I have a large old house. its now below zero, and i dont have hot water upstairs. whats going on, how to fix??

Question

all i get is a little trickle when i turn on the hot faucet in the tub, but the cold water works fine, this has been going on for 3 days, help

Answer 1

Your hot water line is frozen. Let it trickle and hopefully it will thaw out. While you are doing this look for the water shut off valve just in case the pipe is broke and starts to leak when it thaws out.Old houses have little or no insulation you need to insulate the pipes and walls to prevent this from happening again. For now when you get it thawed out you can leave the water trickle to prevent freezing. Goodluck

Answer 2

If you had no problems before? New owner? what happened last time it was cold? Did you change ANYTHING since then?
Sounds like frozen pipe, but it could be so many things. Is it just a coincidence that it happened since it got cold? Is there anywhere you can feel the pipes that you KNOW go upstairs? are they cold? Keep the basics in mind before you call an expensive plumber. Water flows down. Heat rises. Check EVERYWHERE for leaks! You don't want to thaw out the pipe if it leaks! Fix it first!
In a large old house, often you can find the logic of the pipes. Remember that they wanted to be efficient with materials, so there will be an order to things. It probably didn't freeze every year, right? so, what is different? Too many people will tell you to tear up the walls. I am a remodeler of old houses, and that is OFTEN not the way to go! Good luck! use logic first...

Answer 3

how many faucets is this affecting?
If it is just one, I would clean the aerator.
if all , I would backflush the Hot water lines to dislodge any possible blockage. You do this by turning off the cold suppy to the hot water heater and opening the bottom drain while someone upstairs puts their thumb over the spout of a faucet and opens the hot and cold to get water to flush backwards through the Hot lines.
Hopefully it is this and not frozen, if the water trickles out hot, it probably isn't frozen.

Answer 4

The hot water pipe is closer to the outer wall of the house(is what I am betting) - and water that does not move in the pipe(when you are not using it) cools down to the surrounding air temperature immediately around it.- so if it is below freezing and that pipe is near that cold the still water insideis gonna get cold and freeze. You have to find out where the blockage is and that means tearing up the outer walls on the inside where you figure the pipe would be. Insulate it and Heat tape it. Just getting room temp on the pipe will help to get the water flowing.

Answer 5

Hate to tell you, you have frozen pipes. Call a plumber and ask about the best way to thaw them out. Also for future reference when it is this cold, leave the water on a trickle. This keeps water moving making it harder to freeze. Pray to whatever gods you believe in that your pipes don't burst. That will cost a fortune.

Answer 6

I don't know, maybe the hot water tank is broken. In old houses hot water comes differently than cold water. So maybe the pipe is intercepted or something. Good luck!