Another naïve new homeowner, another frozen pipe :(

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flowerdew

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Hi! This question seems so far below the paygrade of this forum, but it's nearly 11 pm and one of my pipes is likely frozen and I can't figure out one should-be-simple thing.

The faucet in question is my second story shower, which is the only faucet on that floor which is on an external wall. That external wall is super chilly, it turns out! Also fed by the same pipe but still running with no apparent difficulty are my toilet and two bathroom sinks, all of which are positioned on internal walls. All other faucets in my house are in working order.

I've turned on every faucet in my home and left it trickling. I've opened the blocked shower faucet fully and set up a space heater next to it and have turned up the heat in my house. I'm getting, at best, an intermittent, grey drip from the faucet, not enough to be confident that it's not just water remaining from a prior use. I've located the shutoff valves for the second floor and have shut off the cold water. But with the rest of the faucets running clear up there and unlikely to freeze as they're not near an external wall, should I shut off the hot water as well or continue to let those faucets run? Will the hot water moving through those pipes be more likely to help thaw the portion of the pipe that's frozen, or cause more heartache for me in the long run?

It's not likely to get past the single digits here until Thursday, and we're scheduled for negative temperatures all day Wednesday. No thaw is in the offing.

This question feels so dumb as I ask it, but I honestly don't know what to do. Any advice would be so welcome.

Thanks,
Jenny
 

Terry

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Hot water freezes before cold.
Most broken pipes from freezing are on the hot side. The space heater sounds like a good idea.
 

hj

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Do not turn off the cold water to the shower. If you do, the hot water will NOT run when it starts to thaw, but will just freeze further. You want the water to be able to work its way through the frozen section and as soon as you get a small flow it will thaw the remainder very quickly. Your "headache" will be if you don't let those lines thaw, by running water through them, they will continue to freeze further and then the pipes will split.
 

flowerdew

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Thank you both. Nothing yet, and I've found another faucet that I believe is on a different line that seems to have hot water service only. We're getting close to the point where I might be able to get a call in to someone competent who can take a look. I appreciate your help getting me on the right track!
 

flowerdew

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Just wanted to follow up: after about 12 hours of heating the bathroom (including a thrown breaker from trying to run a space heater and a hairdryer on the same outlet), we were able to open up a trickle. Not much visible progress after that until 6 hours later, when it seemed to entirely thaw all at once. Everything is working fine now.

The other line I worried was frozen turned out to be the only sink in the house on the same line as the outdoor faucets, so when I shut their valve, obviously no cold water was making it to the sink. Good thing I'm not doing this professionally!

We also determined the cause of the pipes freezing. Squirrels have managed to pull out several siding squares under the roof overhang and have been diligently removing insulation from the area around the pipes. Hopefully getting a wildlife mitigator in and replacing the insulation and siding will prevent this from happening again in the future.

Thanks again for your help with my questions. I truly appreciate it.
 
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