Frozen water pipes are a constant threat during winter. If the only issue with frozen pipes is the temporary disruption of water supply to parts of your home, the problem would be easier to endure. But frozen water in your pipes can leave you with damaged pipes and expensive repairs, warns Liberty Real Estate Services.
Water expands when it freezes and can exert pressures of over 2000 pounds per square inch. This is enough force to rupture your pipe or, at the very least, weaken them. Typically, you don’t even know this is happening until the ice thaws and your basement is suddenly flooded.
The result is damaged walls, ceilings, and floors that cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair. This problem mostly happens to pipes that are connected to outside-facing walls, pipes in under-the-sink cabinets, unheated basements or crawlspaces, and outdoor faucets.
What can you do if a pipe in your home is frozen but not ruptured? Is there a way to thaw the frozen pipe without damaging it? Yes, you can thaw a frozen pipe without damaging it. Below are the steps to do this, depending on the location of the pipe inside your home.
Frozen pipes inside walls
Pipes embedded in the walls or ceilings of your home may become frozen. Unfreezing them is harder than thawing pipes that are exposed. If you find that one of the pipes inside the walls or ceilings of the house is frozen, here is what you can do:
Turn up the heat in your entire home – Ensure you leave the cabinet door open if the frozen pipe is in a wall inside your bathroom or beneath the base cabinet for your kitchen sink or vanity. This will let warm air in your home carry heat to the wall.
Open up the wall section – If you cannot wait to let the heated air in your home defrost the pipe, maybe because you think a burst pipe is looming, use this solution. Cut the section of wall or ceiling directly above the pipe and use the same methods you would use to thaw an exposed pipe (explained in the next section).
Thawing exposed pipes that are frozen
If it is an exposed pipe, thawing it is easier since you can apply the steps above directly to the pipe. There are three ways to thaw exposed pipes. Regardless of the one you choose, always start by applying the heat from the faucet side of the pipe or the side closest to the water main and move forward to the frozen area.
Using a hair dryer – This method is the easiest and safest. The items you need are things you already have in the home. To help direct the heat to the backside of the pipe, place a cookie sheet behind the pipe. When defrosting a frozen pipe with a water heater, apply the heat using a sweeping motion across the frozen pipe section.
Use a portable heater – You may also thaw frozen pipes with a space heater. Turn the space heater to its highest setting and let it warm the air around the frozen pipe. Remember to open the doors of the cabinet if the pipe is in a cabinet under the kitchen sink or bathroom vanity.
Use an electrical heat tape – The third way to thaw frozen pipes is with a heat cable; a freeze protection cable you place directly on pipes to unfreeze them. To use the tape, attach it to the copper or plastic pipe with electrical tape, making sure the thermostat is directly on the pipe to sense its temperature.
How to prevent your pipes from freezing
The best way to deal with frozen pipes in your home is to not have them at all. After thawing the pipe, here are a few simple steps you can take to make sure you don’t have this problem ever again.
Keep faucets dripping – If it gets really cold and you think a pipe in your home might freeze, leave the faucet dripping to keep the water inside the pipes moving. This will prevent freezing.
Open the cabinet doors – Keep cabinet doors open to let warm air from the rest of the house circulate into the colder areas inside the cabinet. This will usually be sufficient to keep pipes from freezing.
Wrap the pipe with electrical heat tape – If a pipe is in the habit of freezing, wrap it permanently with electrical heat tape and turn on the heat if the weather starts to get cold.
Add insulation to pipes – To keep pipes in unheated spaces like basements and crawlspaces from freezing, wrap them with foam insulation. But this will only work if the rest of the room is not cold.
Install a permanent space heater – Permanently installing a space heater in unheated spaces in the home – garage, basement, and crawlspace – will keep exposed pipes or pipes inside the walls from freezing.
Disconnect garden hose in winter – If your faucet is not frost-proof, it will be vulnerable to freezing. Prevent this by turning off the water supply to the faucet and removing the garden hoses connected to it. If the outdoor faucet freezes it may need a repair or replacement come Spring time.