I just woke up this morning to find that my pipes had frozen. Actually, only the hot water pipe seemed to be froze? I failed to properly winterize (live and learn I guess). If anyone has any good idea's how to defrost them would be nice to hear. I've blow torched them some, and now have a heat lamp on it and a heating pad... Probably not going to do **** though...

Anyone else have any stories about the Deep Freeze that has Gripped the NW has affected you?

 

Last year a pipe in the garage froze because the geniuses that built the house didn't insulate the pipe before they put up drywall, flooded the garage and was a bitch to get to, but it got fixed.

There really isn't much of a remedy except for patience. If the pipe hasn't burst then thats great, but do you know for a fact that's the frozen pipe? Are there any other pipes in the attic or crawlspace that could potentially be frozen as well?

Once you get it thawed, if possible, you'll definitely want to get it insulated with some pipe wrap, or I prefer using batts of insulation because you can get a higher R-value (resistance to heat/cold) that way. Pipe wrap is usually an R-3 to R-6... With a fiberglass batt you could easily use R-11 (typically used for interior sound walls) and wrap the pipes. Much more efficient when we are seeing temps this low. Also cover your hose bibs if you haven't already because that's what pipe burst in my garage (even tho the bib was covered the pipe wasn't behind drywall).

 

Youch! Yea, glad it hasn't burst. I live in a 1 level ranch house, all the pipes are under the floor in the crawl space. I got down there and looked and everything is well insulated. Pipes are wrapped as you say in regular insulation and tied with twine and it felt pretty warm, figuratively speaking. My garage isn't finished and only partially insulated, and has air flow from outside(roof vent that was installed by the roof I recently had replaced, and the garage door isn't sealed).

Yea, I have been meaning to wrap them. Hose bibs outside are covered. The washer and dryer are next to the water heater in the garage. The flexible ones to the washer are def. frozen. The cold water still works so it has to be between where the water comes into the garage, to the water heater then out of the garage. I'm just trying to warm it up...
Thanks for the tips!

If the rx wasn't torn apart I would just take it around the block and park it in there cause that usually gets it pretty warm in there...

 

get some heat trace cable.... frostex makes a nice plug in set good for indoor.outdoor.
self thermostat'd only trigger the areas getting close to freezing. wrap that in fiberglass insulation and never have a problem again (I work for a plumbing supply lol).

 

i cant get a paint job done ,lol.... And i am NOT a cold weather person so i am just miserable in general, but i feel for you man!! I hope your pipes dont act up again and you get hot water going, thats just way lame that happened!

 

Well, we're back in business. Everything is flowing again. Water in the bathroom was all dirty though? Ice moving through the pipes? This is abnormally cold for our area, record lows. I'm just going to insulate them and finish the garage this summer/spring once the Rx is out of it. Heat trace cable is probably a little extreme for the Portland metro, usually just rains throughout the winter and is like 45 degrees (hopfully next week). But this year we got wind from Canada and it feels like the ******* tundra out there...

Thanks for the advice!

 

A little trick to help you out until you can get the pipes properly insulated. Turn the faucet on just enough that it drips. This will prevent freezing in all but the coldest climate.

I lived north of Chicago for a few years in the mid 90's...temps got down to -42 with a -84 windchill for nearly a week one year. They told us to breath through a hot towel if we had to go outside otherwise it could freeze your lungs. Even a hot towel would freeze solid in like a minute or less. Too ****** cold for me!

 

at my dads during the deep freeze a few yearsa go we ahd a pipe freeze and burst by the washer and dryer.flooding the garage we redid them and insulated them.

well now this year AGAIN a pipe has burst, and flood the garage AGAIN!, however this one is in the wall near the hot water heater... damn contractors being cheap and not insulating ****..

 

That sucks big time! Sorry to hear about that.

Well, since the pipes seem to be dethawed, now my bathtub hot water has like zero flow? The other sinks seem to flow fine, but the bathtub gets a trickle and is continuing to trickle... Like something is blocking it. This is my first house built in 1970 with galv. pipe, suppose the ice dislodged some sediment in the pipes and caused some blockage? I don't know much about houses and pipes, but I'm learning... Freaking frigid cold *** BS...

 

U sissies, its not THAT cold yet

 

I would post a story about a friend I had to pick up in Othello because a civic he was borrowing spun a rod but I would probably get flamed for the link lol

 

damn some how i did forget to add antifreeze to my 86! ****! all the water was fairly frozen, not solid tho, ****.... go tit warmed up and drained and added antifreeze no problems so far, phew....