Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Water Pipes - what to do ???

At this point, heat tape is your negro.

Put a space heater in the room with the frozen pipe. Turn on the faucets a trickle for rest of the "cold" weather. Wrap them remaining pipes in insulation of some sort. Even if you need to use a pool noodle. It's better than nothing.

There is pipe wrap with fiberglass insulation but in my experience it gets wet and stays wet, even from humidity.

Is there a crawlspace? Or is it a slab? If crawlspace, you can place a heater below the plumbing pipes, hopefully all in a pretty compact area. The heat will heat the pipes from the bottom up, with heat rising through the holes in the subfloor to heat areas inside walls where pipes rise into the home. Works very well for homes with well designed compact plumbing layout, others may need multiple heaters if water fixtures are widely scattered. Of course, only use electric heaters with appropriate heavy gauge extension cords(12 ga. minimum), and only use to thaw, then run faucets at a trickle. Stop heater use as soon as pipes are thawed, never leave heaters unattended while sleeping or absent.

Also, if a crawlspace, be sure vents are closed, possibly even insulate them with pieces of sheet foam cut to fit. Open crawlspace vents cause pipe freezes quite often.

It’s all moot now, not much one can do until the temps warm up.

4 realz

I’ve got one outside faucet on the north side of the house froze up. Four year old house...should be PEX...so I’m thinking it will be alright. I guess we’ll see. Not much I can do about it. It’s just a faucet sticking out of a brick wall.

That new of a home, it should have been a frost free.


It's the south, I know.


But new construction, why in the hell wouldn't a contractor
do it? Can't say it don't freeze there. It's froze.


If it was a spec home, I would be worried where else he made
a Benjamin, at your expense.

Be careful with the wood stoves, they need something called combustion air. If the wood stove is burning without out it it will start pulling air into the house anywhere it can, if it’s near a water line that line will freeze.
I used to see several houses a year where the boiler would shut down because the wood stove was in the same room as the thermostat. No pump running and cold air infiltration led to expensive repairs.

Sound like a texas problem. Any broken lines?

hindsight being what it is, for future events i'd make sure you had a water main valve inside the house with a drain valve inboard of it. this way you could shut off the main, open the drain valve and then blow the house lines with a compressor if this happens again. then just fill buckets as needed for the schitter flush. this is the way i run my camp in the winter.

Didn’t know if they had any of these stores or not!

Think I have the bathroom line unfrozen ever so slightly by use of a heating pad.

I pulled away that little metal circular cap that surrounds the line from the wall and wedged the pad in behind it. It filled and flushed and you can hear the water doing its best to trickle into the tank ever so slowly- which is probably a good thing I guess. I cranked it up high enough to be almost hot to the touch and left it. It is about 3° here and -4 at the trailer....a whole other story. I put one of those painters lights, concave metal with a clamp on one end and bulb in the middle, and took a clear 60 watt bulb in it (best incandescent bulb I had on hand) and have it pointing at the valves for my washing machine. Daughter near by- no water, BIL about 20 minutes away- no power, friend in Houston- no power, elderly lady who raised my BIL lives in a trailer- no power.

My trailer - I drained the water heater and wrapped heated pipe tape or whatever it is called around the toilet valve. I drained my holding tank- the one for the water pump, and drained two lines that had screw caps on them- think they are low water lines but not sure...Put antifreeze in the drains. I did not blow out lines or fill them wit ha\freeze. Hoping my pump is okay- it was off.

Good deal, hope there's no damaged lines.

Don’t forget that candles can make a big difference in confined areas. Especially if you can direct and shield with foil.

Just don’t burn your house down. LOL

Thanks- I was going to use a candle but wife is paranoid about them. I do have a hurricane lamp and oil and told her if power goes out it will be put to use. Just have to hang in there until this weekend. Bad news is tonight and tomorrow forecasting sleet which is more in line with what we normally get here. It REALLY wreaks havoc on trees and of course by default - power lines. Just got to make it to the weekend. I have a five gallon water tank filled and a coleman stove if needed- no idea how old those little tanks are . Then there is always the Weber if it comes to that.

Appreciate everyone's support and hope all are safe and warm.

#1) Get a roll of insulation and go around your basement and check for areas that the cold air is getting in and hitting pipes, and plug them.

That’s the number 1 reason your pipes are freezing...

If they do set it ablaze at least they'll stay warm while it burns, the fire would probably thaw those frozen lines too.

Ya gotta think positive..

Getting a small portable heater with a fan on it and pointing it into the sink cabinets, and or places the water lines run works ok...

The “chase” (vertical area the pipes run up) areas are normally open at the bottom so the hot basement air can raise up them, and the cold air can drop out.... so if someone plugged them at the bottom open it up... and make sure you basement area has some open duct vents to heat up the basement & pipes.

To survive a broken pipe in one section of the house ... (install a shut off on that leg of the water supply without soldering)

I also use these when an goofball left a hose on and now the exterior faucet is frozen - you just shut the water off, make a couple of cuts and slide it on in-line so you can shut off that leg of water supply and just turn it on later.

Go get a “Shark BITE” ball shut off in the link below - that can be inserted in existing line provided you can cut it and move the pipe so it can slide over one side.
You cut that line, about 2” apart and slide one end over one side, then it will slide back over the other side so you can shut off the water on that side of the house where you have the broken line and restore water to the rest of the house.

Here’s a picture of it -
https://www.amazon.com/SharkBite-24735LF-Water-Connect-Copper/dp/B00MB10PVK

You can use any shark bite with a shut off to cut a line and slide it on and shut it off to cap a line, but I used these for emergency repairs (no soldering... or anything), on copper and or PEX.

Damn. Shiit. Fuuck. Handy terminology for your days ahead.

Even an incandescent light can be enough to stop things from freezing in an enclosed space. LEDs probably don't put out enough heat.