My bathroom is over my garage, and it currently minus 11 here. The bath taps both hot and cold have frozen, as the pipes are in an outside wall. I can't get to these pipes to thaw them out. The shower, sink and toilet are fine and not frozen. The heat in the house has been kept on continually at a minimum temperature of 15 degrees Celsius (higher during the day).

I have turned both bath taps on (although nothing is coming out of them) in case the pipes start to thaw.

What if anything should I do to help minimise any damage from these pipes/taps freezing and then thawing?

If I go away should I turn the water in the house off at the mains?

Any advice would be greatly appeciated. Jane

Good questions, Jane... thawing a frozen pipe that has burst is definitely something you need to be prepared for... ;)

To start, know exactly where that main shutoff is just in case.

Next, keep the bath taps open as you have them.

Then, take a hair dryer or even a paint stripper and start to try to thaw out one pipe at a time. It can take some time, but most piping materials conduct heat real well and pipes usually thaw out.

If needed, add a salamander heater (or similar) in the garage to speed the process (keep windows open).

Finally, cross your fingers that this works... ;)

Hopefully, that will get you up and running. After that, pop back and we can discuss ways to prevent this in the future, OK?

Mark

PS: If you do leave the home I would definitely shut off the water main...no question!

I have the same problem and my room is over the garage can't get to pipework to defrost I previously today had problem with my pressure on boiler it was the outside pipe outlet that had frozen. This is fine now although every now and then it makes a loud banging noise. So what do I do about my tiolet and hot and cold water in my bathroom please help margi

One question has not been answered and that is, yes shut off your main if you leave the house. A frozen pipe does not leak but a recently thawed pipe sure will. As the long as the pipe is frozen you will not likely see any damage, it when they thaw that the water will flow. If you can't reach the pipes then you must heat the walls where the pipes run. If a pipe thaws and is broken you will see and hear running water within moments so don't leave the house unless you shut down the main.

Actually, I pointed that out in my last sentence in bold type , Bob... :p

Not that I care... promise! It is always good to over emphasize this point, for sure!