Burst pipes - Plastic better?

sancho

I have an outhouse that used to be a toilet which I put our washing machine in when we moved in. It's about 3 feet from the house with a concrete 'roof' connecting it.

I woke up this morning to gushing water and discovered that the pipe has burst.

The water supply to it comes up through the floor, there's a meter straight away and then maybe 4 foot of copper pipe which terminates in an outside tap (in the alleyway between the house and the outhouse) - I used a self tapping attachment to add a cold water feed to the washing machine and lagged the pipes.

Obviously it has been very cold and burst the pipe. I have turned off the water (obviously) and removed the lagging, it appears to be burst after the tap I added for the washing machine.

Should I just replace the section which has burst? Or the whole thing? Would plastic be more resistant to freezing?

Any advice would be helpful!

jayyar66

In short. . . No, plastic wouldn't be more resistant to freezing. It will be more resistant to bursting though because it is better able to accommodate the expansion that occurs when water freezes. HOWEVER, what will happen instead is the forming plug of ice WILL force off the connections! You say the pipework is insulated? How thick? But dont think that insulation will stop pipes freezing, it will only slow down the rate at which the water in the pipes cools down, thereby delaying the onset of freezing. Your only guaranteed way of stopping the pipes freezing is either to heat the outhouse or heat the pipework. Google "Electric trace heating cable"

sancho

Thanks.

The foam I had put on the pipes is maybe 20mm thick, so not much. Because we use the washing machine regularly I thought it would stop the build up of ice, but of course I forgot about the bit past the washing machine connector, I perhaps should have turned the outside tap on a little bit regularly.

For the moment I have cut off the pipe the other side of the washing machine tap and fitted one of these



obviously with it 'turned off'. I will worry about changing the remaining pipe later on. I'm planning on buying some better insulation for the remaining pipe later.

Heating the room isn't really an option. Although I may get a little fan heater that I could put in there every so often.

SailorSam

It's a bit late for this time but, i have an outside tap with a 'stop tap' inside the kitchen, in this weather i leave the tap open but turned off inside. In future rather than go to the trouble of heating the out-house just turn on the water when you have washing to do.

sancho

SailorSam wrote: »

It's a bit late for this time but, i have an outside tap with a 'stop tap' inside the kitchen, in this weather i leave the tap open but turned off inside. In future rather than go to the trouble of heating the out-house just turn on the water when you have washing to do.

Yeah, the stop tap for that feed is in the most awkward place possible; before the meter right in the far corner which means taking the washing machine out in order to turn it off - that wasn't fun this morning when water was firing everywhere!!

If it was in a better place we could turn it on when we wanted to use the washing machine, that would be great.

Stooby2

The other option is to fit a small electric heater in the outhouse controlled by a froststat. There's a good chance that water in the washing machine could freeze and damage that too, so keeping the outhouse above freezing might be worthwhile.

sancho

Thanks for advice so far.

This is what I've ended up with.



Aside from the heating thing, what would be the best was to improve this? Can you get compression fit washing machine taps? I'm always worried that the one on there won't last and if I'm going to sort it out I might as well do it a bit more 'properly'

BertieUK

sancho wrote: »

Thanks for advice so far.

This is what I've ended up with.



Aside from the heating thing, what would be the best was to improve this? Can you get compression fit washing machine taps? I'm always worried that the one on there won't last and if I'm going to sort it out I might as well do it a bit more 'properly'

The successful method was described by Stooby2 - only a small heater would be required fitted with, as suggested a Froststat and your troubles are over, this is the least disruptive and would only be required at this time of year.

Plus lagging all pipework within the room that is away from the corner is also important that.

sancho

Stooby2 wrote: »

The other option is to fit a small electric heater in the outhouse controlled by a froststat. There's a good chance that water in the washing machine could freeze and damage that too, so keeping the outhouse above freezing might be worthwhile.

Can you recommend anything?

When I Google froststat I get room thermostats

jayyar66

Try this:

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Heating/Controllers/Salus+Frost+Thermostat/d230/sd2732/p38650

Stooby2

And I offer this site as an example of the sort of heater I had in mind...

http://www.tubeheat.co.uk/

I have no connection with the company.