It’s been cold here.
Bone chillin’ cold.
The kind of cold that forms ice crystals in your nose within 15 seconds of being outside.
The single digit temps have caused a couple of our faucets to freeze.
I called a plumber to see if he could make a house call. There was a long pause on the other end of the line to which I’m sure I could feel him rolling his eyes.
Apparently what he thought was common sense wasn’t very common to me
(and in my defense I’ve been living in the desert for the past 10 years).
What he told me was that pipes freeze when they haven’t been properly insulated and are most common on faucets that are located on an outside wall.
The first thing he recommended was to crank the heat up to 80 degrees.
Next, leave your cabinets open when the temps hit below freezing so the heat can get to the pipes.
When it is below freezing outside turn your faucet on so that it drips very slowly…day and night.
At least it gave me an excuse to finally organize under my sink.
Run a space heater under your cabinet until the pipe thaws.
Within two hours of following his recommendations I had running water again!
I’ve since been letting my faucets drip (which have been reeking havoc on my sleep schedule. I wake up about every hour thinking the house has flooded).