The last couple of days it has been getting into the mid twenties every night, negative twenties. Phone call from cousin, no water coming out of sink past three days. Her townhouse is built on a slab and the sink is on a outside wall. I suspect that the frost has started to migrate under the slab and then the pipes froze. She has left the doors open on the cabinets the last couple of days, and tried to thaw the pipes with a hair dryer. I have a couple of ideas. Run a trickle of hot water down the drain assuming that it is open and get some heat into the ground. Pull the toekick or the bottom out of the cabinet and put some type of heat source directly on the concrete, I have a rubberized heating pad that I use for my dog that has a thermostat. Or if I find that the pipes have not been poured tightly into the slab and there is some type of opening into the slab base, add hot water.
Any ideas?
I already told her that waiting is not that good of a idea, frost is not going to leave unassisted for another 2-3 months. She has the thermostat set at 75F.
Who was the sick fool who thought that running pipes under a slab close to a outside wall was a good idea in Minnesota!.
Replies
Running hot water in the sink most likely will make the problem worse unless there is a just a very minor stopage.
You probably can't get enough hot water down there to melt it so the new water will just cool off and freeze.
Opening up the trap and running a snake down to see where it is frozen might give a good clue about where to start.
Besides opening the cabinet door a fan to circulate air would help. Also a heater with a blower.
Just set it up a reasonable distance in front of the cabinet. You don't want to melt the cabinet.
And removing the toe kick can't hurt.
Sounds like you have a good plan. Removing the toe kick may help, and certainly won't hurt. Same for the heating pad.
If they are copper pipes you could apply gentle heat with a torch, but I doubt it will carry far enough down the pipe to make any difference.
Next year, when the coldest weather hits, leave the faucet trickling a very slow trickle, almost a drip.
A technique (NOT for do-it-yourself) that an experienced plumber can sometimes use in this situation, assuming your pipes are copper, is to use an arc welder. Hook one cable to the main, the other to the sink supply, run enough current to gently heat the pipe but not enough to melt the solder joints. You can also use an electric heater on the exposed pipe to heat it up to 150 or so and wait until the heat migrates down to thaw the pipe. There are a few other tricks, but more complicated. Just hope your pipe has not split. Then run a drip on the faucet that freezes to avoid freezing again. This is a definite "call a plumber" situation. Running hot water in the drain won't help. Not at all likely the drain and supply are close enough to make a difference.
I missed that it was SUPPLY pipes. Yes, call out the plumber or the welder. Anyone where it gets to -25F (much less -40F!) will know that trick. I was required by local code to have metal or plastic with metal heat-trace on my supply piping. For that reason.
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
I solved the problem. The pipes were plastic so the hooking up the welder trick was out. So I remover the toe kick, I was lucky it was the type that snaps on to adjustable legs. Slid in a rubber coated heating pad, I think that it was originally from a waterbed and placed some bags of #8 lead shot on top of the pad. Original temp 30 -40 F six hours later 80 F. The control has a thermostat. Water is flowing again. I will leave everything in place for the rest of the winter and modify the toe kick to allow for some air flow when I get a chance.
It is always a good idea to keep your family members happy, especially when she is a RN who keeps me patched up and also knows a lot of single cute nurses.