Frozen sewer pipes...need help asap! Thank you!

[whiskeylivewire]

Well, our pipes have been frozen for a week and started thawing out today. Our drains started freezing 2 nights ago. DH has been working overtime and hasn't been able to do anything about it, so that leaves....me. Now, I am capable, I just don't know what to do. Does anyone know how to thaw out sewer pipes? It's backed up into the bathtubs and kitchen sink. Thank you to anyone who can help!

[Cabin Fever]

#1 stop using water

Do you have a basement?

Do you have a crawl space?

Is your home built on a slab?

Do you have a septic system?

Are you on city sewer?

[whiskeylivewire]

Sorry, didn't give enough info.
Stopped using water the night the drains froze.
Live in a trailer, been crawling around under it with a heat lamp, leaving it on the low spots of the sewer lines.
It's a septic tank not city sewer

[PhilJohnson]

I live in a house with an unheated basement. My pipes will freeze when the temps dip below 0 degrees for more than a few nights in a row. The trick is never to let them freeze solid. I have a forced air kerosene heater in the basement (you can use the same style heater under your trailer). If the water doesn't come on in the morning I'll run it for half an hour. Does the trick every time. Sometimes I run it if it is very cold before going to bed. Once stuff starts freezing solid it is a big pain to unthaw plus it can lead to busted pipes.

[Cabin Fever]

I would focus on heating any horizontal runs and any P-traps that might be exposed below the shower or bathtubs. You might want to think about purchasing some heat tape and wrap those areas.

[rider]

check to see if your outlet pipe for septic tank is open ours will freeze up then the pipe freezes back to septic tank its fun to thaw that out we use a heated powder washer to blow hot water backwards threw the pipe also check to make sure your septic tank isnt full casue that will cause back up also and allow pipes to freeze cause nothing is moving good luck to you

[Windy in Kansas]

In part it depends upon where they are frozen. Could it just be that the traps are frozen?

If so pouring some extremely hot water into the fixture might through them. DON'T do that to a toilet or other china fixture as it might break.

The good news is that Kansas had a warm up yesterday in which the temperature reached 33º where I live. Expect the warmer air will reach you today or tomorrow and eventually nature will take its course.

[whiskeylivewire]

The heatlamp worked on one side of the trailer...then I poured boiling water down the bathtub drain...it's still draining slow but hey, it's draining! And now, I have the heat lamp on the other low spot of the pipe...thanks guys and heat tape is a must buy! I'm going to finish the insulation this weekend.

[The Paw]

If it is the traps that are frozen, they will eventually thaw from the standing water once the temp in the crawl space comes up. If you haven't closed the vents to the crawl space, do so. Shoveling some snow around the edges of the skirting to prevent drafts from blowing under the skirting will help as well. A light bulb is all I would use for a heat source under there.

If your septic tank froze or the pump failed, then the sewage backs up the sewer lines, and if it left standing in the lines can freeze. If that happens, it is really bad, as the entire length of line can end up being a block of ice. That happened to me once. If you can snake a garden hose up from the septic tank end, you can run hot water into the lines and thaw them that way. If not, you can't really do it from the house end, as the water has no where to go. Then you might try several light bulbs or a heat tape. Don't try to use a torch on it, you will burn your trailer down.

In normal circumstances, the sewer lines shouldn't freeze, as there should be no standing water in them. If you are without water and you are flushing the toilet with melted snow, then the lack of adequate flush can result in stranded turds, which can then freeze. Those normally melt quickly once you get some room temp water down there.

[fishhead]

If the water is going down slowly mix up some concentrated saltwater and pour that in the drain.

[Beeman]

Is it underpinned? Heat tape shuldn't be needed on drains. The only place a drain should have standing water is in the P trap. All other water should run on a down slope and be gone brfore it could freeze. Since the heat under the trailer has worked that's where your problem is. The bath tub trap is under the floor but if other drains stopped working you have a pipe that isn't draining.

[whiskeylivewire]

They're thawed!!!! I put the heat lamp on the pipes where they dipped down a bit...and within minutes they were draining. After that I poured hot water down the drains. I now have all my water and drains yay! You have no idea how proud I am of myself, I am working on becoming more self-sufficent, with a bunch of ladies on here being my role models!

Thank you for everyone's advice and help. I will do everything in my power to make sure it does NOT happen again!

[motdaugrnds]

Congratulations on getting your pipes thawed! You indeed have a right to be feeling real good now!

[fishhead]

You may want to prop up the sags in the line to help it drain before you wrap it with insulation.

[tiogacounty]

Originally Posted by fishhead

You may want to prop up the sags in the line to help it drain before you wrap it with insulation.

Yes indeed, if you have a sag that puddles water, you need to fix it before you bother with heat tape and insulation. It's east to do. Stop at any big box home store and get a roll of plastic plumber's tape. This is a thick plastic band with a pre-punched hole every inch, like a belt. Now take a roof nail and nail the end of the tape to a floor joist, directly above the sag. Pull the tape down tight, wrap it around the pipe and pull up, until the sag is gone. Take the tape back up to the joist and nail it off. Use a tin snips or utility knife to cut the extra tape off. The drain lines should be pitched down toward where the poop's final destination is. This should be a nice even pitch of 1/4to 3/8" of tilt, to a foot of pipe run. If you have a 2' level, take a stack of pennies, a half inch tall and tape them to the top of the level, as close to one end as possible. Use a few wraps of electrical tape to secure them.. Now us it under the pipes with the penny stack up and away from the flow of water. If the level is level, you have good pitch. Great job so far.

[mldollins]

I now am a little smarter today than what I was before....

[whiskeylivewire]

Thanks, and yea I'll definitely get the sags lifted asap. We have more "wintery mix" and a cold snap heading this way. I do NOT want to have to go through this again!

[Harry Chickpea]

Your trailer will likely continue to have problems. Water freezing in sewer lines is unusual, and indicates that you have no insulation around the pipes or skirting. Heat tape is normally only used on pressurized water lines. Your traps should all be in areas that are insulated or heated, and no plumbing - sewer OR pressurized lines - directly exposed to the weather. I'll be willing to bet your floors are also uncomfortably cold.

Your heat lamp is one stopgap solution. Using poultices of unslaked lime then soaking them with water to make them heat up is another. Ultimately, your skirting needs to have more insulation so that the ground heat will keep things from freezing.

As others have said, where water fills the traps is where you are having freeze up. A heat lamp works to thaw them but a heat gun (hair dryer on steroids) works even faster. Heat tape and insulation are the way to fix it right.

If you have a slow drip from a toilet or a faucet go into a freezing cold drain the water will freeze in the drain before the water has a chance to run down into the buried pipe which, in your climate, should be above freezing. If this continues long enough you can have a total frozen blockage in an area where you normaly don't. Then the rest of the pipe back toward the fixture fills with water and freezes too. It can crack the pipe.

[insocal]

Good insulation; heat tape on supply lines and drain traps; more insulation.

Did I mention insulation?

We had a cabin high in the Rockies when I was a kid and in college. Ask me how I know about frozen pipes, lol.