Plumbing Issue

[Northendzone]

So, had the plumber come by today and he confirmed that it was a frozen line. I,had the plumber install shut off valves to,the laundry lines in the middle of the basement - $225 for this.

After the plumber left, I pulled down my shelves in my work area so I could get up in the cavity where the laundry lines go thru the floor, and I could see that one of those straps with a nail they used to keep the pex line in place had broken and the line was resting against the vent for the dryer, so I guess the line must have been cold enough to freeze in one spot.

So I have place one of those foam pipe cozies around the cold water line, I also built a 10 layer sandwich of this product called reflectix ( it is a layer of bubble wrap between outer layers of a tine foil type material), the dryer vent itself is wrapped in an insulated type wrap as well. I placed my sandwich between the dryer vent and the now foam wrapped cold water line. I then tried to repack the area with fibreglass pink insulation.

I hope this stops the issues from happening as it is very hard to work in the area as it is very small with lots of electrical, plumbing drain and water lines and the dryer vent.

[Northendzone]

I am ready to lose my mind, as my lines are once again frozen or blocked.....they were working perfectly last night.

I SE no other alternative than to once again pull down all my shelves, move my work bench and get right in there. I was thinking last night that I should hold off putting things back together.

I'd imagine I will have to somehow move the dryer vent to get some working space in the area.

This is very frustrating.

At the moment I am considering burning it with fire to thaw the lines

[Northendzone]

Update, pulled out a bunch of insulation, installed pipe cozy around hot water line, then tried the water, and bam, it is working.

So I am leaving my basement a mess for a while, until this issue settles itself. I did notice that one of the flaps on my dryer vent was stuck open, so I fixed that.

My one thought I had was that perhaps stuffing insulation in there was perhaps trapping cold air in the area, and not allowing warm air from the basement to circulate in the area. I know that is a stretch, but it is all I got.

I was also wondering if I could vent my dryer in my basement or something, remove the vent tube in question and I would then have room to work in the void. Edit, the answer to venting the dry in the house or garage is no due to lint particles and moisture issues.....

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

I,had the plumber install shut off valves to,the laundry lines in the middle of the basement - $225 for this.

Wow I'm in the wrong business.

I had a sneaking suspicion it was freezing. Odd that this hasn't come up before though, is this your first year in this house? Really fortunate that the pipe didn't split.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Wow I'm in the wrong business.

I had a sneaking suspicion it was freezing. Odd that this hasn't come up before though, is this your first year in this house? Really fortunate that the pipe didn't split.

My contractor insurance was almost double when I had coverage for plumbing.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Wow I'm in the wrong business.

I had a sneaking suspicion it was freezing. Odd that this hasn't come up before though, is this your first year in this house? Really fortunate that the pipe didn't split.

we have been living in the house for 13 years now - I am guessing that it must be a somewhat small spot where it freezes. Plumber mentioned to me that PEX pipes do have the capacity to stretch a little.

Water was flowing fine last night, going to do a little more insulation work around the pipe over the weekend and hopefully the problem goes away.