wife calls from bathroom ‘the water isn’t draining out the bath’…..go to investigate, right enough, bath full of her used water, plug out, nowt happening. 👿

so the waste goes out through the external wall, along a shallow gradient 2 inch or so pipe for 6 feet then joins the main riser/downpipe. presumably frozen solid. grrrr

It is on the north side of the house and temp hasn’t been over freezing or any sun on that wall in at least a week, current temp -13.4.

Thankfully we have a seperate shower in ensuite and waste is internal on that one, so not smelly yet !

syphoning bath water into the loo is not very pleasant 🙄

A few of my friends have said about their soils freezing up, not had it myself luckily. My Dad had a condensate drain from his boiler freeze so I ripped out what the plumper had put in and replace it with a fall and insulated it. Good luck trying to sort it

it may just be the u-bend that’s frozen rather than external pipes – if you can get access try a hairdryer or fan heater on it – same for external pipes.

if you use a hot air paint stripper on plastic pipes you will get wet floor and/or feet.

Does anything else link in beneath where the bath waste joins and if so is that running free??

Get the plunger out

wwaswas – I wondered about that but most bends etc are in the bathroom and it’s been up at 22 deg day and 16 night for over a week. It’s a newish house, hence cheapo external waste’s. Also it’s upstairs so expertnal access would involve ladder, slippery patio etc etc.

carlos – no, dedicated section of external waste pipe. it drained freely last night, so don’t think it’s ‘blocked’

It’s been like this at mine for three days. Just had a plumber round, will not be showering today.

The water pipes between my house and the water main under the road have frozen solid so i’m on bottled water all over Christmas. Yorkshire Water came and looked, and fairly understandably said there nowt they can do, will just need to wait for the thaw 🙁
It’ll drain away fine it’s getting it there to start with i’m struggling with! 😕

Iain, had this happen to the tennant at my house the other day, he rings complaining that the sink is blocked, I go over at about 2pm (this is after the short thaw we had last week) and it was fine, my only explanation was exactly what you describe so I’m glad to hear that it’s not just the tennant getting cabin fever and imagining it!

neil – glad to be of service ! 😆

The water pipes between my house and the water main under the road have frozen solid so i’m on bottled water all over Christmas.

Would you get a rebate for that do you think as you can’t actually use water and are having to buy it in?

the loo in my workshop has been frozen rock solid, cistern and all, since november. Although unlike last winter it hasn’t exploded yet.

happened to me but ok after the thaw.

Try putting some table salt in the water. We had a similar problem with frozen rainwater gutters. Salt cured it.

+1 mcmoonter

Happens every winter at our place. Cured with a liberal application of salt into the water. -21 here last winter. Not far off that tonight.

our condensate pipe is frozen, what is the best way to sort it out. I”ve emptied the ice from the external pipework. I guess it could still be frozen as the ice may have backed up into the house.

Taff- Nah i asked about that, the water guy said to keep the reciepts and they may refund some of it was he wasn’t particularly hopefull! Its just a bit of a faf really!

ok, have fired a pile of dishwasher salt down it – will see what happens……if anything !

You think that is bad – I have some burried sewage mains to deal with (one yesterday, about to go to another today) which have frozen solid!

Sorry – can’t advise anything really to solve it beyond trying the gentle warming with a hairdrier… and then perhaps lagging them to keep em flowing.

cheers Capt. Minor compared to others but still a PITA. Luckily one of my biking buddies is a plumber so have just had a good chat with him and am gonna run a hose from the hot tap out the window and over the external pipe until it thaws and then get 10 mins of hot water through the waste……that’ll be this evening sorted !

The waste pipe out of my kitchen has a bit where it runs horizontally. This froze solid the other week.
I fired up Mrs Begbie’s hairdryer and blew hot air down the plughole for 10 minutes. That sorted it.

our condensate pipe is frozen, what is the best way to sort it out. I”ve emptied the ice from the external pipework. I guess it could still be frozen as the ice may have backed up into the house.

Pipe end off, hair dryer up the pipe for a good few minutes. Reset boiler. Did mine this morning.

Similar thing happened in my bathroom last weekend …

Only it was the sink rather than bath,

applied a bit of gentle heat to the pipe outside and after a while it drained fine.

Then I remembered a tip from my old Nan, wise old bird she was

She always told us to leave the plug in the sink and bath in winter as it helped stops the pipes from freezing …. coincidence or not … i don’t know but it has been way colder this week and no repeat ( so far )

HaHa, I’ve got excatly the same problem, a bath full of used water. Started decanting it into the toilet, only to find the toilet waste pipe is now frozen somewhere. Got a separate shower tho, like you.

She always told us to leave the plug in the sink and bath in winter as it helped stops the pipes from freezing …. coincidence or not … i don’t know but it has been way colder this week and no repeat

Trying to work out why that makes a difference. So far I have failed.

Just had to grit our 120ish yard long 1 in 3 gradient driveway by hand. I am now flipping knackered. Pipes okay so far.

had this problem from my kitchen the other day, just poured a few litres of warm (not hot) water on the external pipework, started to trickle from the pipe into the drain, ran hot water in the kitchen then and within 2 minutes all was fine, simples.

need one of these Mat !!!

She always told us to leave the plug in the sink and bath in winter as it helped stops the pipes from freezing …. coincidence or not … i don’t know but it has been way colder this week and no repeat
Trying to work out why that makes a difference. So far I have failed.

Yes it is odd that one, but if it works??
Maybe by having the plug on it stops the air blowing up the pipe from the outside an making it colder – but the u bend water trap should do this anyway.

I’m glad we live in a terrace house with full internal soil pipe and a heating system not installed by a muppet. 🙂

Iain – now that would be cool…!