Frozen pipes: How to avoid the danger, expense

The cold temperatures that gripped Southcentral Alaska may be taking a break for the moment, but experts say December is always a good time for homeowners and renters to consider whether or not their water pipes are in danger of freezing. And if the pipes do freeze, thawing is only treating the symptom.

"If it happens once, it's very likely that it's going to happen again, because there is some sort of an insulation problem," said Greg Sullivan, a journeyman plumber with Advanced Plumbing and Heating in Palmer. Sullivan has been a plumber for 15 years and has seen almost everything. Sullivan said frozen pipes and the floods they can cause are usually the result of a house left unattended. But he has also seen insulation damage from rodents and build-it-yourself homes that were simply not prepared for the cold.

"It's usually because the heat's turned off, and the house has gotten cold enough for these things to happen," Sullivan said, "But I've also seen situations where squirrels or mice have robbed insulation to build a nest or whatever -- and that's just bad luck."

A recent fire in Houston that destroyed a trailer home and left a family of six homeless shows how a combination of a mistakes, bad luck, and a house not designed for the cold weather could lead to disaster. Adina Graham McDonald was inside the trailer house with her four children while her husband, Mark, was underneath trying to thaw out frozen pipes. She heard thumping on the floor and at first thought Mark was signaling that he needed a hand.

"When I got there, he was coming out saying, 'The house is on fire! Everybody out!" Adina said. No one was hurt in the fire, except Mark, who received minor burns and was a bit sick from smoke inhalation but didn't seek medical treatment.

Apparently, the fire was started by a propane space heater that was being used to keep pipes thawed under the trailer house. The trailer had a series of cold weather failures that led up to the fire, according to Adina.

"It originally started with the pressure tank switch going out, that had burnt out, and the water froze," Adina said. "At that point we knew we had to re-plumb the whole house."

The pressure tank sits between the water well and its pump and the house's plumbing. It is a common place for freezing and pipe bursting, as is any place where pipes travel along an outside wall or exit the house.

Sullivan said pipes along outside walls aren't allowed by Alaska building codes, but he still sees them here on occasion.

The pipes going to and from the water source can serve a home well as long as water is moving, but they should also be protected from extreme low temperatures by heat tape, insulation or both. And the protection should be inspected periodically.

If you do thaw your own pipes, it's best to use a hair dryer or heat gun -- the professionals might show up with what looks like a set of jumper cables and hook it to copper pipes. These tools have two things in common: they gradually warm the pipe to prevent bursting, and they're not as dangerous as a space heater in a confined space.

"There are better ways to prevent freeze damage than putting heat into your crawl," Sullivan said. It's also important to remember you're working around water -- always use an electrical outlet equipped with a ground fault current interrupter, (GFCI) even if it means running all the extension cord you can round up.

Once the pipe is thawed, either replace the damaged insulation, add more insulation, or add heat tape to the freeze-prone section of plumbing. Sullivan said there is heat tape available with a temperature probe and thermostat control that turns the heat tape off when the temperature rises so as not to burn electricity all the time.

People who build their own home or add on to a home should be mindful of where they install new pipes, Sullivan said.

"If you're running pipes in a crawl and you see a vent opening, keep your copper pipes away from there," Sullivan said. "Put it on an outside wall, and you're just waiting for it to freeze up sooner or later." Sullivan recommends polyethylene pipes that expand and contract when temperatures change.

He also said outdoor water sources should be installed with so-called "frost free hose bibs."

The frost free bibs have been known to freeze, so an accessible valve and spigot arrangement to drain that last two feet of pipe each winter is good to have.