We winterize our cabin by shutting off the water opening a valve at the lowest spot and leaving all of the faucets open. We’re not there, so we flush the toilets til the tanks are empty and add some RV anti freeze to all of the drain traps. Thawing is when you discover the issues. As suggested above, I’d pick up a couple pieces of pipe and couplers and whatever is required to join them. You can always return them, but when you need them, so will everyone else. Also, this will be the time some have shut offs disintegrate or discover they are corroded and stuck. I picture someone doing something they shouldn’t with flex seal in the coming days.
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Well I’ve done all i can do, insurance paid up and prayers sent! Now we “relax”
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Open all cabinets that have pipes under them. ie kitchen sink, bathroom sinks.Comment
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you are good. The ground under your house is not going to freeze and the fact that you have stopped the wind from coming through I dont think you will have an issue. Good luck!Originally posted by drop dead fred View Post
Well I’ve done all i can do, insurance paid up and prayers sent! Now we “relax”
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Might sound stupid but I run my drier outlet to the crawl space under the house. Had my main line to the house freeze under there 10 or so years ago, never had it happen again. Just tell your wife the cost of running water is washing cloths...LOL. But seriously it works.Comment
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smart!Originally posted by teamron View Post
I was going to say block the vents and put a space heater under there.Comment
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Yes, definitely turn on every faucet inside and outside the house. Hopefully you can get away with a moderate drip for a while, but once, it gets into the mid 20s or colder. I would have all of the faucets on, flowing a fairly steady stream. Then check them every couple hours.
We lived in a pier and beam house for 14 years, survived many cold winters in that house. That house was made back in the late 1800s. The old Germans used large rocks to set the house on and packed rocks all the way around the outside of the house. So there were lots of air leaks, allowing cold air to flow under the house. I swore for years, I was going to pack those rocks full of mortar to mostly seal up those air leaks, I never did.
Most of the time, when the weather report around hear says a cold front is coming in, it gets here about 12 to 24 hours after they say it's going to get here. Then usually not as cold as they claim it's going to get. But then us being out in the country, it is usually 3 to 4 degrees colder where we are, than in town. One year, they said a cold front was coming in and would get here around 7:00 in the evening. Yea, by 7:00 that evening our kitchen sink faucet was not flowing cold water at all. I wound up using a small C clamp and clamping a piece of plastic over the faucet nozzle, then turning on both the hot and cold water, to try and flow hot water back up the cold water pipe. It worked, I got the pipe to thaw out. That was our worst experience.
On multiple occasions we had a outside faucet freeze up. I would usually pour hot water on them to get them flowing again. Then crank up the water flow higher. We always turned on water and let it flow, when it was at or below 32. But even doing that, there were multiple times, the water would freeze at the outlet and then start freezing back down the pipe, when the temps were mid to lower 20s. Those were the times I had to pour water on the faucet to unfreeze it, then turn the water flow up higher. I hated to have six faucets flowing a good stream of water, but when it got really cold, if we did not, at least one of them would freeze up. If it was only 29 degrees or warmer, I could let them flow with a fast drip and be fine.
I would have both hot and cold water flowing in multiple areas of the house on the inside and all outside faucets. I know were were always worried about the kitchen and our daughter's bathroom, because they were so far away from the water heater. Both locations would take a while of flowing water when the temps were in the 80s outside, before you got hot water to those two ends of the house. So we knew it was very possible for even the hot water to freeze up, in those to areas of the house, so we flowed both hot and cold water. We waisted a lot of water, but we kept the pipes from freezing.
Sealing up the underside of the house as best possible, does do quite a bit. If it were me, I would seal it up with a bunch of treated wood. Wood, would be the best thing to seal up the bottom of the house, tin or rocks like we had are not good insulators. Tin will stop air from flowing under the house, but it won't keep it very warm after long periods of time, with cold air outside.
Also running a dryer vent hose under the house, will help too. I did that at one place we lived, to heat up a area of a carport, we sealed off, to put my wife's plants in, during the winter. That dryer exhaust would keep her plants nice and warm.
Good luck.Comment
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No phone service here had to hook router up to generator. We got pump going buttttt no water, ughhhhhhh! [emoji2359]
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Seal it up with square bales if you have some. Hay is the best natural insulationComment
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Wellll we’ve lost atleast 60% of the pipes i can see without getting under there completely... looks like a grenade went off under my house they literally exploded into pieces pipe every where! [emoji2359]
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Man, so sorry DDF. Will PEX be any better as a replacement?4Comment
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Sorry to hear that. I just dug out 5 Contractor Trash bags of wet insulation in a crawl space above my bedroom when my cold water pipe burst. This Weather Sucks.Comment
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When my camp house pipes burst, my buddy brought out pex lineOriginally posted by Hammerhead View Post
And stab lock fittings, we got it done pretty easy
Anyone know how to run pex and stab lock stuff, as I have no idea where he bought the supplies and would like to replace some stuff @ the house and the home depot didn’t know what it wasComment
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are you asking about shark bite fittings.. they are considered a temporary fix at best.Comment
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