It is 20-25 here and even though my neighbor and I have the faucet covers on, her pipes bust this morning. I have the bathroom sink at a drip now. Is that good enough?

Both outside faucets have double cotton socks wrapped around the faucet and then the styrofoam covers over that.

 

You should turn off the water supply to the outside faucet from inside the house and open the value on the facet.

 

what good will that do?

 

We used to let the water run so they wouldnt burst

 

Well if you turn off the water supply to the outside and then open the outside value there will be no water in the pipe to freeze.

 

 

I let the faucets drip. It should be enough.

 

So what causes pipes inside a house to freeze and burst? I was always under the impression that as long as you had heat in the house it couldn't happen

 

I have my heat off at 60. Maybe I should bump it to 65 for the next week. When I am home, I have the heat up to 68 and have the gas fireplace on. Nice and toasty.

OK. Will keep the sink at a very slow drip.

 

Are your pipes insulated?

 

not sure

 

Really though what doopstr said. You should have shut offs on any lines that go outside. If you don't take an hours time and $10 in valves to add them.

 

I'm glad I moved out of PA. I remember this ritual.

 

It depends on where your bathroom or sink is located. If it is located next to an outside wall then the pipes will be likely to freeze since there may not be much insulation. For example my kitchen sink is located next to the outside wall and my bathroom is not. So my kitchen sink is the one I need to worry about.

 

Move to a warmer area?

 

thanks Terry

 

No problem.

One last thing: Do NOT insulate the inside pipes close to the exterior walls WITHOUT the use of heat tape.


Terry

 

you really shouldnt have problems inside the house if its heated. Insulate the sill area in the basement where the pipes come thru into the house. make sure there are no hoses attached to the faucet outside, and like stated above you should have turnoffs on them further down the line. Shut them off and open the faucet outside to drain. Ive never had issues at my house.

 

One last thing - if you have a kitchen or bathroom cabinet on an outside wall, opening the cabinet doors to let the warmed air in helps.

 

damn you guys and this thread, now I need to get up of my lazy sunday morning ass and go shut off the outside faucets that I forgot about. Luckily I have a drain at the main feed source for all the outside supply lines that I can just open and drain into a bucket