frozen pipe- I'm gonna whine here!

mrmac204

Ok, so here goes- a year and 1/2 ago my wife (then fiance') and her dad bought this house- 20 yrs old, not too bad a shape (we hired an inspector) so there were no surprises - we put on a new roof, new furnace, heat pump, on demand hot water etc. ok, all that's fine. What our seller did was buy this house, fix it up for six months then sell it- we knew it was a "flipper" but its basically sound. Or its sound whereever he didn't do any work!!!!!

The basement suite? yup - he used FREAKIN PLASTIC PIPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so there's no water coming outa the sink faucet this morning (we're having a deep freeze here right now) called a plumber, he said if its copper he could come over and thaw it out- plastic? good luck! - grrrrrrr

so I cut away the drywall under the sink to try to trace where the lines go -
well they come from the right, but wait! they do a "U" turn! back to the left! thru a stud and then straight up! and the insulation in the wall??? it goes straight up too - for a foot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sigh........

so I went into the bathroom ten feet away and put a small heater under the sink (in the cabinet) cause where the pipes come out they got a big hole- and you can feel the cold air coming thru - so 1/2 hr of a heater blasting hot air in that- tada! we now have running water!!!!!

at a certain point I'm gonna have to cut away the sheetrock and put insulation in- meantime I'm gonna try to access the pipes from overhead and use some spray foam.

k, lunch time. I'm done :D

Mac!!

Gary Slusser

Be prepared for water leaks once you get it all thawed out. And maybe you're lucky he used plastic which might break as easily as copper. Anyway, had he insulated correctly, there wouldn't be a problem with plastic or copper... and lucky you, you can't get copper in your water now from your pipe, or pin hole leaks in it either!

4just1don

Your probably not too bad off in this one. "IF" you can get ridgid foam panels slid 'behind' the pipes next to the cold wall ,,,helps a ton. You say wind coming out of wall hole,,is that cold drop like a window has??OR actual wind blowing thru cracks of unknown origin in THAT cavity?? Use an extra second and check outside in THAT area for possible places to shore up caulking(Read stop the wind blowing thru)

AND when your all done with THAT cavity and keep the pipes from friizin,,,remember the whole REST of the wall that is PROBABLY just like that,sucking your heating dollars out the window,,so to speak. So in the larger scope of things,,,can you insulate the WHOLE wall better?? Blown or foamed?? Paying CLOSE attention to under edge of siding,,,and where sill and rim joist meets block or concrete foundation??? Siding seams?? under eave seams?? Just rambling thoughts here!! -d-