Blocked shower and sink in en-suite, could the waste pipe be frozen?

Party_Animal

I've done plastic with a blowlamp, low flame and keep it moving.

tony6403

Party_Animal wrote: »

If the waste pipe is falling properly it shouldn't freeze. It would only freeze if it was holding water somewhere .

The pipe that I cleared was almost vertical.
The icing up occured because of the slow drip of water. The small quantities of water freeze up as they slowly make their way down the pipe . Eventually it blocks up completely.

singlehouseholder

same problem with my bath, got plumber out yesterday who confirmed that the pip propably is frozen and that I could gerrup on a ladder and pour boiling water to defrost, or wait forrit to thaw. Looks like its showers for me from now

wallbash

The small quantities of water freeze up as they slowly make their way down the pipe . Eventually it blocks up completely.

Time to tell people to use their bath/basin plugs overnight.
Having a warm house does not stop external pipes causing problems .

Lilium

Could be. My bath waste pipe certainly froze on Sunday night...it was just fine when I gave the little one a bath that evening...but I used the shower (shower is over bath) on Monday morning and the water wasn't going anywhere. Plumber came out (originally to sort boiler but got him to do the bath pipe as well) and cleared a massive icicle out of the pipe with the aid of a blowtorch (it's a metal pipe).

Will try lagging the pipe but I doubt that'll do much if/when the temp drops so low again.

wallbash

Will try lagging the pipe but I doubt that'll do much if/when the temp drops so low again.

Exterior waste are not normally lagged... they should not have standing water in them .
Save your cash , buy new non-drip taps , or replace plug.

dizziblonde

Our bathroom sink pipe's got the same thing going on at the moment and because of how it's laid out - it's nigh on impossible to get to where I think it's frozen where it exits the building. Time to brush my teeth in the bath because hot water was doing nowt to it last night and just let it thaw out naturally. Neighbour came out to see hubby prodding things with a stick in that way men do to look vaguely productive when they can't fix something (it's either a stick or a hammer they get out) and he'd had exactly the same happen to him the freeze before.

Also had frozen waste pipes from the dishwasher and washing machine last night to the fitted waste pipe - those got the hairdryer treatment! Nuts!

Mind you - last year it was so cold the oil in the pipes from my mum's heating oil tank into the house froze up.

Am considering hibernation till about June.

AGBAGB

wallbash wrote: »

Non plastic . i'm guessing .
My tip is tea towel tied round pipe. Then slowly pour boiling water on towel
, repeat when towel cools.

This is the best solution I can think of. The towels keep the heat aginst the pipe for longer than just pouring hot water over the pipe.
It's quick and safe as long as you don't scold yourself or fall off a ladder.

I put a couple of pictures up on my blog http://idostuff.co.uk/blogs/archives/406

easy

I used to live in a beautiful old country house in Derbyshire. In the coldest winters our bathrooms would always suffer this problem, old metal (iron?) drain pipes down the outside of the building would ice-up, meaning that bathing/showering/washing upstairs wasn't an option after 3 or 4 days of sub-zero temps.

We just used to wash in the kitchen, until the weather warmed up a bit. If we saw that the water collected in the bath/washbasin had trickled away, we would immediately put a kettleful of hot water down to clear it completely, and take a bath or whatever while we could !!

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

thanks for this thread, I've got the same probs with my en suite shower wont drain, I have had a heater blowing into the access cupboard but its freaking me out how much electric ts costing so now off, not sure what to do, tried salt, plunger hot water and soda crystals and vinegar, wonder about anti freeze/...