by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 8
-
No not always. But it's a good thing to prevent this by keeping a small stream of hot water dripping if you know it's going to get below freezing and your pipes aren't insulated.
-
No, mine are actually frozen right now. My kitchen water pipes have been freezing the past couple of days due to the temps. I keep the doors open under the sink to let warm air circulate and they usually unfreeze by the end of the day. However, I do need to do a real fix by insulating the pipes, but it's just too cold to deal with it atm! =)
-
If they freeze solid and there is no room for expansion, they will burst. They may also just loosen your joints or welds and the next time if water freezes in those little places, even though it's not a solid freeze, they can burst.
-
No they don't, in fact plumbers will intentionally freeze pipes (with no other way to turn the water off i.e.: valves) in order to work on them.
-
IF your water pipes freeze they will become a solid plug in your pipe. When they thaw, they warm up and expand. If there is no room for these solids to expand , it will burst/split your pipe or force a fitting to come off. Typically pipes outside are plastic ( alkathene actually). This has the ability to expand just enough to allow for the expansion. Such installations will also typically be plastic ( not brass / metal fiitings) , as these will become the "cold Spots and weak links. There is a device on the market ( " just by chance which I happen to make ") that will monitor the temperature and turn off the water supply if it goes below 3 deg c. So the water is turned off before the pipes freeze. The pipe COULD still freeze and burst but with the water turned off it is less likely and anyway the resulting damage will be considerbly less expensive. see http://www.floodcheck.co.uk Sorry to use the forum as a plug.. but I thought you might be interested to know what's available. Bill Saint
-
No. The water pipes to my barn freeze all the time and I have never had a problem. They thaw out and are fine. I've also had pipes in the attic of my house freeze without bursting. HOWEVER, my pipes are heavy schedule galvanized steel pipes!!! I think if I had copper or plastic pipes they would have broken. My house is old, like me, built back when they put in good stuff!
-
no. I have had pipes freeze before in one house I lived in and they did not burst. I would have to crawl under the house with a blowtorch and thaw them out but they never leaked or burst on me.
-
not always, but the older they are the more fragile they get which will increase the chance of bursting
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC