Plumbing advice: No water in shower

[Jiri Hrdina]

I know nothing of these things, and it is impossible to get ahold of a plumber.
I suddenly have no water coming out of my shower. All other taps, sources of water in the house still work. But the shower has nothing.

Is there a chance that this means part of my pipes are frozen?

[FLAMESRULE]

Is it both hot and cold? My bathroom sink taps gets frozen when it's -40, only cold side until this year. I just open the taps until they thaw out.

[zamler]

Is the shower head and fixture on an outside wall?

[surferguy]

Probably a frozen pipe Jiri.

Does the tub work?

[Wormius]

I understand there might be the possibility the water lines being on the wrong side of the insulation inside the wall. I suspect that is what is happening with two of mine that stopped working the second day of the cold snap.

I wonder if there is a way to force warm water back through, since the lines aren’t accessible at all.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

Is it both hot and cold? My bathroom sink taps gets frozen when it's -40, only cold side until this year. I just open the taps until they thaw out.

Yeah both hot and cold. nothing flowing.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by surferguy

Probably a frozen pipe Jiri.

Does the tub work?

Tub and shower are the same.

[surferguy]

No access to the lines I presume? Is there an access panel around?

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Yeah both hot and cold. nothing flowing.

Yeah, if it's on an outside wall and everything else works (and no river of water in the house), it's likely frozen. I assume the tub didn't work either. Do you know it's plastic or copper? Can just open the tap a bit in case of pressure

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

Yeah, if it's on an outside wall and everything else works (and no river of water in the house), it's likely frozen. I assume the tub didn't work either. Do you know it's plastic or copper? Can just open the tap a bit in case of pressure

I opened the tap and a bit of hot water is flowing.
Tub and shower come from the same source with neither working.
According to my inspection report it is Polybutelene piping.

[Wormius]

At least if it’s plastic, it’s less prone to bursting.

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I opened the tap and a bit of hot water is flowing.
Tub and shower come from the same source with neither working.
According to my inspection report it is Polybutelene piping.

If water is flowing really slowly just leave it open too, it'll thaw it out and put some heat into the piping space.

And plastic is good.

[Buff]

Is it on an outside wall? If so, definitely frozen.

My water drain from the washing machine is the only thing on an outside wall. The water is supply is too but it's far enough on the inside to not get frozen. My kid complained of having no clean clothes so my wife threw some in the wash and suddenly water was flowing out of the drain. It's frozen. 2nd time in 13 years this has happened to us... I'm opening up the wall this summer to see if the pipe is insulated... Im guessing it isn't.

Back to you. Since you can't use high power consuming devices like hair dryers or space heaters you may be stuck waiting for warmer weather to see if something thaws in the pipes... You could start a camp fire in your shower but things would really go wrong if you do, so don't do that.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Thanks for the advice folks

[FleuryFan89]

Can you take the shower trim off? If you can pull it off and you can see how cold it may be behind it.
Basement, main floor, top floor? Is it by a cantilever?
With plastic pipe you are way better off as often copper pipe will burst.
But having poly B it is a bit more of a risk freezing over compared to pex.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Kitchen faucet is frozen for me the last few days. Same thing: along an outside wall. Tried a space heater and even turned on the oven for a while to no avail. Closed the pipe valves under the sink and waiting for warmer weather.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Kitchen faucet is frozen for me the last few days. Same thing: along an outside wall. Tried a space heater and even turned on the oven for a while to no avail. Closed the pipes under the sink and waiting for warmer weather.

Our fridge water line freezes when we get a few days of -20 or colder.

[blankall]

Our cold water line for the downstairs sink froze. Put a space heater under it and it opened up.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Buff

Is it on an outside wall?

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Thanks for the advice folks

It will always remain a secret.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Yes it’s on an outside wall