How to prevent and thaw frozen pipes
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A few year's ago we had a polar vortex in Minnesota. There was very little snow cover during this time and my well head is 40 feet away from my home. Somewhere in that 40 feet my well pipe froze. I had no water from Mid January to the last of April and as I had no water my septic drain field also froze up.
Luckily, my health insurance provider pays for a membership to the Y.M.C.A. so I could go there every few day's to shower. The local 24/7 convenience store saw me quite a bit during that 3 month period!!
Buy Salt in bulk; at supermarket or homedepot; takes about 3 cups salt to clear a frozen pipe~
If I put salt in my pipes will it unfreeze them
If your bathtub drain or sink drain is frozen; fill the bathtub or sink with water; Add Salt; mix the salt with the water; in a few hours the Salt will melt the ice in the bathtub or sink drain; when my windows would freeze shut; I put salt on the runners to unfreeze them); (+ a hair-dryer);;
Do I use regular salt
a few winters back we experienced a warm thaw that melted the snow removing any insulating properties, than days of sub zero temperatures. My house is built on ledge so the pipe from the well is not buried at the proper depth. as luck would have it, we lost our power for a few days also, resulting in a frozen well pipe buried in the ground. A large Salamander heater, 10 gallons of kerosene and a sheet of metal roofing to reflect the heat down to the ground along the top of the pipe finally worked to thaw the pipe allowing water to flow back to the house. Since that day when cold weather is approaching i purchase several bales of straw to place a 12 inch thick, 3 foot wide cover along the top of the ground above the pipe,from well to house, it solved the problem
Move to southern Florida. The temperature has not dropped below 40 at my house in many years. :-)
This is one area where two wrongs make a right: a poorly maintained house with leaky faucets may never have its pipes freeze while a well maintained house where nothing leaks can easily experience a burst pipe.
Lorian Bartle
Still in the reno phase on my home, both my incoming water and outgoing waste pipes were frozen. Disaster. But, our pipes were old and small and need to be brought up to code anyway. Luckily, it was all under ground , but not deep enough. 1. we had pitcock valves installed on our outside spigots. 2. dribble water instead of shutting off water. 3. run space heater in areas where needed. 4. also put antifreeze into toilet tanks and sinks to reduce suseptabilty of freezing.
I had expeienced frozen tap lines before..however recently the drain pipes under toilet & shower were frozen creating a mess in bathtub as well.We purchased a moblie home over a year ago.What should we do to prevent this from happening again?