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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How to fix a busted, frozen, broken, copper water pipe. Part 1

How to fix a frozen, busted copper water pipe. www.poormansfix.com

Duration : 0:8:16

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General Pipe Cleaners Pipe Freeze Kit

No need to drain water lines, sprinkler systems, or hot water systems before cutting pipe or tubing.

The Cold-Shot keeps pressurized systems operating while you make repairs. It freezes all type of liquids in steel, copper, cast iron, aluminum and plastic pipes ranging from 18″ to 2″ 10 mm – 60 mm using carbon dioxide CO2. Dip-tube type cylinders are available at all welding supply houses. The Cold-Shot is faster and less expensive than “refrigerator-type” units faster and uses less CO2 than “bag-type” units.

In five minutes, youre ready to go to work on copper tubing, just three minutes for cast iron pipe. Kit includes 10 sets of freeze heads for 18″ to 2″ lines 10 mm to 60 mm, two high pressure spiral hoses with injectors, T-distributor, locking nut, hex head screwdriver, rubber gloves, goggles and carrying case.

22.00 L. 18.00 W. 6.00 H.

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Try opening the drain valve at the bottom of the water heater, if you get a forcefull flow of water, the frozen pipe is between the tank and the fawcet. You will need to trace the pipe to the nearest fawcet and if that fawcet doesn’t work, the frozen part is between those 2 locations. The pipe could be frozen where it goes through outside walls. Its hard to tell if it has burst, it depends on many factors, so make sure you know where the shut off valve is, you might need it ina hurry !

Added: There is one thing I just noticed that is a little ambiguous about your question. If water is coming out of the hot fawcet, but it is not hot, it is most likely a water heater problem. The way your question was worded, it made it appear that no water at all was coming from the fawcet which would be a frozen pipe issue.

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