Well here is a good one.  Daughter lives in one of those big azed subdivisions west of Chicago and East of Rockford.  Folks on her street cry the blues in the winter about frozen water pipes that lead to upstairs.  Seems the pipes run inside the outside wall on the north side of the homes.

Anyhow, SIL's pop was an engineer and he got into the issue with SIL and engineered some sort of fix (I never looked cus you know who knows it all) for the winter like maybe draining the pipes.

Life goes on and daughter's FIL has aged and don't get into that stuff any more.  So Daughter was complaining lately that it is that time of year and they have frozen pipes and it just pizzes her off.

Bottom line, is there some sort of hillbilly, Yankee, or whatever type of ingenuity that would help keep the water flowing in those pipes.  I know of the ole let it drip fix but somehow the water always gets turned off and here we go again.

Anyone know of any "tricks" to help with this dilemma?

Thanx

 First thing I thought of was letting it run a little. Beyond that I don't think there is much magic? Find the frozen area and add heat and or additional cold weather insulation??

Find where the pipes run up the wall and remove the drywall between the studs.  the warm house may keep them thawed.  If they don't like the open wall, buy louvered doors, or  some sort of decorative louvers, and run them up the wall over the area.  You can also make sure that there is insulation behind the pipes.  If that doesn't solve the problem, put heat tape on the pipes.  The last time I installed it was in the early 80's and it was far improved back then, even had a thermostat on it.  I imagine it would be even better now.  The stuff I used was blue and about the size of network cable.  You didn't even have to put insulation over it because it worked so well.

Anyway, this solution is a little extreme, but a permanent fix.  And I would not drywall over the pipes if you put heat tape on them.

I'm with Steve, abandon the outside wall pipes, run 100% new in an inside wall.

Do it right, ONCE, and you'll never have to worry about it again.

Also...  I'll lay odds the guy who 'engineered' the water delivery system also brought the weeping tile water INTO the house through a hole in the wall to a sump and you have to pump it back out ? (yeah, pet peeve of mine..see it in new houses all the time..)

Yeah Lou  , I wasn't going to get into the Santa Clause portion of that contract.

I don't understand how some of the pipes in the area have not burst yet.  Her neighbors complain of the same problem.

Anyway the problem is 4 hours away from me, but I am going to do some research on the circulation deal that Pat referenced. 

Thanks all.

how HOT are the other homes ??? even 2-3* WILL make the difference as to whose pipes freeze, also wind and IF there's ANY insulation !

slimey contractor got 'insulation' approval for the east side of the road, that night his crew removed and carried to west side houses...

The pipes are probably plastic, so welder won't work. Pipes in wall has always been a major no-no! Rout pipes to a safe place, if people don't like the looks,--- tuff s**t !

That wouldn't happen to be the Silver Glenn subdivision, would it? That's West of Chicago. I know a bit about that one!

IF PEX was run correctly ,it wouldn't have split or failed either.....

it's NOT the tubings fault..it's the installers !!!

Jay

I had a problem with a pipe freezing in my bathroom where the pex is in the outside wall for about 4'.  I added another 1.5" of foam board to the outside wall in place of the wood and siding (old house).  If it's below zero for several days I leave the under sink cabinet doors open but haven't had any problems since.

I remember a friend telling me his wife came home from work early one cold winter day, she worked at a fast food joint.  The building was prefabbed in the south and then shipped up north and put together.  All the plumbing was on the exterior walls and roof.  Inspector never saw how it was done and didn't have plans to look at.  I guess the franchise owner and the building manufacturer made some kind of agreement out of court.

When I first moved in my house I wanted a laundry sink in the basement, only convenient place to put it was on an outside wall beside a 5ft wide garage door I suppose for small lawn equipment.  I ran copper lines right up against the sheetrock with fiberglass insulation behind it.  First winter they froze because the siding was 4' X 8' pressed cardboard crap so I replaced it with Smart Siding, been 20 years, they haven't frozen since.