Replies

1. 
   geob21 | Jan 14, 2004 05:18am | #1

   Drain them?

2. 
   KCPLG | Jan 14, 2004 05:24am | #2

   We are not allowed waterlines in an exterior wall period by code. But if you outline the scenario there is usually a way to work it out.

3. 
   UncleDunc | Jan 14, 2004 05:33am | #3

   Heating cable, manual or thermostat controlled.

   Open a tap when it gets cold so there's enough flow through both lines to keep them from freezing.

   Put them next to a heat duct.

4. 
   calvin | Jan 14, 2004 05:40am | #4

   Insulate behind them, never to the room side.  Somehow allow conditioned air to feed the space.  I can't help but wonder how in a climate that extreme there wasn't another place to put them.  What won out, beauty instead of function?

   Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

   Quittin' Time

5. 
   RalphWicklund | Jan 14, 2004 05:46am | #5

   Build your walls as you normally would with insulation, VB and drywall. Then, because you say you HAVE to have the water lines on the exterior wall, fur and rock that wall so that the piping is now within the conditioned space. Essentially a double wall in that area.

6. 
   ravenwind | Jan 14, 2004 06:07am | #6

   are they in already if so then its to late turn them on and leave them on and pray they dont freeze or like the guy said drain them. good luck, and first chance you get move them, then forget about it.   Dogboy

7. 
   xMikeSmith | Jan 14, 2004 06:23am | #7

   use pex... and a mooney wall... run all the lines in the 1 1/2" space on  the warm side

   Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

1. 
   Piffin | Jan 14, 2004 07:17am | #8

   And

   We have a winner!.

   Excellence is its own reward!

8. 
   toast953 | Jan 14, 2004 09:06am | #9

   Are    you on city water or well?? If I was on city water, open the taps- a slower than  # one bathrm stop. Open all cabinet doors if plumbing is in there. Keep the heat up, and wait to call a plumber for at least two or three weeks after first thaw, and have him relocate pipes. If you are a religious type, well, I pray,, naw I'd just relocate the pipes. Jim J

9. 
   MajorWool | Jan 14, 2004 11:22am | #10

   I'd make sure there was an easy way to drain them since you can never tell when the heat might go off-line. During our recent extended stint of unseasonably cold weather, I discovered there was no cutoff for the exterior hose bibs, so I covered them with insulation, popped one of those foam covers over it, and then hung a trouble light with a 60 watt bulb from the pipe just inside the wall. Seemed to work and was much cheaper than heat tape for the few days it was needed.

   You might also want to crank the main service cutoff valve way down (but not totally off) at night so if there is a break in the pipes it will be managable.

10. 
    NickNukeEm | Jan 14, 2004 03:37pm | #11

    I had to do this for a kitchen reno this past summer.  We don't get much below zero, here, however.  The supply lines had to get to the outside wall kitchen sink via a beam that crossed the kitchen, into the shed ceiling for about a foot, then down a chase along the interior wall until it penetrated the countertop.  The reason for the circuitous route is that the area below the kitchen is inaccesible.

    To minimize the potential for freezing, when I built the box beam that enclosed the pipes I drilled multiple 1 inch holes in the top to allow air to circulate.  The pipes in the ceiling were plumbed as close to the DW as possible, and the space from the pipes to the roof sheathing was well insulated.  The pentrations thru the DW were oversized and not sealed to allow air to circulate.  The pipes were stood off from the wall in the pipe chase down the wall, and the pipe penetrations into the counter were oversized to allow air to move.  The thought was that warm conditioned air would flow through the holes in the beam, travel along the pipes, cooling, growing more dense, falling along the pipes through the ceiling and pipe chase, supplanting the cold air with warmer air using natural convection.  So far so good.  Through the past several cold snaps, they have not frozen.  (Fingers crossed.)

    Hope this helps.

    I never met a tool I didn't like!