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Frozen pipes HELP!

S

Sven the Sexman

New member
Got frozen water pipes in half the house. Anyone wanna tell me how to fix this situation? I have no idea how to get under there...stupid cinder block foundation.
 


you need to go buy heated tape or electric heated tap and insulate and wrap your pipes in it and you have no crawl space or anything? when i was in a trailer we would let the water drip at night to keep teh flow up at the farthest part of the house
 
You need to heat them...and pretty quick or it's going to be ugggly.

Once they are heated, you need to insulate them or wrapp them with insulation and a heat tape (like a roof one) that you can kick on when it's nasty
 
Well, this is the first time it's been this cold here. The main bathroom and the kitchen both have hot water, but the back bedroom and washer both do not have hot water. The back side of the foundation is covered and you can just see foundation if you look under the porch. I have yet to locate a way under the place.
 
there has to be a way under the house, check closet floors for door or false floors, bills right, if they burst your gonna be **** up the creek. can you say costly? hell if there is no way under they prolly covered it at some point. There has to be a way though.
 


I've never had to unthaw pipes, but I've had to go crawling under houses to fix water leaks before. Not fun. Last year I had to dig up a water line that busted in the ground, talk about a *****. Somehow, over the course of several decades, the pipe managed to find a rock in the ground and rub a hole in itself.

One you get this fixed, wrap it with insulation tape and turn on all the facets to a small stream when it gets really cold out. Running water doesn't freeze.
 
So only half is frozen? Run the faucets that are still running, and open ones that are frozen. The water will flow and be moving just enough to help clear the blockage. I just had this happen to me a week ago. Make sure you have one faucet atleast at a slow drip or you will freeze more of it, i forgot and closed them all and came home the next day to the whole house frozen up.

Sent using Tapatalk 2 from my GS3.
 
It's called heat trace... You'll need to figure on getting a 110/220 volt circuit there but the amperage required will depend on the length of heat trace or pipe being protected is. There are kits you can buy... After heat tracing it'll need to be insulated.

For temporary fix only, there two things you can do... Find or open access to the underside or crawl space and get a heater in there. A gas fired heated would not be such a good idea IMO, but you could get a few electric heaters and extension cords under there and get some heat in a hurry.

To keep the pipes from freezing or actually the fluid inside, you could just open the faucets, keep water running and that'll keep it from freezing (within reason). You could open the faucets where frozen and get under there with a torch and heat the pipes to get flow, then it should be ok. You don't want to leave it frozen and faucet closed as the ice expands it could burst pipes, then you gotta fix those too.

Good luck!
 
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Once you do unfreeze them, you should leave your water on to trickle out until you can get them wrapped/insulated. This will keep the water moving so it can't freeze as easily
 
Just outta curiosity are there a bunch of houses on your block that look the same, if so, go to the oldest couple on the block and ask them if they know how to get under their house. Chances are a lot of houses were built the same way and they might know. Just a thought.
 
Open faucet to allow any steam pressure to get out, start working your way down from there with heat gun/torch.
 
BANDIT said:
Just outta curiosity are there a bunch of houses on your block that look the same, if so, go to the oldest couple on the block and ask them if they know how to get under their house. Chances are a lot of houses were built the same way and they might know. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Might be awkward going up to an old couple you don't know, knocking on the door, and asking, "How do I get under your house?"

Sorry, I started laughing and had to share...
 


hmm if they are steel lines just hook a welder to it. Ground one end and then put the Stinger on the other end and it will run a current through the pipe. Works everytime for me
 
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