Looking for suggestions here -
I have a basement that's about three quarters finished so I have access to where all of the plumbing originates from.
There is a bathroom in the basement - the water pipes come from the unfinished space, go into the finished ceiling space, branch off to the kitchen and an upstairs bathroom and also go through the ceiling of the basement bathroom, down to an outside wall, and to the sink and toilet.
The house is insulated pretty well, but when the temperatures dip down into the 20's, the pipes for the basement bathroom that go down the outside wall freeze.
When this happened last year I put a space heater in the room, opened the faucet, and several hours later, water was flowing again. Since then, when it gets really cold out, I leave that faucet dripping.
Well, last night it got really cold (about 5 degrees) and I forgot to leave that faucet dripping.
Is there a faster or better way to get that pipe thawed out? Is there I way I can prevent this from happening in the future? Leaving it dripping works if I remember to do it, and wastes a lot of water.
By the way, this is all Flowguard Gold CPVC piping.
Thanks for your advice.
I have a basement that's about three quarters finished so I have access to where all of the plumbing originates from.
There is a bathroom in the basement - the water pipes come from the unfinished space, go into the finished ceiling space, branch off to the kitchen and an upstairs bathroom and also go through the ceiling of the basement bathroom, down to an outside wall, and to the sink and toilet.
The house is insulated pretty well, but when the temperatures dip down into the 20's, the pipes for the basement bathroom that go down the outside wall freeze.
When this happened last year I put a space heater in the room, opened the faucet, and several hours later, water was flowing again. Since then, when it gets really cold out, I leave that faucet dripping.
Well, last night it got really cold (about 5 degrees) and I forgot to leave that faucet dripping.
Is there a faster or better way to get that pipe thawed out? Is there I way I can prevent this from happening in the future? Leaving it dripping works if I remember to do it, and wastes a lot of water.
By the way, this is all Flowguard Gold CPVC piping.
Thanks for your advice.