My Pipes froze

My Pipes froze

It's Sunday night and I’m in my friend’s house watching the Patriots take the energy out of the loudest outdoor stadium in the world. As a Patriots fan, I feel on top of the world. Little do I know that the outside temperature went down to 11 degrees but with the wind chill it felt like it was -17. Before this night, I didn't realize how important it was to know this. When I got home I was exhausted from the fun night I had so I decided not to shower (Don't judge me). The next morning, my girlfriend wakes me up and tells me "there isn't any water". Now as a first time house hacker and property owner, I had no idea why. Then I googled "My water is not running" and all the results led to me to realize that my pipes froze!

After 5 minutes of freaking out, I began to look up ways to unfreeze the pipes without having to break any walls. I called my handy man friend to let him know that I am first going to try to figure this out but if I don't, I will need him the next day. He gave me the okay and I was off to my DIY project. My first move was to heat up both units as fast as I can. That might have helped but it would take more than that. My next step was to try to find the frozen pipes so I can try to heat it up. I couldn't find it which probably meant it was in between the walls. After talking to a couple of friends and investors, they asked me if my basement is unfinished and it isn't. The following question was whether the pipes were insulated. I didn't even know what that meant. I had to Face Time one of my friends so they can see for themselves and the pipes were definitely not insulated so my next mission was to head to Home Depot and purchase a whole lot of foam insulation. For the next 2 hours, I spent my time insulating all the exposed pipes. After 2 hours of waiting and researching the next steps, there was still no water and I didn't know what else to do so I told my handy man to come over tomorrow. That night my girlfriend and I decided to shower in the down stairs unit since it still wasn't filled. To make things even worse, I learned that my first floor water heater was dead (You cannot make this up). We decided to heat up water in some pots and pans and take a shower anyway.

The next morning the plumber shows up at 9:30am ready to work. The first thing we did was head to the basement. He was happy that I insulated the pipes already. The next step was to try to figure out a way to send as much heat as possible to the water pipes in the kitchen. We decided to take one of the HVACs ducts and drill it on the same path where the pipes were located. Two hours later, we had water running in the kitchen. We then had to figure out a way to stop this from happening in the future. We decided to open a vent in the 1st floor bedroom which is under the 2nd floor kitchen. We made sure to open the vent right behind the pipes so whenever that bedroom warms up, warm air would go through the vent. Our next mission was to figure out how we are going to heat up the bathroom pipes. This was a bit more difficult because there wasn’t any ducts we can take from a nearby space. We decided that if we create another vent in the basement to start heating up the basement, sooner or later the heat will work its way up to the pipes. That was a start but probably wouldn’t melt the ice on its own. The next thing we did was open up another vent in the upstairs living room where the pipes are located behind the wall. My handy man said that should do and I should never have to deal with this again.

While we waited for the bathroom pipes to heat up, I decided to call the hot water tank company to see if I have any warranty on it. This was purchased by the previous owner so I wasn’t sure. I was notified that tank had a 2 year full warranty which just expired and a 6 year parts warranty. After doing a couple of troubleshooting techniques, the customer service representative and I realized that it needed to get replaced or needed new parts. Unfortunately for me I didn’t have the time to have someone come in, establish the problem, send the report to the company, get it approved and then finally send the parts out. Then after they send it out, I would then have to call someone to have it installed. I was told it was about a 3 to 4 week process. I decided to bite the bullet and just purchase another one. It was off to Home Depot. We purchased the new Water tank and by the time we got back, water was running in the bathroom and kitchen in the upstairs unit. We installed the Hot Water tank and everything was finally running smoothly.

My big takeaway from all of this isn’t negative. Initially, I was pretty annoyed but then I realized that it could have been worst. That same day, my friend’s pipes burst and he had to spend way more money than I spent. I could have had a tenant move in without realizing the Hot water tank was dead. I would have been seen as a slum lord. Now even though this cost me about $1200, it could have been worse. I now also know everything about how water in my two units work so 1200 isn’t that bad because I also gained en education. My point is things will happen. Some positive and some negative. As long as you maximize the wins and learn from the losses, you and I will be fine. Well that’s my story and now it’s on to getting this unit rented.