Insulating A Pipe?

KennMacMoragh

I'm doing a repair for a broken water pipe, plumber already fixed the pipe, I'm just repairing the damage that was done. The pipe was originally placed too high is why it froze and broke, it was placed above the attic insulation as shown in the picture.

The plumber wrapped the new copper pipe with foam, but is that enough? Home owner wants me to put some Thermal Tape around it as well. The homeowners wife told me the plumber said to wrap some extra insulation around it if I had any left over. But which is the proper way to prevent this from freezing and bursting again?

Kgmz

I usually use Frostex for something like that. It is cut to length and a cap is put on the end, and a plug on the other end. It is self regulating, meaning it gets hotter when colder, average output is 3 watts per foot. I also use the Mini WinterGard in pipe heater for other situations. I get mine at one of my local refrigeration supply houses, Thermal Supply, RSD, or Johnstone Supply.

Link to both of them at Tyco

http://www.tycothermal.com/usa/engli...n/default.aspx

But why is that pipe in the attic, and couldn't they reroute it so it is under the insulation?

thom

the proper way is to put the pipe on the heated side of the insulation. Water pipe should be within the buildings conditioned envelope.

If it's outside the conditioned space, heat tape is a must. Insulation merely slows the transfer of heat, it does not stop it.

BCConstruction

Just had a job come up where the whole house had to be gutted. Get this though. The pipes in crawl space where they were insulated where all fine. The ones in the house where the ones that froze. Insulating pipes helps heaps but it wont stop them from freezeing. But in all my time as a plumber i have never seen a frozen insulated pipe. Thats not to say that they dont happen though. I wouldnt normally be in areas where temps fall below -10c outside though. Im sure you guys with lower temps see frozen pipes all the time even with insulation.

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contractors pro

You can never reach ideal state of insulation