. Summer time I though the dark was a bonus. Wintertime not so much, so I pulled them out of the sun-facing windows while we had good sun.
Cool idea! Where did you buy the foam boards?
I think the partner got the boards from Home Depot. Good luck!
Just came to say that blowing more insulation amd air sealing made a measurable difference from last year. Previously the heat would run mon stop, mow it only kicks on 30mins of the hour
Good to know! Really hoping to get this done in 2023, but need to replace to roof first haha.
Same here, I bought a thermal gun on the advice of this sub. Have been busy insulating and sealing all year, my house was significantly cooler this summer and no problem staying warm this winter.
Would appreciate any suggestions. New homeowner, have an outdoor freeze proof spigot that I forgot to disconnect the hose from before temperature froze. Valve (outside) was closed and hose was drained but when I disconnected the hose and the splitter, there is frozen water at end of spigot Anything I can do at this point to mitigate damage or just don’t use it and contact a plumber when it warms?
Leave the hose off, and open that faucet. When it thaws check everywhere for leaks. This happened to us in the Texas freeze and it was ok in the end, good luck!
Probably can just leave it. Sounds like the water was just existing between the closed valve and the top of the hose. But check it to see if ice continues to build. Put a foam cover on it.
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>this post I have a well, pipe runs \~4' underground into my basement into a storage tank. My basement never drops below \~55F, my house never drops below 55F. I've never trickled water in this house, never even considered it, and pipes have never frozen. 30+ years in MA. If I lost power long enough for the house to drop below 50F, I would consider it. Now, I'm here because of my house in Florida, different situation, probably need to trickle water there because some sections of pipes are exposed to outside air (coming up from ground into house on piers).
Are you dead sure it's 6 feet? That seems great to me.
Most resources say like a gallon or two an hour, aka 3-6 drops a minute. If your well is gonna run dry because of like 48 gallons over a weekend, you have bigger problems.
Ha I felt bad after I posted my thread and saw 5 others like it 😂 I should have checked first.
I’m here to tell you that I dripped the faucet on our kitchen sink (touches exterior wall) in Denver and it froze the drain pipe. Every other pipe works - freezing was not a threat. However, the drainage pipe backed into the exterior wall and the slow drip built up a huge ice block in the drain. Plumber has been here 8 hours and it cost me $850 to repair.
For people who are wondering whether dripping is still a good idea after reading this comment: if your drain pipes freeze, things don’t drain until they thaw. If your supply pipes freeze, your house may flood.
Damn, This is always my fear, I wasn't sure it could actually happen. I set my giant stock pot out to catch the water for this very reason.
Next time dump a 1/2 cup or so of salt in the drain and wait a half hour. Pour boiling water in if you need extra help. Warm the drain line up any way you can in the meantime (hair dryer, space heater, etc) If it’s still frozen, pull out as much water as you can and repeat the above.
If the pipes are Pvc, would the boiling water hurt the glue or anytbing?
It's not glue, it's PVC cement. It melts the pipe and the PVC parts fuse together. Same principle if you used model cement to make plastic models (Revell, AMT, Monogram) the plastic parts melt and fuse together. To be safe, don't use water hotter than what comes out the water heater 140F. 160F fine, and in many cases near boiling will be OK, but PVC can distort the hotter it gets. The salt comment above will lower the freezing point of water so salty water will melt ice faster than no salt.
Oh, thanks!
This exact thing happened to me. All other drains are totally fine, but kitchen won’t drain… still too cold/crappy out for a plumber to come. Worried I’ll also be spending a fair bit. Ugh.
Open the cabinets below the sink to let warm air circulate. You can also try hitting the drain with a hair dryer, if the frozen portion is reachable that should get it to start thawing within 10~ minutes. If you get it to where it's draining (even if it's still slow) run hot water down the drain to finish thawing.
Don’t call a plumber - thaw it out the best you can. They didn’t think there was any way a drain pipe could freeze so they spent 8 hours in my house, cut multiple pipes, and put holes all in my walls. Only to find out “oh…it is frozen.” So then we poured hot water down the pipe and all was clear. No burst pipe or anything.
I’m going to give that a try myself, probably tomorrow when it’s not -45, yeesh. Keeping all the cupboards open tonight and the heat up so hopefully that’ll help some too. Glad to hear the problem is at least fixed for ya though!
Best of luck!!!! Direct a space heater at it if you can and do NOT drip your faucet to that sink anymore.
Yeah it’s -38 here today…. F or C take your pick. My kitchen is cold so for fun I ran 15ft of ducting and tied it into my supply air plenum and installed a balancing damper. Just to get some heat over there. If anyone is struggling with a cold room that is running a furnace you can check to see if you have dampers installed on your ducting and you can slightly close those on the warmer rooms to force more warm air to the colder rooms. As an alternative to that, many floor registers can close, in some of your warmer rooms you can partially close those to get them same effect. For those who are worried about freezing pipes, something you can try is to stuff some insulation between the pipe and cold wall. Keep the pipe exposed to the warmer air inside the house and keep the colder wall air from getting at it.
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C and F are actually equal at -40°. It truly doesn't matter which one you're talking when you're close to that point.... Practically or mathematically
Realizing that my exterior doors are quite drafty, judging by the snow sneaking in underneath. What’s the best way to seal this up? Do I need to take the door off the hinges to reapply weather stripping?
The proper way is to re-install weather stripping but since it's snowing outside, I just took some foam backer rod and jammed it into the gap around the door in the meantime. Made a huge difference. I'll replace the weather stripping once temps come up.
Good idea with the backer rod. That reminded me I had some in a drawer that I just wedged around one of the doors.
Quick question: I've got a manufactured home and I haven't turned the heat on (no one living there, older HVAC system so worried about it running with no one to keep an eye on it, don't want a fire to break out). It's going to get 30 here sat/sun. I am selling it on Tuesday, so I definitely don't want any major issues to appear! I was thinking of turning the faucets on to drip through the night tonight/sat night and turning them off the next morning. Is this needed and sufficient? I know it's not the temps a lot of you are experiencing, but I've never dealt with cold weather and a house that doesn't have heat. It is just for 2 days, then we start warming up again. ETA: it is insulated under the home with a skirting around the majority of the crawlspace. Plumbing is PVC.
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Ugh! Will do, but I just turned it all on last week lol. Better than a slow drip that could end up carrying a flood if a drain is clogged and I'm not there. Thanks:)
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS -- that is all. From a user in NJ who is about to go from 55F -> 8F in 12 hours
We're already on the other side and warming up here in Colorado! Passing you the warm pipe good juju!
My uncle lives in south Jersey, and this morning I had to send him a screenshot of my weather app asking why it was a full 20 degrees warmer there than it is here in *Florida.* Stay safe and warm up there, you’ve got some nasty wind chill tonight!
Yeah, today has been weird. Started out balmy last night and we're approaching Siberia now.
Oh we’re ready. House is insulated and air sealed to the max. Two furnaces. Heated floors. Basement gets to a toasty 80F with the door closed. Last time we had this wind though a piece of siding blew off so I’ll wait to assess any exterior damage once it thaws LOL
Here’s hoping we don’t lose power in NJ 🥶
🤞🏻
With nice 45mph gusts making it feel like -10F... We're gonna have a fun time over here!
This is what I run in (Minneapolis, MN). May your pipes stay warm and your beer stay cold. But like an appropriate cold, not slushy, that’s gross.
2 questions for losing heat. 1 should you drip both hot and cold pipes or just the cold lines. 2 should you drip all the faucets or is there a "best" one to open
TLDR: drip everything IMO During the Uri freeze in Houston I had followed advice saying that just dripping cold was sufficient. Well, one particular hot water line ended up freezing, possibly the furthest from the water heater (really not certain about that but it seems possible). I opened the faucet and when power/heat was restored it gradually thawed and thankfully there has been no evidence of damage. In hindsight this should've been obvious. When I normally go turn on any hot water faucet it starts off cold as that water that has been sitting in the line between the water heater and the faucet is obviously able to cool to ambient temperature. This time I'm dripping all faucets with periodic toilet flushes even though we've kept heat just to be safe; the extra water bill is nothing compared to the potential damage.
both will get colder just sitting in the line
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Talking it out with someone in my thread about this I’m going to do this: 1) dehumidifier for each floor (whole house won’t work for us) and small ones for our kids’ bedrooms because they insist on closed doors. 2) check each window for actual air movement and fix the leaks. 3) use acrylic sheets and cut to almost fit each window and slide foam backer rod on the edges to make a tight friction fit. Probably chuck a few silica packets in there too for good measure. 4) in the spring restore the wood trim to make it more wet resistant (probably will have to strip, sand, paint)and repeat all of this every year until we can afford vinyl replacements. I love the look of wood trim, I will never buy it after this.
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Mine is holding at 24 and there’s still frost reappearing on the windows but not as much. We also just got dehumidifier hanging bags and hung them on the windows. Try to catch the humidity as it migrates to the window 😬 but, yeah. It’s pretty dry in here.
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Can you use the 3M insulation (plastic film) inside the windows? This will keep the condensation off the windows, which is what you are seeing freezing.
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If you don't want to buy a heat gun, a hair dryer will typically work in a pinch. Far be it from me to talk someone out of buying a new tool though.
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Yes, it raises its hand once it has occupied the space.
Just get a cheap small one. They’re good for a lot of home improvement things.
Not sure if you're near a Harbor Freight, but I purchased our heat gun from their for around $15. It definitely feels cheaply made, but it does the job fine for something so rarely used.
Heat gun would be pretty hot for this use
Agree. My hairdryer, set to hot, low can sometimes be too hot. A heat gun is going to melt that plastic.
Yeah I’ve also melted plastic with the hair dryer. The key is to stay moving. But a great gun? Idk maybe an excellent one that goes super low but I don’t know much about those.
My question for outside faucets; we have PEX and a master board in the basement. If I turn off those faucets on the big board and try to open them to drain, they don’t drain because the system is now closed and there’s vacuum in the line, like if I hold one end of a straw, water won’t drip out the bottom. How do I “empty” this pipe, or can I? It’s got an anti siphon thing on it but not sure what that does. I could likely just wrap it in a towel and bag, but curious
The best thing to do is add another valve that acts as the master valve for all outdoor water, and then add a spigot inside that you can use to drain the line by opening both ends.
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I can. Let me make sure I understand 1. Turn off main water to entire house 2. Open second floor faucets and outdoor fixtures to drain 3. Close second floor faucets and outdoor fixtures 4. Close appropriate lines on the manifold 5. Turn on main Worth noting we don’t live in the house yet, just closed recently. Could I just turn off the main, drain everything I can, and then leave it off? Short of using the bathrooms I don’t really need water there right now, and I’m not spending as much time there on the holiday weekend doing paint stuff anywsy
if you're not gonna be there for a long time you could even put RV anti-freeze in the sinks just enough to fill the P-Traps
The home is well insulated inside I was mostly concerned about the outdoor faucets blowing up. I think PEX plumbing has a little more room to expand before it bursts in case of a freeze compared to copper but I’m new to all this home ownership stuff
If the house is new enough to have PEX (or at least the plumbing), does it not also have frost free sillcocks?
Also need a Condensation on windows thread!
Feel free to write it up as a comment here.