The drainage pipe outside my house from the shower and sink is frozen causing blockage. Will pouring saltwater down it speed thawing ?

Hi Nick...

I use hot water and I use a wet/dry vacuum to suck the water back up once it has cooled and is no longer thawing the frozen drain pipe so it can be a bit time consuming to say the least. If you wanted to add salt to the hot water that certainly won't hurt anything, but I'm not sure it will help much either.

Another thing to do may be to go rent a slamander type heater and purchase some plastic sheathing and make a little tent outside so that the salamander heater can warm the space under the house.

Combine the hot/salty water and the wet/dry vac. And the tent and salamander heat and you should be thawed out pretty quick off... ;)

The PTRAPS of the fixtures may or may not be cracked/broken, but you won't know until all is thawed out.

Good luck!~

Mark

Sounds like a plan.

Many thanks Amigo.

Nick

Hey Nick, do other plumbing fixtures drain OK ?

Hi there

Yes toilet and downstairs sinks all draining fine. Just finished heating the outside drainpipe, lots of ice removed. Hoping some hot water flushing will finish it off.

Not so sure this is from freezing if other fixtures still work. They all use the same main drain so you clog is between the upstairs toilet and the downstairs drain line. This is nore likely a clogged but not frozen drain from up stairs. Let us know how things are going but I am thinking you'll be doing some rodding to get this working right

I'm actually thinking the PTRAPS froze at the shower and the sink here so betting he's on the right track. Here, it is only the PTRAPS themselves that can freeze, really, as drain pipes don't have water in them.

A toilet bowl and tank can also freeze up as they also hold water, but because of the volume of water involved I seem to have only seen that when the water pipes and all the trapped fixtures associated with the same bathroom froze and burst everything.

All that being said, Bob, you never know as it certainly could be a drain line issue, too! Thanks for the backup!

Mark

The sink trap would not have anything to do with the shower trap and itsinside the room where it should not freeze. A clogged drain line makes more sense to me. Hey Nick is there a toilet in this room, how is it flushing?

More than reasonable, Bob. I guess I was picturing that the sink PTRAP was outside with the shower PTRAP.

Remember, I'm in Boston and we have some of the oldest plumbing in the country... tons of traps below the floor, in the floor, etc..

I also figured that Nick knew things were frozen as a fact, but again, great point on the sink trap being inside as it is most common, for sure! In this case, I would definitely agree that the drain could be clogged... ;)

Hi guys. I agree that it could be a plugged drain, but wouldn't rule out frozen drain either. If the shower and sink share a common drain, and it is exposed to freezing weather, AND, there is a leaky fuacet that just drips slowly, the drain pipe itself(if in the horizontal) can freeze up due to the very small amount of water freezing causing a dam then the dam just keeps getting bigger and bigger till the complete pipe is froze shut. Without a larger volume of water being drained to clear the ice, this is what can happen. We see it all the time in my area where pipes are exposed or not buried deep enough and there is a leaky toilet or faucet.
Definatley would be a good idea to run a snake, but if you hit a hard spot you can't get through, it may indicate frozen line. Good luck and please let us know how things turn out.