pipes frozen

[ironspider]

Please help me,

due to my relentless burning of wood to save on oil, this last night of single digits has frozen my pipes according to slomins.

i have a two story home with two zones, zone 1 is the main floor where the wood burning insert is so that didn't go on all night. My house sits on a 3 foot crawl space, most pipes are accessible. I have most pipes covered with insulation.

I went down in the crawl space with a friend, I have a torch and a 1350 degree heat gun, we heated every pipe we can find and still no joy. I'm afraid tonights single digit temps will worsen the prob and burst a pipe. I've been working at this for hours, please give me some ideas.

I need help

 

[jatoxico]

Can you put a heat source in the crawl space? Nothing that puts out CO, electric or something. Doesn't need too much.

 

[ironspider]

I have an electric ceramic space heater, I can't imagine that would heat that large area, it's got to be 1300 sq ft

 

[JustWood]

Torpedo heater and seal the crawl space off. 15 minutes and it'll be thawed.

 

[jatoxico]

I have an electric ceramic space heater, I can't imagine that would heat that large area, it's got to be 1300 sq ft

If that's the trouble spot you just need to keep it above freezing and block any airflow.

 

[Dune]

First, you need to open every faucet in the house, all the showers, flush the toilets, etc.

It can take a while. I used to defrost a lot of pipes with the portable welding machine, but I guess plumbers must have their own version now or something because I haven't done one in 30 years at least.

 

[ironspider]

First, you need to open every faucet in the house, all the showers, flush the toilets, etc.

I just can't imagine how that would have anything to do with the baseboard heating pipes.

 

[ironspider]

If that's the trouble spot you just need to keep it above freezing and block any airflow.

This sounds like my only option, I'll put the little space heater down there.

 

[Dune]

I just can't imagine how that would have anything to do with the baseboard heating pipes.

Sorry, not paying enough attention.

 

[ironspider]

And run the dryer, that vents down there too

 

[jatoxico]

If you couldn't get it unfroze from the crawl space it's prob in a wall so at this point you just want to make sure it doesn't get worse. Possibly in place where it goes up from crawl space into unheated garage?? Or pipe passes from one room to another on an outside wall.

 

[semipro]

And run the dryer, that vents down there too

I realize this is not important to you at the moment but...
The dryer exhaust may be handy for defrosting pipes but it may not be a good idea in general.
You really don't want to add any extra moisture to a crawlspace unless its climate controlled and too dry.

 

[semipro]

ironspider,
Do you know which zone has a frozen pipe or is nothing flowing through either zone?

 

[semipro]

If you couldn't get it unfroze from the crawl space it's prob in a wall

.
If the blockage is in a wall you might be able to point that ceramic heater at nearest baseboard unit to try and thaw the pipe. Remove the cover first to aid heat transfer. Use the heat gun if needed.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

ironspider,
Do you know which zone has a frozen pipe or is nothing flowing through either zone?

\

This. Figure out which zone the freeze is in and then work concentrate on the zone that is frozen. Can you drain your zones? This might stop further damage.

Run the other zone also since you don't want to freeze that zone.

 

[Dave A.]

I found my freeze ups pretty quickly with the IR thermo. Just move the laser beam over the pipe run til you get a below freezing reading. Then use a hair dryer or heat gun on the area. If you can't find it then just put a heater in the area. You say 1300 sf, still it's only a couple feet high so it's not that many cu ft. and you just need to get the area warmer. Most likely though it's in a location(s) getting a blast of cold air from an opening to the outside.

In the future if you don't want to burn the oil, you could disable the burner firing mechanism and just make sure the circulator(s) run when the temps get real cold.

 

[seabert]

Many good ideas here and I just thought I would chime in with a few suggestions...

Is it your HW heat circulating off the furnace that is frozen? If so did you check the circulator to see if it is operating?

Some systems are closed and separate from HW used for sinks toilets etc.

If it is just household water then as other have said focus the heat on any pipe in an exterior wall. I had a pipe freeze and opened the cabinet under the sink that was on an outside wall. I put an electric heater in the cabinet and a hour or two later she opened up.

Best thing to also do is open all faucets just a tad to relieve pressure.


In most crawl spaces there are vents that allow air to circulate and keep things dry. Check to see if any of the pipes are near a vent and make sure it is warm.

Best of luck! Let us know how you resolved it.

 

[ironspider]

I sealed up the crawl last night and put a space heater in there and also ran the dryer venting down there, in the morning it was 43 degrees.

This "freeze" is only in the baseboard heating system for 1 zone, hot water is not affected. However I was tinkering with the boiler and can't get the zone 1 valve to open. The slomins guy checked and said everything was fine and determined pipes frozen. Now i'm second guessing his diagnosis and called them back out to check the valve. I hope thats it.

 

[stee6043]

Does your heating system have an autofill valve? If so, you may want to disable that valve until you get this figured out. If you end up bursting a pipe you're going to have water damage if your fill valve actuates (assuming the break is up stream of the block).

 

[ironspider]

Thankfully any burst would result in the water dropping into the crawl space which is dirt.

Slomins came out again and confirmed it was not the valve and he is sure it's frozen somewhere. I have a lot of work to do down there, I've already spent hours and it looks like i'll be at it all night again.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

If the autofill is enabled when a pipe bursts, you will be continually trying to refill the heating system. If you don't catch it right away that could leave quite a mess with water continually flowing out at 80 PSI.

 

[Dave A.]

If it hasn't been already checked, I'd also check the baseboard runs in the the living area on the outside walls particularly where they turn and go under doorways or penetrations going back into walls -- especially wherever cold air has an opportunity to enter. If you can find and defrost these areas quickly enough you can prevent pipe damage and resulting water damage.

Edit: in the basement/crawlspace with insulated pipe, particularly check the areas of gaps and seams in the insulation (prolly already done -- but, that's where I had problems when I had pipe runs in the outside-of-the-envelope attic before I relocated them).

Ditto on turning off the autofill supply valve until the problem is corrected.

 

[Dave A.]

the crawl space which is dirt.

The dryer exhaust may be handy for defrosting pipes but it may not be a good idea in general.
You really don't want to add any extra moisture to a crawlspace unless its climate controlled and too dry.

Exactly. So the bare dirt floor under the house is not a good idea. At a minimum it should be sealed under heavy plastic sheeting.

Edit: Also, if you have a full service repair contract with Slomins, I'd read it to make sure it excludes this sort of thing -- locating and defrosting the freeze up.

 

[flyingcow]

Just my 2 cents. If you've never unthawed pipes before.....torches and high temp heat guns usually will make you wish you hadn't. Pipes tend to split wide open

 

[firefighterjake]

Just my 2 cents. If you've never unthawed pipes before.....torches and high temp heat guns usually will make you wish you hadn't. Pipes tend to split wide open

Hehheh . . . "unthawed" or "thawed"?