Washing machine drain frozen

[manwithtools]

<Rant on>
Grrr, something's just piss me off. New home (spec build), washing machine supply lines and drain are inside the west facing outside wall of the house. Latest cold snap has the drain pipe frozen. Of course you don't know this until you run a load of clothes. Stupid place to put a drain pipe, even in TN. We do get cold sometimes, like -13 the other night.
<Rant off>

 

[Sumboodie]

Plumbing in an outside wall?

 

[PoorUB]

Time to stack a few straw bales against the wall, and aim an electric heater at the wall on the inside.

Good old farm boy ingenuity!

 

[Norcal]

Plumbing in an outside wall?

Damn common here.

 

[In The Doghouse]

Washer and dryer on outside wall gives you a short dryer vent pipe. It has its advantage.

 

[P0234]

Damn common here.

Same in Northern VA. Several houses in our old 'hood were built around 2008-2012 and had pipes on the outside walls that would freeze.

 

[Skiff Builder]

Doing a laundry room remodel tomorrow. Same thing- washer drain and supply lines on ext wall, north facing, 2x4 walls with lap cedar siding over 1" xps foam ..... southern coastal NJ, I don't like it, though no history of freezing -yet.

 

[Fixr]

<Rant on>
Grrr, something's just piss me off. New home (spec build), washing machine supply lines and drain are inside the west facing outside wall of the house. Latest cold snap has the drain pipe frozen. Of course you don't know this until you run a load of clothes. Stupid place to put a drain pipe, even in TN. We do get cold sometimes, like -13 the other night.
<Rant off>

My experience upon moving to Southwest Virginia after living kind of all over the country was that "We've always done it this way" seems to trump recent evidence and building codes. Reminds me of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. "Tradition!".

 

[PWC Repair]

I'm in Northern Arkansas and we see single digits or into negatives a few times every winter. My utility plumbing is all in the NORTH wall. I did it probably 15 or more years ago, and insulated the pipes. Never been an issue.

 

[manwithtools]

North wall would be welcomed. West, not so much.

 

[PoorUB]

My kitchen sink drain is in and outside wall. No trap in the wall so that helps. There isn't any insulation between the pipe and the drywall.

 

[Norcal]

When you are in a cold climate you build accordingly, when you are in a more temperate climate you get away with things that will bite you in the **** where the temps stay in the freezing temps, back in 1990, during one of California's many droughts the skies were clear & temps dropped into single digit temps, all hell broke loose, copper water lines in the attics froze, plumbing suppliers were rationing copper couplings, I had a 1/4" galvy pipe freeze that caused a house to lose water, & another galvy tee split open elsewhere.

 

[rburke65]

Open up the wall cavity and insulate! Eliminate the problem

 

[Innovate1]

Open up the wall cavity and insulate! Eliminate the problem

Problem is some pipes are almost as thick as the wall or the pipe may be nearer the outside wall. And if it's just fiberglass insulation it takes a little effort (not impossible though) to get good insulation between the outside of the wall and pipes. I had a kitchen sink drain freeze during a cold snap and start leaking some years ago. I was able to get to it by cutting the back out of the cabinet. Replaced the cast iron and lead pipes with PVC which was a lot smaller. Then put some sheet foam insulation between the outside sheeting and the pipe. Then reinstalled the rest of the fiberglass insulation and closed it up. No more problems. Bad combination though - pipes in an outside wall and cabinets on the inside so not much heat got to the wall.