I have a small (1200 sf) building that has a crawl space. I had the plumbing completely redone (with copper) when we renovated the building for office space. Well, I have no water now because the pipes are frozen. The water comes in underground up into the crawl space. This has happen once before, and I thought I had remedied the sitchiation by installing heat tape and thermostat to most of the exposed pipes in the crawl space. The other areas are not accessible…we’re talking “tunnel rat-ing” under the building that has construction/renovation debris thrown in…and this is the area I can get to.
I expected the pipe to burst, but on inspection today, I didn’t see any damage. Is this because the pipes are relatively new? Am I right to assume the pipes weaken with every freeze cycle, and the next freeze will be a crap shoot?
There is no insulation in the crawl space. I’d welcome any suggestions for an electric (110v) heater that can be installed to keep the air temp above freezing.
Replies
How long is the run of pipe that freezes?
I had a similar issue in our trailer that we are living in while we build our house - I've been able to get around this by putting one of my 500W work lamps underneath & shined it at the section of pipe that is susceptible to freezing. I just turned the light off in the morning.
That seemed to provide better protection than the heat tape.
When I first bought my current house, an 1850 cape with partial crawl/partial basement. The pipes in the crawl space froze the first year and after inspection, I suspect they froze many times before that based on the amount of heat tape that was wrapped around them. After that first winter, I went into the crawl space and sealed up every tiny crack in the loose rubble foundation. In some places I used 2 " iso panels, unfaced fiberglass in the smaller spaces, and numerous cans of poly foam for all the tiny cracks, any where daylight or air could penetrate in. Best way to find the smaller gaps was to go in there during the day and turn off the lights, looking for the tiniest amount of daylight creeping in. I found dozens of gaps and plugged everyone. Since then, I haven't had another frozen pipe, and do not use heat tape. Ambient soil temperature almost anywhere in the country is usually warm enough to keep crawl spaces from freezing if you can keep out the cold air.
Call a welding truck. They'll hook up a line to each end of the pipes and send a charge through the pipes. Two seconds later your pipes will be thawed. No kidding! I had it done several years ago.
Greek poet Archilochus said: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing"! From The Hedgehog & The Fox ~~~~ An essay on Tolstoy's view of history ~~ by Isaiah Berlin
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
That's freakin' genius! If I have a welder, can I do this myself? If so, what setting?
No idea...but it was xmas about six years ago and I had a house I built after knocking another mostly down and was renting it out.
My tenants called to say the pipes were frozen. I was on my way to Jamaica the next day so I freaked!!! I tried defrosting the pipes that night to no avail.
I realized the house that was there before was a summer house and the main line from the street was only about SIX INCHES in the ground...ugh.
No way was i gonna defrost it. The guy that rented the hosue from me told me about a friend of his that had the same problem a ways back and had this done. So I opened up the yellow pages and called a welding company.
They came over with their truck. Charged me $200. Hooked one cable to the street end and one at the house...turned that bad boy on for just a few seconds and voila'...pipes were totally defrosted. One leak outside that I fixed in the morning and that was that. Luckily the pipes didn't freeze again. I came back after xmas and dug down four feet and buried a new line.http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Edited 2/10/2007 10:48 pm ET by andybuildz
What Redford Henry said. Also, do your repair or the final check of your repair on a really cold and windy day. Then you can feel the cold and wind through the cracks and leaks that sunlight can't get through.
I need some solution that doesn't require me to get to every crack in the crawl space. I can't reach them even if I could find them. I like the 500w worklight idea. I am going to think about a thermostat and automating them. Thanks.
The way that pipes break from freezing is interesting and counterintuitive. The breaks don't happen where they pipe freezes. Ice forms in annular rings at that point and gradually closes off the pipe. When water turns to ice, its volume increases. Water is essentially incompressible though, and somewhere down the line from the ice, pipes break from the pressure. All sorts of things can accommodate this pressure though, from air bladders in pressure tanks to leaky fixtures, so that might explain why you had no broken pipes.
It's too late now, but I would have used PEX instead of copper. It's far less likely to break when frozen. I've heard tales of entire houses in Maine the froze, and the only loss was the cast iron boiler. As to preventing future issues, your absolute best move would be to create a conditioned crawlspace. Put poly on the floor, seal all the vents, and insulate the walls.
Canadian here - leave the water running a bit.