Soil pipe frozen - kitchen flooded
Discussion
Moved into a house yesterday that has been stood a week. A guest flushed the toilet last night and water started pissing through kitchen ceiling. Thought it was a burst fitting. Turned stop tap off, got a plumber in today. Turns out it's the soil pipe completely frozen up. And leaking out of pan connector. Said it's the 3rd he'd seen. No back fall anywhere just thinks it's from ice forming and snagging stuff, which has frozen and blocked it. Soil pipe feels like a block of concrete, probably won't be thawed this side of next March!!!
I had this with the toilet sink waste pipe which goes to the outside of the house briefly before disappearing into the drain. I just poured hot water over the outside of the pipe, which did the trick temporarily. It was frozen the next morning, but I just did the same again. Might work for you if the pipe is accessible. My sink waste is probably a lot smaller bore to your toilet waste pipe, so you might need a bit more hot water.
Fark. That's not good!
Similar to above, can you not syphon out water from the toilet bowl (or whatever its technical term is) and fill it with hot water which should work its way past the U-bend, heating up anything on its way to the outside?
On a similar note, I notice a slight tapping noise when it gets really cold when I wash my hands in the bathroom basin - I am guessing there's ice forming in the pipe because it's sagging a little? I noticed it first when we got the first snow; it went away and came back a few days ago; didn't happen today as everything is thawing.
Similar to above, can you not syphon out water from the toilet bowl (or whatever its technical term is) and fill it with hot water which should work its way past the U-bend, heating up anything on its way to the outside?
On a similar note, I notice a slight tapping noise when it gets really cold when I wash my hands in the bathroom basin - I am guessing there's ice forming in the pipe because it's sagging a little? I noticed it first when we got the first snow; it went away and came back a few days ago; didn't happen today as everything is thawing.
Hahahaha. 
Sorry, I have to laugh, I've just spent two hours trying to sort the exact same problem at my grandfathers bungalow.
Soil pipe is about 1.5ft high, a leaky gutter has caused lots of water to form around said soil pipe, this has frozen, soil pipe now also frozen.
By the way, pouring hot water down the toilet, is this a bad idea? Hot water freezes faster than cold so it could become a bigger issue?
Sorry, I have to laugh, I've just spent two hours trying to sort the exact same problem at my grandfathers bungalow.
Soil pipe is about 1.5ft high, a leaky gutter has caused lots of water to form around said soil pipe, this has frozen, soil pipe now also frozen.
By the way, pouring hot water down the toilet, is this a bad idea? Hot water freezes faster than cold so it could become a bigger issue?
Edited by Oakey on Wednesday 22 December 17:37
Oakey said:
By the way, pouring hot water down the toilet, is this a bad idea? Hot water freezes faster than cold
Eh?I also thought of pouring boiling water down, but whether it would melt the frozen blockage or whether the frozen blockage would freeze the hot water I wasn't sure. Depends on the quantity of each I guess.
hidetheelephants said:
Shaman said:
My kitchen soil pipe keeps freezing (dripping tap). It's about 5ft long (outside of house) and I just pour hot water over the pipe and down the sink. Managed to completely clear it today when I did a fish tank water change.
Would it not be simpler to just fix the tap?Siphon out the lavatory trap - that, presumably is when you wished you had an apprentice to get the siphon going! I'm amazed that it is cold enough for soil pipes to freeze. Large calibre, usually vertical drop until they go below ground, infrequent boluses of tepid water (the cistern contents will tend to warm up when waiting to be used and both solids & liquids will enter the bowl at 37 degrees C) - presumably they would only freeze if you had an overflow pipe which discharged into the soil pipe, with a slow drip, allowing build-up of ice. Do Nordic, Canadian and central European countries have internal soil pipes?
If we are really entering a period of repeated cold winters (and - for certain, high hydrocarbon prices) then we'll have to adjust to it - building regs, insulation, condensing boilers, 4WD or winter tyres, heated runways and live rails.....
If we are really entering a period of repeated cold winters (and - for certain, high hydrocarbon prices) then we'll have to adjust to it - building regs, insulation, condensing boilers, 4WD or winter tyres, heated runways and live rails.....
Simpo Two said:
Oakey said:
By the way, pouring hot water down the toilet, is this a bad idea? Hot water freezes faster than cold
Eh?I also thought of pouring boiling water down, but whether it would melt the frozen blockage or whether the frozen blockage would freeze the hot water I wasn't sure. Depends on the quantity of each I guess.
Yeah, I had to double check that too, seems in the right conditions it does.
tter![quote]
If we are really entering a period of repeated cold winters (and - for certain, high hydrocarbon prices) then we'll have to adjust to it - building regs, insulation, condensing boilers, 4WD or winter tyres, heated runways and live rails.....
[/quote]
They are currently heating the live rails too overcome this problem.
If we are really entering a period of repeated cold winters (and - for certain, high hydrocarbon prices) then we'll have to adjust to it - building regs, insulation, condensing boilers, 4WD or winter tyres, heated runways and live rails.....
[/quote]
They are currently heating the live rails too overcome this problem.
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