Hello all, 

So In my rental property I just bought the old owner had the cold pipe put up against the outside wall and it keeps freezing when it snows. It is insulated in the foam case and fiber glass against the wall anything else I can do? 

Second issue. 

The drainage pipe goes through the bulk head (concrete encased staircase with 2 metal doors to the outside). Also freezes and prevents drainage. I tried wrapping in fiber glass insulation and wood boxing it in yesterday so hopefully that fixes that. I'm trying to stay away from plug in pipe wraps as I don't trust that a tenant will maintain them and don't want burster pipes.

Any and all suggestions minus moving pipes would be greatly appreciated. In order to move the pipes I'd have to gut the kitchen and move sink to other side.

I too have been having this issue. My pipes that keep freezing are in a crawl space. I am going to try to insulate the walls of the crawl space as best as I can, and also wrap the new pex pipes in fiberglass insulation (old pipes burst). I guess my advice is if you do have to replace any piping, use pex as it is supposed to be more forgiving and not burst as easy.

I also had frozen pipes this past weekend. When I checked out the basement I found that a window had completely fallen out of place and all of the wind/cold air was blowing in (not sure how long this has been out) but I quickly replaced it and have used space heaters to keep the basement warm.

Knock on wood but they have been fine since then!

Thanks for your reply unfortunately this is a rental and I wouldn't want to leave a space heater on an extension cord overnight with no one in the House

If heating is supplied to the space via ductwork... I would require a minimum temperature to be maintained.   Sounds like you need to heat trace the pipes.  You may want to consider hard wiring the unit in place.

@Brett Staples use pipe heating cable. It is commonly used on mobile homes for pipes that are exposed to sub-zero temperatures. It is a heating cable that is 6 feet to 30 feet long generally. It is a long heating element that gets wrapped around the pipe. It has a sensor that turns it on when the temperature gets cold to prevent freezing. You do need access to a 120 volt outlet. Problem solved for under 20 bucks. I have used it on drain pipes and water lines. You can get it at Lowes, Home Depot or Amazon.

Install heat tape. It is used in the crawl space under every mobile home to prevent freezing of main water line. You should never have a freezing issue with drain lines as long as they are sloped properly. Check your drain line and make sure the septic is flowing properly and that you do not have any dripping taps or running toilets. Slow running water will freeze in a drain line.

Hey Joe Splitrock  great advise on any tubing that may freeze.  When installing new pipe in colder zones I have had the best luck with pex tubing also I believe pvc will freeze before abs for the drain. However its easy to install new or retrofit the heating cable with insulation over it and its great insurance if there is any question.

There may be some type of electrical heating tape that can be applied in susceptible conditions. I walked through an older property a few months ago that had a switch that turned on "pipe warmers." That would be an option that the pipes would not have to be moved. If you have room and a heating mechanism, you could set it up to add more heat in that area of the building that is getting too cold.

And last but not least. Drip the faucets. But don't abandon the property or they may end up like this.

;P

Have a nice day and heat is needed in the cold spot of your house where the pipes are freezing.

If the drain line has enough slope and is draining adequately and there is no air getting to crawl space or basement a pipe shouldn't freeze ,air getting in crawl space  is the culprit  most the time, I here in Nashville  and a plumber.