BlueTaelon Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Its 9F outside, -8F with the wind chill right now. This is an old house with no insulation on the first floor except the kitchen which was gutted and redone. I was told all the pipes are PEX and inside the house which I know it not true because I can see PVC pipe in the laundry room which shares a wall with the bathroom which I know was not insulated when they supposedly redid it. We've had issues with the pipes trying to freeze up before so I leave the water dripping. They said it may get down to -28F last night with the wind chill so I left the bathtub and sink at a fast drip and left the kitchen sink at a slow run since it won't drip without shutting itself off. All was fine when I got up. I was working in the kitchen until around 10:30am running water and stuff. I may or may not have left the kitchen sink dripping when I left the room, however the bathroom stuff was not touched so we still had dripping water. At 1pm dd7 comes running and yelling we have no water. Yep, pipes froze up! Opened up everything I could all the way and 10-15 min later we started getting water flowing. What the heck do I do? Do I need to leave it actually flowing instead of a really fast drip/thin stream? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skimomma Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 We are currently in a city-imposed freeze order and we all have to run our water to prevent freezing up until April. The city guy who came to our door said to run a "pencil thickness" stream at all times. So way more than a drip. We do get a water credit during these months to pay for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 You are saying it may have frozen because you turned off the kitchen water? If so you don't have a problem just turn the water back on. It wasn't frozen very long so I'd say you did quite well. Have you found where in the pipes it freezes? :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in NH Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Get some heat tape to wrap your pipes. We have a couple of spots in the basement where the pipes are most likely to freeze, and a spot under the kitchen sink where the pipe goes through the floor. We just run a space heater under the sink when it's that cold, and turn on the heat tape in the basement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Get some heat tape to wrap your pipes. We have a couple of spots in the basement where the pipes are most likely to freeze, and a spot under the kitchen sink where the pipe goes through the floor. We just run a space heater under the sink when it's that cold, and turn on the heat tape in the basement. I can't even get to the pipes and we have a raccoon family living under the house so I'm not about to go down there to see if I can even access the pipes, supposedly they are all inside the house except the mainline. The landlord refuses to do anything to this house, including getting rid of the raccoons. Were moving as soon as I get my tax return, this place is costing me a fortune in utilities and needs a lot of repairs which he refuses to do. Tonight I'm thinking of just shutting off the water and draining the system, were leaving for the day pretty early tomorrow so I won't even be home to babysit the pipes and I discovered the kitchen sink is leaking again so I can't leave it running. ugh, its -15F with the wind chill and may go down to -25F tonight. Were moving out of the area and never again will I rent a house thats not newer and well insulated! Old house charm is not worth the expense, $1,100 in utilities since Oct and thats not keeping us toasty warm either! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 :ohmy: :svengo: :svengo: The thought of leaving all the taps running at stream has me fainting. :svengo: all that water Here we are saving the shower water and have a dish in the kitchen sink to catch the water from washing the veggies to keep the garden alive. We only have rain water tanks. when it rains we have water, when it is summer and dry we use whatever we have stored. A running tap would empty our whole tank in a night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skimomma Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 :ohmy: :svengo: :svengo: The thought of leaving all the taps running at stream has me fainting. :svengo: all that water Here we are saving the shower water and have a dish in the kitchen sink to catch the water from washing the veggies to keep the garden alive. We only have rain water tanks. when it rains we have water, when it is summer and dry we use whatever we have stored. A running tap would empty our whole tank in a night. It is hard for me to do. I cannot stand wasting the water. But if we freeze up from the main line, there will be no water for months. I actually do catch the water (in rubbermaid tubs in the bathtub) and use the water to fill my washing machine, water plants, and flush toilets. But still..... I hear you! And, in our case, we do not run all of the taps. Just one. Our pipes are not freezing inside the house, they are freezing at the split off the main line so no need to run every tap. In the OP's case, I might go ahead and drain the pipes if you are going to be gone. Also see if your water is zoned. You may be able to turn off taps you do not absolutely need until it warms up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 In our area it's just been such a cold winter that our frost line is 5 and a half feet, when the normal line is at 4 feet. Lots of places are having water pipes freeze in the ground, not in the house/business. In a nearby town, there are businesses closed because the pipes in the ground froze and burst. I know at least two of those had water dripping all night when it happened. I hope by now your water is back and everything is fine. I'm kind of worried- our house was built in 1880 and with this deep freeze I'm worried we're going to have lines frozen somewhere! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 When I got home from my vacation in early January, just the kitchen sink didn't have water. The next morning we had cold water but no hot water. I thought that was rather strange, considering the hot water comes from inside the house and why would hot water pipes freeze? Finally the hot water kicked back in after another half day. I was glad I didn't need to go outside and do anything with water pipes in that weather. :) I am not running my water all the time. Maybe I should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SproutMamaK Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 In our area it's just been such a cold winter that our frost line is 5 and a half feet, when the normal line is at 4 feet. Lots of places are having water pipes freeze in the ground, not in the house/business. In a nearby town, there are businesses closed because the pipes in the ground froze and burst. I know at least two of those had water dripping all night when it happened. This is exactly our business' problem right now. The water lines way below the ground to the shop froze. There's no way to fix it until the thaw. :/ We're stuck for the rest of the winter with no running water. Thankfully there's tons of snow; the guys just bring it in by the bucket, let it melt, and use the water to flush the toilets and wash their hands. But my goodness... we've probably got at least another 2 months before the lines thaw. Not sure what we'll do when the snow melts. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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