Avoiding Frozen Pipes
Posted: Monday, January 30, 2012
by Charles Gueli
Home Helper
In New England, many homes are heated with forced hot water heating systems and require oil and electricity to operate. Loss of electricity during the winter months, even for as short as 24 hours, can easily cause frozen pipes.
Frozen water in your pipes can cause pressures to build up in excess of 2000 lbs/square inch, which is more than enough pressure to cause them to burst or split at the joints. Frozen water pipes that burst are an absolute disaster to a home.
Preventing frozen water pipes really begins during the construction of the home, and fortunately there are many building codes in place to help mitigate the risk of frozen pipes. For example, plumbing supply lines should only be routed in interior walls.
Having plumbing supply lines in exterior walls (or in the attic storage space) is just a recipe for disaster. In addition, plumbing supply lines running in basement ceilings or near exterior walls should be kept well away from outside vents, walkout doors, and basement bulkheads. The bottom line; - supply lines should not be located anywhere near fresh air intake pipes or other locations where they could be exposed to fresh air.
After a home is built, there are limited things that you can do to prevent frozen pipes, other than to make sure the home is adequately heated and that the pipes are not exposed to cold outside air.
This includes the garage, where heating pipes may be routed for finished rooms above them. It’s always a good idea to make sure the garage doors stay closed during the winter months.
Also, if you are going to be away for a period of time, you may want to allow the faucets to drip ever so slowly. Even the slightest movement of water in the pipes can prevent them from freezing and will help to relieve pressure if they do begin to freeze.
In addition, wrapping your basement or crawl space plumbing supply lines with insulation is helpful. By doing so, you avoid the risk of the pipes freezing, and prevent condensation concerns during the hot and humid summer months.
In addition to the supply lines in the house, make sure outside garden hoses are disconnected from hose bibs and that the hose bibs are shut off.
In the event you do get frozen pipes that have not yet burst, first turn up the heat in the room. Next, if you have access to the frozen pipe, warm it with a heat lamp or hair dryer. Never use a torch as you could end up burning down your home.
If the frozen pipe is behind a wall, again turn up the heat and use an infrared lamp directed towards the wall (but not too close) to help warm it up and thaw out the frozen pipe.
If unsuccessful, you may have no choice but to remove some of the drywall to get to it.
To prevent the pipes from freezing again, insulate around them better. You may want to apply electric pipe heater tape. It’s fairly inexpensive and should be a no-brainer if you know your location makes you susceptible to frozen pipes.
Charles Gueli invites you to ask questions about frozen pipes, and take advantage of the resources on www.continuous-home-improvement-help.com, where guidance, information and support are always available – helping homeowners make better decisions.
This Article has been viewed 450 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.