"Big_Jake" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Feb 24, 9:04 am, wrote:
I've got a coach house in Chicago (house behind the main house at the
street).

It seems
very hard to believe that any competent plumber buried the pipe
shallow enough where it would freeze.

True, but he did not say it was a competent plumber. Being a coach house in
back of the main house, it may have been done by the original owner with no
permits or inspections 100 years ago.