How Prevent Water Supply Pipes from Freezing with Limited Access
My kitchen was built onto the back of myself many years before I bought it in 2002. There is a small crawl space under the kitchen that does not have any ready access points through which the water supply pipes for the kitchen sink travel. When the temperature drops drastically (below 20 degrees), the pipes have a tendency to freeze up. Until this year, letting the faucet drip kept the water moving and prevented the pipes from freezing up. However, on the day that the temperature dropped below 10 degrees, the dripping faucet did not help and both hot and cold froze.
With very limited access to the area, how can I insulate the pipes or put in some sort of heat source that will prevent this problem from recurring in the future? Open to suggestions...
Thanks,
Mark
Related Discussions
Suggested Project Book
Consider buying anti-freezing products such as pipe sleeves, heat tape or heating cables, and install them on exposed water pipes. Leave faucets with exposed pipes open and dripping. This will keep the water flowing, and moving water freezes less easily than standing water.
We had the same problem. The drain in the shower even froze one year! We hung a small fan into the crawl space which moved some warm air in to it. 10 years ago we had an addition put on and now have a full basement and no more problems. Good luck.