What to Do When Your Water Pipes Freeze

A rare "flop cyclone" has just slammed the Northeast. Homes are beingness dilapidated by inches of snow, hurricane-force winds, and sub-null temperatures. As of noon on Th, more than 50,000 Americans had already lost power. That number is just expected to climb.

The blizzard follows a week of brutal common cold that has enveloped the U.Southward. Many cities are experiencing record lows. In some cases, the cold stretch is the longest on record since at to the lowest degree 1918.

In this conditions, your pipes don't stand a chance.

Take information technology from me, a homeowner and landlord who has been wrangling with frozen pipes since final Th. Nosotros enjoyed a few relaxing days abroad for the holidays, only to render to Boston to find our pipes frozen solid. Just when we resolved the issue in our unit, one of our tenants called to say that her pipes were frozen, too.

The past week has been a crash course on frozen pipes. Here are 10 tips that I've learned on what to do if your pipes freeze–and how to prevent this from happening next time.

What to Practise if Your Pipes Freeze

Tip #ane: Pipes Don't Always Freeze in the Same Spot

We knew that the pipes in our unit of measurement were prone to freezing. Two years ago, ane of our pipes fifty-fifty flare-up due to the extreme cold. Fortunately, I was working from abode that day and heard the water spraying in the basement. I was able to run downstairs and close the water off to our unit earlier the basement flooded. (HUGE relief.)

Later on that happened, we wrapped all of our exposed pipes with heating cables. These cables look like a long extension cord that y'all wrap around plastic or metallic cold water lines to foreclose them from freezing when the temperature drops. Nosotros keep these cables plugged in all winter long. Final twelvemonth, that'due south all we needed to avert frozen pipes.

Simply this year, our pipes froze in a unlike spot. When we came dwelling last Thursday, it was a mad nuance to find the problem surface area. To the best of our knowledge, the pipes had frozen underneath the bathroom sink. We immediately took a hair dryer to the surface area and that seemed to thaw it out enough to get the h2o running once again.

Tip #two: A Hairdryer Doesn't E'er Exercise the Trick

We initially thought nosotros were in the clear. Then we woke up with frozen pipes once again on Friday morning. We did the same song and dance over again, taking hair dryers to any area we thought might be causing the blockage. We fifty-fifty put a little space heater under the sink to try to warm things up.

This time, it wasn't plenty. The pipes were all the same freezing.

And then I dashed to Habitation Depot for more than heating cables. Thankfully, there were still a few in stock. We brought these home and and so jury-rigged our best solution: cutting a hole through the bottom of our bathroom vanity big enough to fit a hand down aslope the pipes. Nosotros and so fished a heating cablevision down around the pipes and into the basement. It doesn't wait pretty. There are ability strips and extension cords all over the place–merely it seems to have worked (for now).

Tip #3: Your Culprit May Exist a Drafty Foundation

One of the things we've come up to realize is that the pipes always freeze along an outside wall of our home. In this specific area, our brick foundation seems to exist aging. There are small-scale crevices that we've tried to patch with spray foam insulation (the kind that expands to fill the infinite). Nosotros've likewise tucked a layer of fiberglass insulation between the pipes and the interior of the foundation. Obviously, that wasn't enough to prevent the pipes from freezing, but we figured that it couldn't hurt.

Patching the foundation is something that'southward been on our to-practise listing for some time now. It'southward become clear that we need to make that a priority this jump.

Tip #4: In Sustained Common cold, Pipes That Have Never Frozen May Freeze

The jury-rigged solution we came up with to keep our pipes from freezing seems to take worked. We made it through Fri night'southward below-naught weather and notwithstanding had running h2o on Saturday morning. We seemed to accept dodged a bullet even so again. And then with that, we felt similar we'd be safe to leave boondocks for a few days for New Year'due south.

Earlier leaving, nosotros shut the water off to our h2o tank. Information technology was an extra precaution, but one that we felt would protect our home in instance the pipes froze. This way, even if a pipe burst, the damage would be limited since at that place wouldn't be h2o to feed the leak.

Saturday nighttime passed without issue. Nosotros sailed through Sunday into the New Year without a trouble–just of course, that only lasted so long.

I woke upwards to a call from one of my tenants on Mon morning time: She had no water in her unit.

In retrospect, I should have suggested that she leave her h2o dripping through the weekend. I didn't think to practise so considering her pipes had never frozen. Indeed, there's a first time for everything!

Tip #5: The Biggest Challenge is When Pipes Freeze Behind a Wall

We rushed back to Boston on Monday morn to deal with the issue ASAP–merely this time, we faced a new challenge: We had already wrapped, taken a hairdryer to, and set up infinite heaters on all of the exposed pipes feeding her unit. We were stumped. The frozen piping must be behind a wall (the aforementioned exterior wall that had been giving us so much trouble). We didn't know what to practise.

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I called a few friends to ask for suggestions. A lifelong plumber told us to creepo the oestrus as loftier as possible and place space heaters along the wall that we suspected was the issue. After a few hours, that should do the play a joke on, he said.

It didn't.

Past 10 P.Yard. on Monday night, the unit was 90 degrees, but the pipes were still frozen.

We crossed our fingers and hoped for the all-time–that the pipes wouldn't freeze overnight.

Read it on the #BuildiumBlog ASAP: x ways to treat and foreclose frozen pipes this winter. Click To Tweet

Tip #6: With the Proper Equipment, a Plumber Can Fix the Problem in No Time

The adjacent morning time, I scrap the bullet and called a plumber. The only other culling would be to start cutting into walls in search of the frozen piping–a step that I wasn't gear up to have.

At 9 A.Chiliad., I called my local plumber. I told him what had happened, that we believed we had isolated the outcome to a specific location, and suggested that we'd probably need someone to come up out with a thaw automobile (more on that to come).

Fortunately, he's i of the plumbers who has a thaw motorcar–non all do.

Unfortunately, he had 47 customers on his waiting list in demand of said thaw automobile.

Fortunately, I use him for all of my plumbing–far more than oft than I'd like to admit–so I was a customer that he wanted to help out. He got to my house earlier noon to bargain with the issue. In less than x minutes, he had the pipes thawed and water restored.

Tip #7: A Thaw Motorcar Will Exist Your Savior

And then, what's a thaw automobile? It'southward exactly what it sounds like: a portable device that plumbers employ to thaw pipes rapidly. Picture a automobile bombardment with jumper cables running out of either end. You hook i end up to an unfrozen pipage, and the other to the frozen department.

You plug the thaw machine in, flick the switch, and just wait.

The thaw auto sends depression-voltage, high-currency electricity through the pipe. Equally the frozen sections begin to thaw, the warmer water seeps through the ice, helping to melt the residuum. Downstream, water volition begin to flow out of the faucet in minutes. Best of all, the device can clear lines up to 175 feet long and tin can exist used on either copper or iron pipes.

It cost a few hundred dollars to have the plumber come out and service the unit, but information technology saved us from having to cut into walls–or worse, thousands of dollars' worth of impairment had the pipe burst behind the wall.

Tip #8. You Actually Practise Demand to Run the Water During Common cold Spells

One of my biggest concerns was that the pipes would re-freeze but a few days later on. This weekend, the temperature in Boston is expected to dip to tape lows of up to -18 degrees (yep, that's in Fahrenheit!). How could nosotros keep the pipes from freezing yet once more?

It's simple. Your mom has probably told you ten thousand times to keep the water dripping overnight to foreclose pipes from freezing. At least, my mom has. I always thought it was an old wives' tale. But my plumber confirmed that this is the only way to go along the pipes from freezing during sustained cold similar we're experiencing now. Certain, the water bill might go up, but once again–information technology's a modest toll to pay to ward off the damage caused by burst pipes.

Tip #9: Hot Water and Salt Can Thaw Drainpipes

While nosotros didn't accept whatsoever consequence with our drainpipes, our plumber also gave u.s. this tidbit of communication: If your bleed pipes freeze, boil a kettle of hot water. Stir a cup of kosher salt into the hot water, then cascade the concoction downward the frozen bleed. This slurry will act like the stone common salt you put down exterior to melt ice-covered sidewalks. Do this a couple of times, and it should get h2o flowing through your drain in no time.

Tip #ten: Take Steps to Preclude Frozen Pipes–and Have a Plumber on Speed-Dial

Farthermost cold presents a real challenge for property owners and managers akin. Take every precaution to avoid frozen pipes–and if your pipes Practice freeze, save yourself a headache by calling in a plumber with a thaw auto. Having tried everything else over the past calendar week, I can confidently say that information technology's the only fool-proof solution.

And so, your pipes froze--at present what? Read this 10-step guide ASAP on the #BuildiumBlog! Click To Tweet Read more on Maintenance & Improvements

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