HELP/frozen pipes/ASAP]

[tinyone]

Not me, but my elderly neighbor! Please, dont suggest calling maint. , they will not help owners at all.
I know that the skirting around her home has 'pulled away', possibly letting in the cold air below
It's EXTEMELY cold here, she has no running water at all, I don't think she has $ to call outside help
Would it help if I brought over a big pot of hot/boiling water, & dumped it down a sink? thanks
PS she didn't let facets trickle they tell us not to do that here, & she left the door to cabinets open by pipes
THanks a LOT, take care

PS I checked the prev. threads on this topic

[Yanita]

Hi,

Pouring a big pot of boiling water down the drain will not help, that will only go down the drain and has nothing to do with the incoming frozen lines.

In our articles section is a thawing your pipes article Keep in mind once these pipes thaw that is when you may discover a broken pipe. Watch for leaks. Under NO circumstances do you want to leave a heater under the home unattended.

You will need to get the insulation put back up and close up the opening in the skirting once the pipes are thawed.

Might want to consider a heat tape to the exposed lines.

Open up all the cupboard doors under the sinks to allow for the interior warmth to get to some pipes. It may help to turn up the heat inside the home as well, this will push more heat through the ducts that are close to the water lines.

http://www.mobilehomerepair.com/article8.htm

Yanita

[Bea]

Propping open the cabinet doors is good. Does she heat with a furnace? Get her to turn it up a few degrees, even at night. When I stopped turning mine down, the pipes stayed warm enough from the heating ducts not to freeze.

I used my blow dryer aimed at the bottom of the plastic pipes under the vanity to thaw them. I held it instead of laying it down and was careful not to let it overheat, or lean against anything it could burn/melt. It took about 10-15 minutes to get the water to start running. Keep the taps open while you are trying to thaw them to relieve pressure and so you know when you are successful.

I don't know if hot water down the drains will get close enough to the water pipes to help.

Does her toilet flush? you will probably want to try the blow dryer on the water intake for the toilet, too.

Home Depot and the like sell rolls of plastic that you could wrap over the outside panels. It might help keep the crawl space warmer by blocking some wind.

Good luck!

[tinyone]

I read the articles. Thing is, there's also over 1 foot of snow/extreme cold, so no going under
neath to do all that stuff. Would pouring RV
antifreeze down drain help>? Thanks again

[Brenda (OH)]

you may try calling your closest united way or similar charity, there may be a group that helps elderly folks of modest income with home repairs.

in my county, there is a charity that does weatherization of homes as their focus. if a heat tape is needed, you will need someone that is physically able to crawl around on their hands and knees for a couple of hours to do the installation. it is not a difficult job except for the crawling around part... yup, I did one in winter, no fun, and paid a guy to do the next one since it ran all the way across the width of the home out into the dark unknown of the underbelly....

Brenda (OH)

[tinyone]

Thanks, Bea,
no toliet doesn't flush

[Brenda (OH)]

the foot of snow is not really a factor unless it is frozen so that you cannot get the skirting off....

and most handymen would be bringing a heater to blow hot air under the home to help with the thawing, so you don't have to feel too guilt ridden if a charity comes to do the work, they have insulated work outfits if they do outdoor work at all.....

Brenda

[tinyone]

I don't know wheretoliet water intake is, is it behind toliet
by that siver thingie you use to turn it off?
I'm going to go over w/blow dryer, also small portable heater

[Brenda (OH)]

on the toilet, do you mean if you slowly pour a gallon of water into the bowl, the water level rises, it does not go down the drain hole?

reason I ask is, that would mean the drain line below the toilet below the floor has frozen and clogged...

if the water level stays the same as water is added, your neighbor would be able to use the toilet and flush it with a bucket of water while repairs are being figured out. that, and bathing at other peoples houses, and having a 5 gallon container of drinking water may allow her to stay in the home temporarily.

Not ideal, but if the weather goes back up above freezing, and no pipes or connectors leak, it buys time to arrange heat tape etc.


Brenda (OH)

[tinyone]

on the toilet, do you mean if you slowly pour a gallon of water into the bowl, the water level rises, it does not go down the drain hole?

reason I ask is, that would mean the drain line below the toilet below the floor has frozen and clogged...

if the water level stays the same as water is added, your neighbor would be able to use the toilet and flush it with a bucket of water while repairs are being figured out. that, and bathing at other peoples houses, and having a 5 gallon container of drinking water may allow her to stay in the home temporarily.

Not ideal, but if the weather goes back up above freezing, and no pipes or connectors leak, it buys time to arrange heat tape etc.


Brenda (OH)

Ok, she's gone out now, but I'll let her know, THANK you so much

[SchemeFighter]

At this point it sounds like prayers might be in order. Pray that the water pipes aren’t broken or won’t be broken.

Waiting things out may be your best option and helping her live with the situation in the mean time. Bringing her a couple buckets of water a day so she can flush the toilet and a bottle of water a day and perhaps a container of moist towelettes so she can have something to drink and cook with and take care of her personal sanitary needs.

It sounds like dumping water down the drain would be useless.

You might ask her to turn up the heat if she already hasn’t. Turn the house heat up to about 72° Fahrenheit might help speed the thawing.

Almost everything I can think of to try to thaw out the pipes can be a lot of work, messy and potentially dangerous (fire or electrocution hazard). You could try using a hairdryer to heat up the water line going into the house but you have to use common sense and take care not to get electrocuted or start a fire. It’s also quite possible that when you thaw out the line that you might discover a water leak and to others it may appear that you are responsible for the leak. You’re likely to discover other problems as you try to thaw out the lines. You seem to already have noticed poor skirting is letting the cold air in under the trailer. If you get under the trailer you’ll probably find that the underpinning insulation and perhaps part of the structure is missing from previous repairs allowing cold air onto the pipes. You may find that there is no heat tape or that the tape is defective. You could also try an electric infrared heater in the bathroom ( like in the bathtub/shower) face to the outside wall near where water comes in if that’s the area that it comes in to try to help warm up the area that the pipes that enter the house.

It might be best just to let things thaw out and see if there is a leak, if there is a leak than it is the first thing that will have to be repaired. The next step should be preventive maintenance. Make sure the heat tape, insulation, underpinning and skirting is in working and proper condition. My trailer was in bad condition when I first got it; it cost me about $200 just in parts (heat tape, electrical tape, GFI, gray tape, insulation, wood, glue and nails).

I discovered that I had to do about $200 of other repairs, because while I was inspecting and doing preventive maintenance trying to winterize the trailer I discovered that the drain from a bathtub was leaking on the ground, the water line to my heater was leaking, and the water line to my bathtub was leaking.

It was a can of worms the more I looked the more I found that was bad. I discovered that whoever put it in the hot water faucet to the bathtub twisted and kinked the copper line and had butchered the connection to the fitting. I still haven’t fixed it yet; because so far it isn’t leaking and I would have to drain and move the water heater to get to the connection that needs to be repaired. Whoever put in the line used a copper line that was just a few inches too short and they yanked it and forced it to fit so the line is badly kinked, under stress and the flare is funky. I could go on and on.

Its best to try to prevent these problems because once your pipes freeze there’s always a chance of a leak and water damage; and attempts to speed a thaw can involve fire and electrocution hazards.

[Greg]

Tiny, the first thing that needs to be done is to get the system thawed out. This is going to require access to the space under the home and some heat. After the system is thawed and you know there are no leaks you will need to make sure the underbelly is tight and the insulation is in place. Then make the skirting as secure as possible with no holes. Also make sure the heat tape is in place & working on the water line from the ground to the underbelly. Greg

[Yanita]

Hi,

I am going to lock this post, the info is just repeating itself. If you need further help please start another post.

Thanks and good luck.

Yanita