I live in MO and my water pipes are right under the house. It is freezing down there and my pipes are freezing. I have been defrosting them by dropping a space heater down a hole in the floor but am afraid the pipes are going to burst eventually.

Should I keep a space heater down there? Leave the hot or cold water dripping? To get new pipes put in to prevent this will cost quite a bit and will not be able to be done until Spring. This is past annoying.

The first thing I would do is to go around the outside of the house and make sure there are no drafts coming in from cracks, pipe holes, wire holes, or vents. If you have vents in your foundation close them or block them off with something.

Eliminating drafts will help considerably. secondly, if you use a forced air furnace for heat, you might be able to cut in a vent that will blow heat into the crawl space near where the freezing problem is. I don’t recommend the space heater and am not fond of heat tapes.

Another option is to insulate the walls of your crawl space (if possible to move around in there) with 1 inch thick styrofoam insulation. You may be able to just get some pipe insulation, if you choose this option make sure you completely cover all exposed copper piping. copper pipe transfers temperature very rapidly, so even if you leave a small portion uncovered, it can still freeze if it gets a draft.

Seal the insulation with duct tape. If you’re only having a freezing problem in certain areas, chances are this is the best place to start looking for drafts from the foundation. expanding foam or some type of silicone caulk will fill most cracks or holes.

It may also be easier to do this from the crawl space as it will be easier to see light coming in from the outside. Get a pair of coveralls and something you can push around to lay on and fill them in.

Good luck.

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Defrosting and  Protecting Pipes

Exposure to temperatures below 20 degrees can cause pipes to freeze and break. A few simple steps can help protect pipes from freezing or defrost them when they do.

Duration : 0:2:50

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I looked into the pipewatchman but the website is offline, the number doesn’t work and it got a poo rating on amazon.

Should I just leave my hose on drip?

HELP! Otherwise it is another year of filling coleman camping containers with water and taking them by sled, LOL.

If the line is freezing underground, the only solution would be to dig it up and put the line deeper, below the frost line. Your local extension agent should be able to give you a recommendation as to how deep.

We are just now running the waterline out to the barn, about 200 feet of line. So here’s my pointers for a happy water winter.

1. Dig the trench a foot below the “frost line” for your area.

2. Run TWO lines from your source to the barn. One “live” that you’ll hook up to your main source and to the barn fixtures, and one “dummy” that you will cap on both ends, and lay alongside the live line. Take a plastic loop fastener and attach it to both ends. It will basically just lay there until you may need it some day. Why? Pipe is CHEAP. Digging line is HARD. 10 or more years down the road, if a leak springs up somewhere in between, we dig down at both ends, hook up the new line and voila.

3. Use a “frost free” fixture in the barn, make sure it’s installed correctly. Go pick up a ratty old comforter at the thrift store and a plastic trash can. Wrap and cover the fixture when the temperature drops, or use a heat tape.

4. If you pipe from stall to stall, be sure it’s installed on an angle and leave individual valves open in the cold. (Cut off the water at the main frost free spigot in the barn and let it drain.)

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Help Protect Your Home From Bitter Cold

People, cars and even your home feel the strain of a bitter winter cold snap. So how do you protect your home from freezing pipes?

Steve Burbridge of Anthony Plumbing, Heating and Cooling said it pays to have a heated garage. “There’s plumbing that’s running in garage ceilings or exterior walls. So having a heated garage helps keep the bathroom above from freezing.

(It) certainly warms anything above the garage,” Burbridge told KMBC’s Donna Pitman. “This particular one runs on natural gas, and has a thermostat. So if there’s a power outage, you still have heat and don’t have to worry about your bathroom freezing above the garage.” Homeowners should also make sure that the cold outside air doesn’t get in.

“This is Fiberglass insulation. It resists air flow,” Burbridge said. Burbridge said to make sure the heat from your furnace will reach your pipes. “If (homeowners) really have a situation where they know it’s going to freeze, it’s good to leave the hot water and cold running at night,” Burbridge said.

Duration : 0:1:51

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The standard distance is 18 to 24 inches and you can put fine gravel around it for drainage

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The easiest solution, but not the best long term solution would be to leave your water running just a little bit, especially at night when it is the coldest. This keeps the water in the pipes moving preventing it from freezing.
You can also get some pipe insulation to put on the pipes, it’s very inexpensive and available at any home improvement store.

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You let a small trickle run. Of course it would be better to just have the plumber or electrician install some heat wire on the water pipe in the outside wall and crawlspace. It does require cutting open the wall a little to put it in, but so does fixing a busted pipe. The wire is then hooked up to a thermal link and it will come on just a little when the air outside gets cold!

You can also open the wall and install some insulation around the pipe – on the outside so the pipe still gets heat from the interior of the house, just less cold from outside. Interior pipes should be OK and drains have some composting heat in them. so they do not freeze. Cold water pipes freeze before hot water pipes.

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Pipes are pipes and water freezes. Keep doing what you are doing and they won’t freeze. A builder’s advice.

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I leave my faucets at a light stream (more than dripping but not all the way on either) I am so sick of this, my landlord says its just the way it is in a trailer…but I have never had this bad of a problem before in my other trailer homes. Is there ANYTHING else I can do? Is it common for them to freeze even when there is a more than steady drip? I already have read about the heat tape, and I’m going to try and buy some….any other suggestions?

The skirting around the trailer should be all tight with no holes or breaks in it. This keeps the cold wind out. Next-Wrap a heat tape right where the water pipe comes up out of the ground to feed your trailer. Wrap the heat tape around this pipe (make sure it does not touch itself. Keep the thermostat out to the open (don’t wrap it).

Next install a layer of heat tape insulation overtop of the heat tape. Wrap this insulation loosely using several layers. Hold it in place with some nylon zip ties. Plug in the heat tape to a working outside outlet. Buy several bales of straw and place these bales around the pipe coming out of the ground, this helps keep the ground from freezing around the top 1′ of soil around your water pipe.

If the heavy carboard underliner of the trailer is all in good shape. *This is the liner that you should see under the trailer. It keeps air from getting into the trailer through the floor, all your plumbing lines and heat ducts are above this liner. Patch any holes or tears with good quality duct tape.

Keep cabinet doors and vanity base doors open under the sinks-this lets warm air closer to water lines. For really cold situations I have even taken out a floor register and cut some small holes in the ductwork from above in the bathroom area and kitchen sink area. This lets a little of the heat from the ductwork go under the trailer between the floor and the cardboard liner.

You lose some valuable heat, but it will keep the plumbing from freezing up. Check where your water heater is. Sometimes on a trailer they are only accessible from the outside by taking off a panel of siding. You may need a heat tape on the cold water side of the water line. If it is inside the trailer and not on an outside wall it is probably ok.

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