Lagging external pipes

1984ReturnsForReal_2

jblack wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if the waste pipe is frozen. It will be a 40mm pipe and empty most of the time. When the water is drained from the sink it should just pass through the pipe, there is no standing water to freeze. There maybe a problem further down the pipe work or possibly a blockage.

HTH, J

The trap could freeze quite easily if there was no heat in the house. Even as the OP says he left the heating ticking over this may not have been enough heat for an enlcosed trap against an external wall.

chloe99_2

isn't a partial blockage more likely as last bit of water down it could have got trapped and frozen? surely if there isnt otherwise a problem it couldnt freeze if noone was using the sink??

caleyles

We regularly have frozen external pipework up here and quite often get called out to defrost them - normally CI pipework and unlike people are saying even with the correct fall it still freezes. I.E. run the basin waste and even on a pipe sloping down the drips of water left freeze, next time a bit more etc until eventually the pipe freezes and certainly with the minus 10 temps up here just now certainly not uncommon. My missus wonders why we have hairdriers in our vans esp with me being follicly challenged :rotfl:

ormus

would you believe it?
my DD house has a long external waste pipe from the kitchen, due to an new build extension.
today i had to clear it, of ice!
the long pipe was hidden with various items and a tarp.
one of the brackets had broke and there was a dip in the pipe.
hence it froze up last night with temps down to - 15 c.

LibbyR26

Hi, I think I have a similar problem. The water in my bathroom wash hand basin won't drain away. I don't think it's a blockage because I only use that basin for washing hands and cleaning teeth. The waste pipe outside is very long and appears to go underground when it reaches the bottom of the house. I'm in a tall victorian 2 storey house

What can I do to unblock it? Should I call a plumber? How do I stop it happening again? (apart from moving from the frozen north) If I leave it will it unblock itself when it thaws or is it then the pipe is likely to burst?

Apologies if these are silly questions but this is the 1st time I've had to deal with this. Cheers for any words of wisdom provided

hardpressed

I had a problem with the waste from my washing machine empting into an outside drain and the machine flooding because the drain froze. My solution, to stop it happening again once I'd thawed it, was to get an old bean bag seal it inside a dustbin bag and lay it over the drain and the outlet pipe then weight it down with bricks. I just remove it in the spring and put it back again in the winter.