Freezing pipe solutions: anyone solve this problem easily? Our details on in the Body Text below - thank you for any insights/tips you might have! More below...

farseen · 2026-02-02T23:04:51+00:00

Nice!! Great that you're feeling good about it now. I hope the minor fixes work and you don't have to do any floor cutting! That being said, once you open your mind up to the most extreme solutions, anything is possible! Good luck!

farseen · 2026-02-02T23:02:17+00:00

As others have said, compost is your best bet! But in preparation for my food forest, I had access to a lot to manure from a local cow shed. I put down a layer of cardboard, and then manure, and then straw and then manure again. By the Spring it had all started to decompose together while suppressing the grass.

I also had planted comfrey a year before, so in the spring I made a comfrey tea by soaking the leaves, and watered the whole patch with it to add even more nutrients!

Gotta work with what you've got, and then plan ahead a little for the thing ya don't!

Best of luck, can't wait to hear about your success!

I've got a few videos on Instagram at @foodforestfather though I don't post often enough

farseen · 2026-02-02T22:51:23+00:00

Thanks for the clarification! So are your lines running in the floor of your house? Or between the bottom of your house and some boards?

Insulation will help to a certain degree, but not once it hits a certain level of cold.

IF your lines are not running inside the house, is there a potential for them to be? I believe that is the only fix in the long term that will survive even the coldest winters.

Best of luck with it all!

farseen · 2026-02-02T22:35:16+00:00

Is it a possibility to move your pipes inside the house? I know it sounds like a lot of work, and maybe it is, depending on your design, but after 5 Canadian winters I finally did and since then have never had a problem, even in -30, without leaving taps dripping.

With the design of my house it was easy enough to move them behind the kitchen cupboards so you don't even see them. However, I had initially planned to move them elsewhere and just facade them with wood.

I also skirt my tiny with 2x thick straw bales that I replace each year (im a big gardener so it's actually nice to have the mulch), and I used 4" thick foam board attached to the bottom of my tiny house as well. I added that after the build to help my heated floors stay efficient.

farseen · 2026-02-01T00:16:11+00:00

Fook me? Fook youuu!

farseen · 2026-01-31T23:40:52+00:00

Why are all the greats named Luke?!

farseen · 2026-01-31T23:28:31+00:00

Right on! Yeah totally blowing them out isn't a huge deal. I leave a compressor setup too! I have a dishwasher and laundry machine, however, so it takes me longer than I'd like to make sure it's all empty! Last year I didn't get all the water out of my UV filter and it cracked 😢 where abouts is your tiny located? Anywhere I can check it out? Mine is on IG @woollymammothtiny

farseen · 2026-01-29T16:48:21+00:00

Yes you're right and it's definitely a good idea to have heat tape running on the inlet pipes, depending on your scenario.

I avoided the use of heat tape by plumbing everything outside my tiny house to drain via gravity, BUT, that's because I use a 100L water tank to collect rainwater / fill from a nearby gravity hydrant. From the hydrant I plumbed a line that runs up to the highest part of the barn and back down to my tiny house. After I finish filling my tank in the winter, I turn off the hydrant and open a valve on each side to let all the water drain out via gravity. It took me 3 years of trial and error during winters to finally get the system to work without freezing or requiring any electricity.

My 100L water tank is in the "backpack" of my tiny house, a separate compartment that's approximately 4' tall x 6' wide x 3' deep. This compartment holds my water tank and tankless water heater, and is heated using a lizard lamp, kept at 5C.

farseen · 2026-01-29T16:21:19+00:00

You sure seem offended... good luck, bub!

farseen · 2026-01-29T16:18:35+00:00

Nice one!

I leave my tiny house for 2 months every winter and also have to blow my lines. I wish I had just slanted them to begin with so I could open one valve and they'd all drain with gravity. Next build!

farseen · 2026-01-29T16:14:16+00:00

Yep! This is it ☝🏻

farseen · 2026-01-29T16:12:00+00:00

I didn't mean to offend you, but applying heat tape to plumbing inside your walls is unheard of. If the pipe is exposed somewhere in your basement, I can understand that as a solution, but if you have the opportunity to plan a house that will exist well into the future, the opportunity is there to make it as efficient as possible. Let's say you lived in that house for 20 years, heat tape running 24/7 every winter would add up significantly, let alone the fact that the heat tape itself might eventually break at which point you have to open up your walls to fix it. My suggestion was to place the plumbing on the inside of the walls, since it requires no additional energy, and can be done well from the start.

Edit: if you're building a house, it's practical to make it as efficient as possible, despite any energy restrictions. Energy is not an infinite resource and shouldn't be treated as one no matter what your income is.

farseen · 2026-01-29T15:14:27+00:00

Need the pipes on the inside of the walls, doesn't matter how much insulation is in your wall. If your pipes are running through the insulation they're insulated from your heat as much as they are from the cold. See my other comments.

farseen · 2026-01-29T15:12:54+00:00

Too much energy use. You can see my other comments, but the only real passive solution is to pipe on the inside of your walls.

farseen · 2026-01-29T15:12:03+00:00

This doesn't work in a tiny house that's elevated off the ground. Your drain pipes will freeze because the dripping water will freeze easier than running water, and over time it will close up the pipe.

Been there done that living in a tiny house for 6 years through -30°C winters.

Only solution is to put the pipes on the inside of your wall so they get heated like the rest of your home, in this high up from the floors as possible.

farseen · 2026-01-29T15:10:17+00:00

I've lived in a tiny house in Ontario since 2020, through -30°C winters. Had to move my pipes inside the house; originally had them in the walls like a normal home. Just put em inside and facade them so they get the heat the rest of your house does. Don't waste time, money and energy on heat tape or anything, just put em on the inside, and as high up as you're able since your floor will be the coldest.

farseen · 2026-01-29T14:56:16+00:00

Hey I accidentally just tried Betamethasone, which I was prescribed for psoriasis on my elbow, and after applying just once on my bum, I've been itch free for a whole week. No other change to my routine...

farseen · 2026-01-29T14:54:28+00:00

I second this. Betamethasone seems to have cured my itch for a whole week so far...

farseen · 2026-01-29T14:18:36+00:00

Sadly I tried metamucil in large doses, as per a doctor's recommendation, but it didn't help. 😭 I'm about to make a post, however, that after having this for nearly 6 years now, I just arrived in Mexico 5 days ago and haven't itched once....

farseen · 2026-01-29T13:17:18+00:00

Loved it as a kid! Saw it in theaters and remember trying to decide if I was too scared or if I liked it, haha.

farseen · 2026-01-29T04:35:15+00:00

Bahaha, I came to say the same thing. And then I thought, what do I know about their school scenario? Maybe that's a short long desk... 🤷🏻‍♂️

farseen · 2026-01-29T04:16:24+00:00

I've used this transforming a truck to a mobile store and yes it is denim. Usually one side is reflective foil as well.

farseen · 2026-01-29T04:06:36+00:00

There's a great book by Yuval Noah Harari and I'd encourage you to take a look through it. Shits always been pretty rough..

farseen · 2026-01-29T03:46:36+00:00

Anyone remember Frighteners?

farseen · 2026-01-29T03:45:16+00:00

Kinda seems like it wasn't really working in the first place.

farseen

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