"RedDwarf" wrote
"cshenk" wrote:

I live in Southern Virginia, and it's been freezing lately. We haven't
had any problem with our pipes yet - but a neighbor did. Their

Thanks for the information. To clarify, the plan was to turn the h20 @
the street - then open a faucet to let whatever water in there expand
if it froze. We would just do that @ night of course...
I appreciate the help - I have a few ideas to work with now.

You'll see lots of others. Turning off the water at the street won't help
really. The pipes under your slab will be fine if you are around the
Norfolk roughly area. We are well into the southern zone (on the coast, not
western end by the mountains!)

Can you tell me how close to the coast you are? If you are near us (VB), I
can give you specifics to our area, even where to look for danger spots with
our type code and where to get to right products to deal with it.

If you are along the coast, the advice of the others is *not* bad but may be
overkill. It misses though on some of the common construction we have that
northern houses do not do and are a danger point they won't think of.
Things they will go 'oh no, they didnt build like that did they?'

Area specifics if you are coastal VA along the southern part (Williamsberg
and below):

Your exterior hose outlet will need one of the styrofoam covers. It will
not be constructed 'freezeproof'. Drain any garden hoses and put them in
the garage.
- older houses made 1970 and earlier almost always have just one and at the
front. If you have one at the back as well, it's apt to have been added and
may be a better freeze proof type.

Laundry rooms are most often an adjunct off the garage and commonly piped
overhead in copper from the kitchen or from the inlet to the house which is
often in the garage (possibly this is your 'exposed copper pipe' you
mention, real common here). If that pipe is in the garage from the slab
then leads into the house and with a separate line to the laundry run free
along the wall then up and over, your danger spot is the laundry room. It's
a dead end you cant trickle *unless* someone later added a backyard outlet
off that laundry feed (you can then trickle that here and the ice wont form
up high to block it).
- Garages here are totally uninsulated. There is frequently a sort of
section with a plywood 'roof' over the landry section. You will see the
pipes leading down from there to the laundry. This is the most common spot
for busted pipes locally. The plywood (or whatever) most likely has no
insulation at all and the pipes run down an exterior uninsulated wall. The
whole area is unheated.
-- If you have the above, those pipes may be so close to flush to the
exterior wall, you cant get real insulation behind them. Fix is a 'pipe
heater' which looks alot like an extension cord and you run it along each
pipe then plug it into an outlet. Then, add rolls of insulation up behind
the false 'roof' of the laundry. You may be able to get some of the thin
foam sheet insualtion behind the pipes. Local HD or Lowes has that as well
as the pipe heaters and styrofoam exterior outlet covers.

Your main water inlet from below ground is almost sure to be by the kitchen
with the hot water heater fairly close. Bathrooms tend to be on the other
side of the house (not always but often so they have an exterior window)
with the pipes being either overhead in an insulated attic crawlway, or in
newer construction, run through the slab. If through the slab, relax. If
overhead, wrap insulation over any exposed ones, if any are exposed (mine
run under the slab).