How the job runs
- 1Open the tapleave the affected faucet open so melting ice has somewhere to go
- 2Trace the runfollow the pipe from the dead tap back toward the basement to find the cold spot
- 3Thaw gentlywarm air, heat tape or an electric pipe thawer, never a torch near framing
- 4Watch for splitsas water returns, look and listen for drips along the thawed section
- 5Protect itinsulate, add heat, or reroute the pipe inside the heated envelope
01Why it happens in these houses
Plenty of Scarborough kitchens have the sink under a window on an exterior wall, with the supply lines running up through a cold, poorly insulated cavity. Side-splits and back-splits often have a bathroom over an unheated garage. Cottage-era homes near the Bluffs may have pipes running through crawlspaces open to the wind.
When the temperature drops well below minus fifteen, those are the runs that freeze first.
| Most likely places | Kitchen sinks on outside walls, bathroom over a garage, crawlspaces |
|---|---|
| Never use | Open flame, which starts house fires every winter |
| Prevention | Shut and drain hose bibs in fall, keep cabinet doors open on cold nights |
02Thawing without damage
We use a low-voltage pipe thawing unit on metal pipe and warm air on plastic. It is slower than a torch but it does not char studs or melt PEX. Once water moves, we leave the tap running a little while the rest of the ice clears.
03Fixing the cause
If a line freezes once, it will freeze again. Depending on the house we may move it to an interior wall, add insulation behind it, fit a heat cable on an approved run, or install a frost-free sillcock outside.