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Water to your neighbor and bypassing the meter is theft of services. I'm not touching that one.
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Originally Posted by Hopes
It's not theft of services. Someone is paying the water bill. It's not bypassing the OP's water meter.
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Originally Posted by JayTwila
Whoa whoa, absolutely no meter is jumped. The only thing that has jumped is my monthly bill. You gotta be real careful before you start throwing around words like "illegal" or "theft of services." It's very easy to assume.
I stand corrected and apologize for the insinuation.
Absolutely accepted. My apologies for not having been clear enough. I have tendency to do that on occasion. But I do thank everyone for their words of wisdom. Right now I'm hoping my vent-less gas heater will warm up my laundry room enough to thaw out the pipe in question.
If the pipe is freezing in the wall, it might not matter how warm you get the laundry room. Try directing a fan towards where the pipe comes out of the wall to encourage air circulation around that area.
Have you noticed what outdoor temperature your pipes freeze? 32 degrees is freezing, but my pipes are good until it gets below 10 degrees. Sunday's low will be 27 degrees. It all depends on the specific temperature that makes your pipes vulnerable. Wind also plays a role. While low temps aren't all above freezing next week, it will be significantly warmer.
At my old house, which despite being in New Hampshire did not have a basement, I woke up a few times to no water coming out of the kitchen faucets (the sink was on an exterior wall). Needless to say it was pretty scary. I would open the cabinet doors and point a small space heater right at the pipes. Sometimes it took several hours, but eventually I would get a trickle of water out of the pipes, then within an hour or so after that they would be running normally. This never happened again after I had the kitchen remodeled in 2009; the contractor brought the pipes further in (can't remember exactly how he put it). All the bathroom pipes were in interior walls so I had never had a problem with them.
Once, maybe my first year in that house, I started a load of laundry and within a minute or so water was flowing out of a pipe and onto the laundry room floor. I shut the water off to the washer immediately. Later -- much later, as in weeks (after going to the laundromat many times for fear of using my own appliances) -- I tried again and it was fine, so whatever back-up had been in the pipes (ice?) was gone. (Of course now I realize I should have called a plumber immediately, but it was my first house and I was very naive about these problems!!) The laundry room had been created out of the back 1/4 of the garage so was not well insulated. I had my heating guy add a heating vent in there and I never had a problem again.
It sounds like your laundry room is heating up well now, but still, I would take Hopes's advice and point the heater(s) right at the walls where the frozen pipes seem to be. As for leaving the heater on overnight, if you have a CO detector you should be fine as you will know right away if there's a problem!!
Putting insulation on the pipes while they are frozen will slow down the transfer of heat from the air to the pipe, thus slowing the thawing of the pipes. Also, if there is any fiberglass or similar insulation there that is wet, get rid of it. Wet fiberglass insulation is nearly the same as no insulation at all.
By the way, your local hardware store probably has that "black pipe insulation" also, and probably someone who will have suggestions for trying to thaw your pipes that are common to your area. Might even have a suggestion of someone who can help you out with getting them thawed. You might want to think of them before you run to the orange, red and blue, or green box stores.
Did you place the heat trace tape under the insulation?
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Originally Posted by JayTwila
Yep, I've tried that too. The darn pipe is still frozen, so I guess I'm stuck til Sunday-Monday
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Needless to say it was pretty scary. I would open the cabinet doors and point a small space heater right at the pipes. Sometimes it took several hours, but eventually I would get a trickle of water out of the pipes, then within an hour or so after that they would be running normally. This never happened again after I had the kitchen remodeled in 2009; the contractor brought the pipes further in (can't remember exactly how he put it). All the bathroom pipes were in interior walls so I had never had a problem with them.
