Frozen pipes anyone?

[kb01]

So far, so good -- It dropped down to about -10 F and we managed to avoid freezing pipes this year. Between shoving insulation into the crawl space vents, letting fixtures drip, and running the washing machine and dishwasher on regular cycles, we seemed to avoid any freezing this year.

Our house is around 100 years old and our exterior walls are just plaster-on-brick, so there's really limited insulation value. Between the lack of insulation and being replumbed haphazardly (judging by water damage, as a result of catastrophic failures), there's a lot of really odd routing of pipes, leading to some freeze-prone areas.

If I had the money and lived in a better neighborhood, I'd probably tear out all of the plaster, stud/insulate exterior walls, run entirely new wires and pipes, and basically bring everything up to modern code. In the meantime, I'll fix things as they break, gradually upgrade things, and deal with occasional headaches.

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: supton
No problems here, but, we've seen colder temps in years past, so I wasn't worried about the balmy 0F we've been having. But all the pipe in my house is no more than twenty years old, if that.


My water was so corrosive in my 100 year old home that the prior owner converted all piping to PEX and due to flexibility fixed the likely freeze spots. I see all sorts of abandoned piping in out walls. I guess could not afford trearment however paid for it in the sale of home. Funny how that happens, you suffer but to sell give the next owner the things you limped along with.

 

[KitaCam]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
And remember the code/standard assumes a normal winter with some (but not too much) margin. Take the "known" frost depth and add six inches and bury the pipes there. 3'6" to 4 feet here, less elsewhere. Funky stuff up in Permafrost.


That winter in Montana saw CITY PIPES freeze under the streets...it was THAT cold.