There is no accessible inside shutoff valve for this outside tap. The shutoff is probably inside but was drywalled over during a renovation. Customer states that the water was not turned off to the tap during the winter.

If someone had asked me I would have said - for sure that pipe is going to burst over a Toronto winter when temperatures can drop to -5F/-21C, and it did last winter. Yet it survived!

Couple of aggravating factors - the hole in the wall is not caulked allowing cold air to enter and the basement is completely drywalled, shielding the pipe from the furnace heat.

What say you?



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Global Warming !

Heck if I know.

I have lived in Southern California my whole life......

one thing... you better turn it off next winter.

i would say there is no way it could not freeze

Definitely not global warming. We had a nasty winter, nastiest we have had in a few years, with long sustained cold spells.

Use a freeze-proof sillcock, such as [www.plumbingsupply.com] , but available elsewhere. I did on a house in Iowa, saw them on most of the neighbors' houses. And cut a hole in the drywall to access the cutoff - install an access panel.

You said the answer...the hole in the brick isn't caulked. Except that instead of allowing cold air to enter, it is allowing warm air to escape, and that warm air escaping is shielding the pipe and keeping it warm. Even if the drywall is shielding the pipe from the furnace, the air inside is significantly warmer than what's outside.

Did you sell the job to install a freezeproof bib?

Not a matter if IF it will freeze, but a matter of WHEN.