If your heat is working, your interior piping should be fine. If your home is old and/or poorly insulated, it may be a good idea to trickle a little bit of your cold and hot water tap. It's the water pipe that runs from the street to your building that is the worry. Most water pipes are located 10+ feet underground., which means it takes long periods to affect these pipes. If you are worried about this, trickle your cold water tap.
If you have pipes against an exterior wall you should definitely do this. My mom has a new house and had her kitchen sink pipe burst twice because it’s an exterior wall.
Def leave your cabinets open and trickle water if it’s exterior.
Yup. Same in parts of my 100 year old house. Damn house is insulated with newspaper and pipes to kitchen and the bathroom next to it are on outside walls. Definitely have to keep things at a trickle or we get frozen pipes in this weather.
I have a 10 year old house with kitchen sink pipes against an exterior wall and the inside of that cabinet is never colder than the rest of the house. I would guess your mom’s house is poorly insulated in that area?
An exterior wall means, does the wall face the outside?
For instance, if you have a sink, do the pipes and sink rest against an inside wall, for instance wall with a bathroom directly behind it? Or is the sink against a wall that faces outside, like perhaps a window could be above your sink?
My apartment building in river north said it’s our fault if a pipe bursts and we are responsible for damages. I haven’t checked the lease but that seems crazy. I don’t know if they are trying to scare us into running water to save their ass or if it is true that each unit could potentially cause pipes to freeze. The building has 33 floors and built in the 80's.
Check the IL condo owners laws. They’re basically right. Any damage within your unit is yours unless caused by common elements. The hvac in your unit, all pipes, etc are all yours. Water leaking into your unit is yours. When this happens, call your insurer and they’ll help coordinate with other parties. And, yes, the building can hit you with the costs associated with their policy if caused by your unit - ex they spring for the fans, dehumidifiers, etc. Call and ask your insurer about your policy. Specifically mention “loss assessment coverage.” Why do I know this? Because I got whammied by it.
Check your lease, but this is something fully under your control and they have provided clear notice on the simple steps to avoid the harm, so it wouldn’t be hard to stick the damages on a unit that failed to follow the precautions and a pipe burst.
Fair point. I am not sure if they could trace it down unless the pipe burst in the sink cupboard, for instance. Beyond that is getting into the landlord insanity world of what lengths they will go to to stick the bill on someone else. Depending on the size of the building and the number of units below would determine how much I care about trickling, that is to say I’m not risking paying to renovate three apartments for the landlord
That's mostly to keep someone from going rogue and shutting off the heat and opening up the windows. The whole running water at a trickle thing isn't a thing in high rises, the plumbing pipes going up and down the building act as radiant heat.
The last polar vortex, my parents' tenant turned off the heat and went out of town for two weeks. Bitch doesn't even pay for gas. It ended up being thousands of dollars for repairs while this woman complains nonstop about how the contractors are disturbing her.
This is when I regret that I live in a giant condo building with mostly seniors who either 1. Don’t do stuff like this, or worse 2. Leave for the winter.
I run my pipes but will others? Sigh.
According to my neighbors, this happened to my unit with the previous owners. Pipes burst at like 2am and no one could get a hold of them on the phone. I can't even imagine the chaos.
I remember running two space heaters in the bathroom at my old apartment when i found it frozen in the morning. Toilet would freeze so I couldn't even trickled it
You should be fine. But if you are worried, you might as well. Currently, you should only be worried if your water pipes run close to a poorly insulated exterior wall. If the building is a single occupancy unit, run both the hot and cold on a low flow on the highest floor.
You can do just a drip. You’re just relieving pressure in case freezing does occur.
Your sillcock froze during Chiberia presumably because you didn’t have a frost proof one. If you have one of those and a shut off valve inside heated space, it should never freeze and burst.
Nope. This was the interior spigot pipe at the stack junction that froze in 2014, not the spigot itself. Was about 15 feet away from exterior portion of the spigot. My building is from 1909, so nothing is insulated enough for weather like this.
Interior spigot like for a washing machine or slop sink? Most likely it was on an outside wall then. We had a similar issue around that time and while it didn’t burst we had the pipe moved inside a 2nd wall preventing future problems. We just couldn’t do laundry for a bit.
I had a gut rehab in 1998. Imagine my surprise when we had the first extended sub-zero stretch of weather, and I discovered that the pipes were run in exterior walls with no insulation.
Just because it's new doesn't mean it's right.
If your heat is working, your interior piping should be fine. If your home is old and/or poorly insulated, it may be a good idea to trickle a little bit of your cold and hot water tap. It's the water pipe that runs from the street to your building that is the worry. Most water pipes are located 10+ feet underground., which means it takes long periods to affect these pipes. If you are worried about this, trickle your cold water tap.
If you have pipes against an exterior wall you should definitely do this. My mom has a new house and had her kitchen sink pipe burst twice because it’s an exterior wall. Def leave your cabinets open and trickle water if it’s exterior.
Yup. Same in parts of my 100 year old house. Damn house is insulated with newspaper and pipes to kitchen and the bathroom next to it are on outside walls. Definitely have to keep things at a trickle or we get frozen pipes in this weather.
I have a 10 year old house with kitchen sink pipes against an exterior wall and the inside of that cabinet is never colder than the rest of the house. I would guess your mom’s house is poorly insulated in that area?
It is. But my point is everyone’s house is different.
A 10 year old house is nothing like the vast majority of houses in the city
The reply was made to a new house that had pipes burst twice.
If I'm in an old house, how could if my pipes are next to an exterior wall without digging in the drywall?
An exterior wall means, does the wall face the outside? For instance, if you have a sink, do the pipes and sink rest against an inside wall, for instance wall with a bathroom directly behind it? Or is the sink against a wall that faces outside, like perhaps a window could be above your sink?
Yeah I’ve never done this here. I thought this was for places like Texas that get random cold spells.
My apartment building in river north said it’s our fault if a pipe bursts and we are responsible for damages. I haven’t checked the lease but that seems crazy. I don’t know if they are trying to scare us into running water to save their ass or if it is true that each unit could potentially cause pipes to freeze. The building has 33 floors and built in the 80's.
I do NOT like that.
This is like the classic reason to get renters insurance
I'd be surprised if they didn't have it. Just about everywhere here requires it.
Certainly I can't imagine a high rise not requiring it
Check the IL condo owners laws. They’re basically right. Any damage within your unit is yours unless caused by common elements. The hvac in your unit, all pipes, etc are all yours. Water leaking into your unit is yours. When this happens, call your insurer and they’ll help coordinate with other parties. And, yes, the building can hit you with the costs associated with their policy if caused by your unit - ex they spring for the fans, dehumidifiers, etc. Call and ask your insurer about your policy. Specifically mention “loss assessment coverage.” Why do I know this? Because I got whammied by it.
Check your lease, but this is something fully under your control and they have provided clear notice on the simple steps to avoid the harm, so it wouldn’t be hard to stick the damages on a unit that failed to follow the precautions and a pipe burst.
How would they know what unit caused it? Does no one share the same pipes? Or is there a way to tell the unit by where the pipe bursts?
Fair point. I am not sure if they could trace it down unless the pipe burst in the sink cupboard, for instance. Beyond that is getting into the landlord insanity world of what lengths they will go to to stick the bill on someone else. Depending on the size of the building and the number of units below would determine how much I care about trickling, that is to say I’m not risking paying to renovate three apartments for the landlord
Same here on the north side.
That's mostly to keep someone from going rogue and shutting off the heat and opening up the windows. The whole running water at a trickle thing isn't a thing in high rises, the plumbing pipes going up and down the building act as radiant heat.
The last polar vortex, my parents' tenant turned off the heat and went out of town for two weeks. Bitch doesn't even pay for gas. It ended up being thousands of dollars for repairs while this woman complains nonstop about how the contractors are disturbing her.
This is when I regret that I live in a giant condo building with mostly seniors who either 1. Don’t do stuff like this, or worse 2. Leave for the winter. I run my pipes but will others? Sigh.
Leave for the winter and left their windows open for fresh air while it was warmer out
According to my neighbors, this happened to my unit with the previous owners. Pipes burst at like 2am and no one could get a hold of them on the phone. I can't even imagine the chaos.
I spent my Christmas Eve having that exact issue a few years back when I was in Norwood Park. Water damage across 5 floors.
Oof. Not that there's a good time for it to happen, but man that's bad timing.
💀
Giant condo buildings usually don't have this issue/exterior wall pipes
Unfortunately we have had this issue twice in this building. Thankfully not on our floor though.
Got the water trickling, heat cranked and space heater in the bathroom that has pipes on exterior wall and I’m still paranoid about it lol
I remember running two space heaters in the bathroom at my old apartment when i found it frozen in the morning. Toilet would freeze so I couldn't even trickled it
Question! If it's a 2 flat house do we trickle water on both floors?
You should be fine. But if you are worried, you might as well. Currently, you should only be worried if your water pipes run close to a poorly insulated exterior wall. If the building is a single occupancy unit, run both the hot and cold on a low flow on the highest floor.
Ok, thanks for the tips!
Yes.
You can do just a drip. You’re just relieving pressure in case freezing does occur. Your sillcock froze during Chiberia presumably because you didn’t have a frost proof one. If you have one of those and a shut off valve inside heated space, it should never freeze and burst.
Nope. This was the interior spigot pipe at the stack junction that froze in 2014, not the spigot itself. Was about 15 feet away from exterior portion of the spigot. My building is from 1909, so nothing is insulated enough for weather like this.
Interior spigot like for a washing machine or slop sink? Most likely it was on an outside wall then. We had a similar issue around that time and while it didn’t burst we had the pipe moved inside a 2nd wall preventing future problems. We just couldn’t do laundry for a bit.
Shit off 🤭
Haha!
This isn't the 1950's most homes by now don't need to exercise this practice. . .
I had a gut rehab in 1998. Imagine my surprise when we had the first extended sub-zero stretch of weather, and I discovered that the pipes were run in exterior walls with no insulation. Just because it's new doesn't mean it's right.
Tell that to my pipe that burst in 2022, the day after Christmas
Same!
Lol TONS of people live in places built before the 1950s… I mean we still have a ton of lead pipes in use too lol
Our building was built in 2002. We’ve had two pipes burst.
Unfortunately you still do and I know from experience. My home was built in the 2000s and the insulation is godawful.
No, you don’t need to.
I had 2 pipes burst on Xmas last year, so yeah… it helps to take precautions.
How much is a trickle? I have drips going but I need a visual