pipes are frozen any bright ideas

[sexy-girl]

doh i have to be at work in 30mins ... pipes are frozen here so no water any bright ideas on how to get them fixed ... or things that we shouldnt do ... (dont want them to burst)


update borrowed some water from neighbours ... lisa's already well late for work and not best pleased "crappy england" is a quote from her hehe

 

[Fleshmachine]

turn the heat up in the house

that may keep them from bursting

 

[Poverkhnost]

I've had pipes bust before and it's a terrible situation. You don't want to try and heat them up too quickly, but need to get them a bit warmer. My advice is to call a plumber. May not be brilliant advice, but I've seen what amateurs (father and brothers) accomplish on their own.

 

[Spinaroonie]

In the future, turn them on to just a trip so as to keep the water moving.

 

[morninggirl5]

Leave all the spigots open. If they aren't frozen solid, they may melt as the day goes on and if the spigots aren't open they will burst.

If they don't unfreeze by the end of the day, call a plumber.

 

[Problem Child]

Like sd said, only open them a crack, otherwise you might have a flooded house if they thaw and you're not home.

 

[sexy-girl]

thanks for the helpful advice ... nobody is going to be home today so im kinda worried of what we might come home too ... thanks morninggirl will do that

 

[artful]

Frozen pipes

Do NOT try to rapidly thaw them out.Will be more problems.I would suggest HEATED sex at a nearby station,but hell,Ya only have minutes left,so go to work.

 

[phrodeau]

Anyone who has pipes that are likely to freeze should get them insulated or at least wrapped with heat tape - a sort of electric ribbon.

Another tip: if you desperately need a supply of fresh water, scoop out your toilet tank (unless the Ti-D-Bol man is in there).

 

[Guru]

 

[patient1]

Leaving the cabinet doors under the sink open allows hot air to circulate. If you want to warm them up without melting them, use a hand-held hair dryer. It's a slow process, but compared to replacing a pipe or fighting a fire caused by using a torch of some kind...

 

[Herbie Handcock]

It's probably to late now but, if there is a main water valve you might want to shut it off.

 

[BlondGirl]

Lowes sells a 6 foot piece of the foam wrap-around insulator for 97 cents.

Go make the investment. It is well worth it.

 

[JazzManJim]

This happened a few times at my folks' house when I was a kid, so here's what I know works.

First, when you suspect the temps to drop, turn a couple faucets on, just a little bit. That keeps the water flowing, and flowing water doesn't freeze as fast.

Second, once your pipes freeze, it can be fixed, but it takes a little patience. The first thing you need to do is find the main pipe that comes into the house. Chances are, it'll be in the basement, near the utility room, right about where the main cutoff valve is. Get a hair dryer and, using the low heat setting, blow it on the pipe. That'll let the pipe heat gradually and the water inside also. If you heat the pipe too quickly, it'll burst. Be patient, be gradual, and it'll get fixed in about 30-45 minutes.

If you can't stay home and tend it, get an electric space heatet. Set it up so there's no fire hazard at all (away from flammables and off the floor, on something like a cinder block or some other non-flammable surface) and let it run near where the pipe is. It'll gradually heat the pipe. Turn on the faucets a little before you do that, so the water gets flowing.

Once the water is flowing, get some heat tape. You can get it at any hardware store. Wrap that main pipie with it. Combine that with the faucets being on when it gets cold, and you won't have much trouble with your pipes freezing again.

 

[Herbie Handcock]

What ever you do don't stick that pretty lil tongue on that pipe!

 

[AStormyOne]

My pipes froze yesterday

and we used a small space heater to warm them up. Unfortunately, right after that, the thermostat on my heater broke, and still isn't fixed. <sigh> It's starting to get cold in here.

Storm

 

[Fly_On_Wall]

sexy-girl do you not have water return pipes in england?

there are 3 pipes runing everywhere cold/hot/water return this makes the water runing all the time so it will be in motion and harder to freeze also makes it so you dont have to wait for the water to warm up in the morning.

if this happens again pour cold water on the pipes at first and slowly add warmer on it this will melt the ice and prevent them from bursting.

 

[Guest]

This would happen to our pipes when we lived in New Jersey. The part of the house that had the most pipes running through it was facing the wind side. As soon as November started we'd leave the water spigots opened just enough to have the water drip a tiny bit. This was done each night before sleep time.

At the time, I couldn't afford to have more insulation put into that main wall because money was tight. But, the above advice worked for us for the rest of the time we lived there. Before we moved, though, we needed to fix that problem because it wouldn't have been very nice to leave that for the new owners.

Good luck sexy-girl. I hope everything works out for you. Please let us know if you can.

Enchanted

 

[sexy-girl]

isnt it great when everything just fix'es itself so easy


i've come home from work and all the water is working fine now


i know why it froze and which pipe ... we have a new pipe that runs partly outside now the builders insolated it but it didnt seem enough which i pointed out to them ... they said oh no it will be fine ... dummys ... anyway its all fixed now looks like we're be getting better insolation though on that outside pipe tommorow


thanks for all the good advice people i did forget to turn off the main water supply but lucky enough it didnt burst THANK god i did have all the taps turned on though slightly so when it unfroze i guess all the water came out of that

 

[April]

Lucky girl. I had that happen to me last winter. Tried everything mentioned above, and they still froze and burst. Several times!

 

[sexy-girl]

Lucky girl. I had that happen to me last winter. Tried everything mentioned above, and they still froze and burst. Several times!

fingers crossed they wont refrezze tonight ... meant to be a little warmer tonight so hopefully be fine

 

[morninggirl5]

Leave the water running a small stream in the bathtub, preferably the furthest room in the house from the water source.

I have the heat tapes on my pipes and double insulation, was assured they would never freeze. The weekend before New Year's last year, my water was frozen, it was the main cut-off from the outside water source to inside. Now, if it's cold, the water in my bathroom is running.

 

[sexy-girl]

thanks MG i'll try that now ... tommorow is my day off and i have a bad cold i want to beable to have a nice hot bath ... dont want to have to mess around with frozen pipes ... thanks

 

[Spinaroonie]

Like sd said, only open them a crack, otherwise you might have a flooded house if they thaw and you're not home.

Holy Fucking Shit!

PC said I had a good idea

I must've hit my head somewhere and made a coherent thought!

 

[Unclebill]

The biggest problem with most of the advice you're getting is that the pipes are likely not accessible so installing pipe insulation or the heat tape is not a practical solution.

If there is an exposed pipe coming into the house, you could install it there and it would be wise to dig out a small hole around the pipe where it emerges from the ground so you can set the insulation at least 6"-12" below ground level, deeper if you have a significantly deep frost line.

But the best advice likely to help in the near future is to leave a couple of faucets open so you have a trickle flow. Flowing water takes considerably lower temperatures to freeze.