Hot Water / Cold Water (Frozen Pipe Question)

[SebasC]

Alright here is my dilemma.

I have heat tape installed on where the Main water enters my Mobile home (and tape works fine) but now here is a list of what works and what doesnt.

- Kitchen (Cold Water works / Hot water frozen)
- Bath Tub / Shower (Hot Water works / Cold Water frozen)
- Bath room sink 1 (Hot Water works / Cold water frozen)
- Bath Room sink 2 (Both work)

Is there a handy way i can defrost it plus I currently can not get under my trailer at all to defrost certain parts... Should I leave all water running or something? Because I assume all lines are connected to each other one way or the other (hot with hot and cold with cold)

[Jeffro]

Have you tried shutting all the vents in the house and turning the thermostat up? That's usually what I do and it fixes the problem.

[Greg]

Try leaving the cupboards open to allow some heat to get to the pipes. run the furnace to warm the area between the floor & underbelly.

Freeze ups are usually a result of underbelly problems, torn or missing or missing insulation. If you have snow on the ground, try banking it up against the skirting to block the wind & add some insulation.

DO NOT leave the water running in extreme cold, it can cause freeze ups in your sewer pipes, then you have a REAL mess on your hands.

If possible you may need to get some heat under your home, but do not leave a heater unattended under there, Too many fires have been caused this way. Greg

[Chief531]

HI Greg..thanks for that info on freezing the sewer pipe...vry timely as I am running water rught now....what do I do now? I just bought this place and found out this morning when I went under to thaw the pipes that the underbelly insulation is completely torn away from the center of the home where the previous owner did pipe repairs. And it is where the heat duct is. Where can I get a piece of material to repair this...or can I just use a "blue poly tarp" with insulation glued to the backside to get me through the winter??

TIA
Mike

[Greg]

For now I would get some insulation up there 6" minimum if not 12" and for now the "Blue tarp trick" (or Tyvec) to hold it up in place. You should be able to just lay the insulation up and let the tarp hold it with either staples or batten boards. Next spring I would plan on doing it the right way.
The site owner (Mark) has written a book that covers about any type of repair or upgrade you may want. It's in the "Books & Parts " section of the site. Greg

[SebasC]

Alright thanks for the info Right now the only thing still frozen up is the hot water in the kitchen every where else the water runs fine right now. Just got to find a way to figure out where it is frozen for the hot water.

[Greg]

It is frozen somewhere between the main line that runs the length of the home & the faucet, unless you have a front kitchen, then it could be anywhere between the last faucet & kitchen. Greg

[Gardog]

Try leaving the cupboards open to allow some heat to get to the pipes. run the furnace to warm the area between the floor & underbelly.

Freeze ups are usually a result of underbelly problems, torn or missing or missing insulation. If you have snow on the ground, try banking it up against the skirting to block the wind & add some insulation.

DO NOT leave the water running in extreme cold, it can cause freeze ups in your sewer pipes, then you have a REAL mess on your hands.

If possible you may need to get some heat under your home, but do not leave a heater unattended under there, Too many fires have been caused this way. Greg

Alright here is my dilemma.

I have heat tape installed on where the Main water enters my Mobile home (and tape works fine) but now here is a list of what works and what doesnt.

- Kitchen (Cold Water works / Hot water frozen)
- Bath Tub / Shower (Hot Water works / Cold Water frozen)
- Bath room sink 1 (Hot Water works / Cold water frozen)
- Bath Room sink 2 (Both work)

Is there a handy way i can defrost it plus I currently can not get under my trailer at all to defrost certain parts... Should I leave all water running or something? Because I assume all lines are connected to each other one way or the other (hot with hot and cold with cold)

I had frozen pipes and I thought long and hard about the problem. I finally decided i would go and check out the underside of my mobile. I then discovered a huge hole in the sealed insulated void between the floor and the frame. I noticed that the old fiber mesh/plastic insulated skin had supports every 5 - 6 feet that I could slide my glove covered hand over and still underneath the insulated skin. I looked around and noticed more holes. I took a roll of twine / nylon string and basically made a spider web to support the cardboard i would later put above it. and above the cardboard I used insulation to fill the size of whatever hole I had to patch. I then went and bought for 30 to 40 dollars a 100 X 12' plastic sheet, comes on a roll usually black plastic with a thickness of 4 to 6 mm. I unrolled this plastic underneath the mobile home the length of the 70' trailer. I kept it at its folded width of 3 foot. I pulled this along and over each support next to the skin of the void where the pipes are located or in between the frame rails, and as I went along I just pulled the width from 3 feet to open it to 6 - 7 foot between the frame rails. The extra from it being 12' wide allowed me to tuck it and push it deep into the corner of where the skin meets the main frame rails the whole length of the trailer. I went with the thicker plastic 6mm, because I knew I was going to be pulling on the plastic the length of the trailer over all the supports involved. (when your doing this, just remember that there was once a guy (me) that did this in -7 degree weather, so you dont feel so bad you had to get dirty all by yourself, someone like me already done it)YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND THERE IS A 2ND VERY IMPORTANT PART TO THIS.............PAY ATTENTION. Your wondering how to thaw the pipes?? After thinking about it for a while I simply went to a vent in the floor in the center of the mobile / or a vent in the room where you might have the freeze up and removed the vent cover and removed the collar from the main heater duct running from the furnace which runs the whole length of the mobile and removed the collar. The collar (I call it) basically connects the main heater duct with that particular vent your at. (what this does, is allows the hot air from the furnace to fill the void below and under the floor where the frozen pipes are located) you see at this vent location you should close the vent louvers after you remove the collar between the main duct and the floor vent. IT TOOK ONLY A COUPLE HOURS TO HEAT UP AND THAW THE PIPES !!!! Whoo Hooo! I didnt have to search for the frozen pipe location and plus now the whole underbelly was sealed. I would drill holes through the main duct at every vent location(maybe a 6 X 6 inch patch of holes) at each location in the house and then cover up the drilled patches with duct tape until winter arrives again. it might cost you a little extra heat per month to fill that little void under the floor, but you wont have to worry about cracked and frozen pipes. This whole permanent fix cost me only about $50 bucks. Plastic roll 100 X 12' plus duct tape, and insulation as needed.
*This works only if your heat source is your furnace. If your house is vacant, then you have to drain the pipes and fill them with non poisonous anti freeze or use electric pipe heaters or leave your furnace running. All I know is my house is toasty warm, it took a little doing, but now I can breath. - good luck

[Yanita]

Sealing under your home with plastic is not a real good idea. It can condensate and trap the moisture under the plastic against your insulation. We always recommend the belly material or if you can not afford that and want a cheap fix you can use tyvex or another similar material. Keep in mind though anything other than belly material is not impreganant with oils and chemicals that resist rot and bugs.

Yanita