On Dec 15, 1:50*pm, "
wrote:
On 12/15/2010 8:45 AM, Jeff Thies wrote:





After making an emergency run to fix a friend's broken pipes, I'm
thinking what can be done so this won't cost me much more time and money.

What broke were bathroom sink lines, just below the cutoff valves. It's
an old house, with little insulation. Full unfinished basements, mostly
concrete floors. Copper plumbing.

Pipe insulation. I'm not sure this has any impact. Does it?

Water dripping. Seems like a good idea, but these were dripping until
they turned to icicles.

So that leads me to thinking stopping basement drafts. The door to this
part of the basement was very badly sealed. How much tempering can we
get just by sealing basement air leaks? Is it worth the effort? The
house is huge. Should I even not worry about leaving some basement
ventilation in cold weather?

Jeff

For starters, just to keep up, leave cabinet doors open so warm air can
circulate to the water lines. *Also, in extremely cold weather, advice I
have seen is to leave faucets open slightly to keep water moving.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Way too many variables here to give good advice. Was the house
heated? What temp
was it set too? Certainly there should not be outside air flowing
into the basement. It
isn't rocket science. One good opening that allows air to flow next
to a pipe will be enough
to freeze it. Don't know who's paying for heat, but it sounds like
some proper sealing and
insulation could save a lot of $$$ too.