Burst water pipes (Las Vegas: 2013, house, living)

Advertisements

I've always wondered if leaving the tap open did anything to prevent freezing. That's what we did in WV where it gets twice as cold as it ever has been here. Anyway, I was reading about it the other day, and apparently, that is the thing to do, besides insulation, of course. It isn't the ice that bursts the pipes. It's the water pressure on the faucet side of the ice that breaks the pipes. So if you just turn faucets on to a trickle, that should be enough to release the pressure if the pipes do freeze.

I covered my outside faucets with those Styrofoam gizmos made for that purpose. The other thing will always freeze if you don't cover it, or turn off the sprinklers and drain it, is the anti-syphon, or back flush, valve. Mine has frozen twice in 12 years, so now it is wrapped with insulation, burlap, and I put a heavy sports bag over it with a rock on top to keep it from blowing away. The covers they sell for that purpose won't cover mine due to it being too close to the house and not high enough.

I decided to try something in the garage. It is insulated, even the spaces in the doors, but I left a few gaps because of the gas water heater. Anyway, I turned on all the florescent lights hoping they'd put off a little heat. Apparently they do. I went out earlier and checked the temp and it said 71º, although I don't believe that number, but I could feel it was a lot warmer. Of course, the gas is probably coming on in the water heater more often than usual too.

I lived in Rochester NY for 17 years. The winter climate is not far off Alaska.

My home was built during the gas shortage of the 70s. So we were all electric. And we had two story glass walls.

We were very well insulated...2x6 walls and good double pane glass. Foot and a half of insulation in the attic. We were heat pumps for heating and could run into the 20s before we needed the heat arrays. But after that it got expensive.

We had no exposed plumbing with water in it. We could drain all exposed hose bibs and did so. In general we had no plumbing runs in external walls...always through interior ones. And all the water plumbing above the basement was insulated.

We had only a limited sprinkler system and it self drained...once the pressure let up it drained to a sump at a low point.

We had problems. We had a humdifier system and if we drove it up past 25% or so water would condense under the windows. Builder swore up and down that it was the same as the rest of the wall...but condensation does not lie.

But actually that was a nice warm home. And the utilities were only a little above the gas heated neighbors.

I know most of the time the problem is in the other direction, but you should still have central heat in the houses out there, no? Or have you forgotten how to turn it on?

In colder climates like where I live now they just put the pipes in the ground or inside insulated walls. The main is never out on the side of the house or just inside the garage with lousy insulation or none at all as you see in new builds in Vegas. And when it gets down around zero as it has been recently you get the warnings about leaving a faucet or two at the farthest points from your main dripping just in case. When pipes do burst its often because people were gone for at least a day or two and then turn on the water when its still colder than normal. And oh yeah everyone blows out their sprinklers by around Halloween.

Actually, it's the ice. The last thing water does before it freezes is expand. That's why ice floats.

When water (becoming ice) expands, it increases the pressure in the pipes. Sometimes it does so substantially, and pipes burst. Thus endeth the physics lesson.

That's what I would have thought because ice does expand, like on the old fashioned milk bottles delivered in winter to your porch. But, that's not it according to the various plumbing tips I've been reading. It's the water pressure build up after the ice forms according to plumbers. In back of the ice it an just runs back the other way according to all I've read (although I don't understand that).

If I read your earlier post correctly I gathered you are saying running water doesn't freeze? Or did I totally misunderstand what you were saying? Anyway, it occurred to me later that even water falls freeze. Now that I really don't get.

Here's what the Weather Channel says. I also found this same advice on other links. First time I've heard this said though so I was surprised.

weather.com - Severe Weather Readiness

My house has PVC pipes in the crawl space going from a manifold in the garage to each individual faucet. It didn't dawn on me until the sheet rock was in that I remembered seeing the pipes above the insulation. I was only interested to make sure they didn't push up on the pipes and slice one on the metal joist hangers. Now, in summer, we wait forever for cold water, and in winter it takes the hot forever to reach some of the faucets further from the garage. In summer, the cold water is literally hot enough to burn our hands, and we can take showers in it. The pipes are not exposed anywhere except a few inches at the manifold. But I've wanted to get spray insulation up there to cover them. Does anyone know if that can be done without creating a huge mess of holes, and would it be very expensive? It might only have to be enough to cover the pipes, and maybe only the garage ceiling needs it. Once past the garage I believe none are in the crawl space. For the kitchen and guest bath they go through the pot shelf in the living room.

Even salt water will freeze if it's cold enough. You can google pictures of Niagara Falls, frozen solid. It just has to be REALLY cold for that to happen. Las Vegas doesn't get that kind of cold. Insulation will usually take care of things. But opening the taps several times each day will also minimize the risk of burst pipes. It isn't that running water won't freeze, it's just that it is much harder to transfer heat away from fluids in motion.

PS -- Think about it: Everyday water pressure doesn't burst pipes when the taps are shut. It's that pressure, PLUS the added pressure of water expansion that bursts the pipes.

every winter, it's always the 20F / -6.67C point where problems occur.

weather.com - Severe Weather Readiness