Pipe froze

[Kman34]

So I’m up trying to thaw out the cold water pipe to my kitchen sink.. Stupid plumber piped it out under the outside overhang in my house.. Need to thaw it before it spilts.. I always leave the water running overnight to avoid this but was up looking at highlights and Cp till midnight.
Came up to go to bed and turn the faucet on and Shit.. I knew immediately..
Just waiting for it to thaw out.. Spent a half hour building a tarp tent and setting up a heater.. I can see how the players could stay warm playing cause I am sweating when i came in.. I’m going to have to babysit this damm thing till who knows when..

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

Rain man- Can you leave it open this winter. Make a cut next summer and wrap it in heat tape then put in new wall.

I went out and bought heat tape today, and was surprised that it wasn't sold out. But once we figured out the problem, there's no way to put heat tape on this pipe. It's got a vertical 20-foot run squeezed in with three plumbing pipes/vents and at least one electrical conduit. We decided that it's best to trim off the hole and put an antique furnace vent grate over it. When the temperature drops below zero, we can then blow warm air into it, or I may even consider putting some sort of vent fan in it that we can turn on in extreme weather.

We've lived in the house for 28 years, and it's been a problem the whole time, but only when we have two or more days of consistent subzero weather. It's always been temporary enough that we sweated it out, but it's stressful. We finally decided to bite the bullet and poke through the plaster, and it was enlightening. The pipe was coming from a completely different direction than we've always thought.

[R Clark]

Originally Posted by Titty Meat

Bet your wife wasn't happy with those holes in the wall

Better than a flooded house

[Shiver Me Timbers]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I went out and bought heat tape today, and was surprised that it wasn't sold out. But once we figured out the problem, there's no way to put heat tape on this pipe. It's got a vertical 20-foot run squeezed in with three plumbing pipes/vents and at least one electrical conduit. We decided that it's best to trim off the hole and put an antique furnace vent grate over it. When the temperature drops below zero, we can then blow warm air into it, or I may even consider putting some sort of vent fan in it that we can turn on in extreme weather.

We've lived in the house for 28 years, and it's been a problem the whole time, but only when we have two or more days of consistent subzero weather. It's always been temporary enough that we sweated it out, but it's stressful. We finally decided to bite the bullet and poke through the plaster, and it was enlightening. The pipe was coming from a completely different direction than we've always thought.

It probably just needs some air flowing.
If it is a vertical pipe run (between 2 studs) cut the plaster and put a vent up high and one down low. A small return air type vent cover will hide the plaster you cut out.

[srvy]

Originally Posted by notorious

Blowtorches have a ton of uses.

Don't use one if it's PEX, though.

Yep

[tyecopeland]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I solved my problem with a major MacGyver move. The frozen pipe is in a vertical service tunnel and we can't reach it. So we got our shop vac and turned it on to blower mode and poked a hole in the wall to put the nozzle in. I blew ambient air from my home office down into the tunnel and within 10 minutes the pipe thawed.

I'm going to be running the shop vac every half hour for the next 2 days, but at least the pipe isn't frozen.

Eliminates the need for trash bags too. Win/win.

[cabletech94]

Gat Danged sump pump not pushing water out. Submersible pump to the rescue!! Except now the hose I put through the basement window has frozen outside!! Lol
(Outside discharge line has frozen)

Next option is to run hose to an empty aquarium. Winter is so much fun!!

Happy Monday!!

[R Clark]

Originally Posted by Shiver Me Timbers

It probably just needs some air flowing.
If it is a vertical pipe run (between 2 studs) cut the plaster and put a vent up high and one down low. A small return air type vent cover will hide the plaster you cut out.

Wouldn’t this work on a horizontal run as well?

[Shiver Me Timbers]

Originally Posted by R Clark

Wouldn’t this work on a horizontal run as well?

the framing (studs) will prohibit the (natural) convection effect. My suggestion utilizes the space between the studs as a "box". A horizontal pipe runs thru too many "boxes" that would need vented.