frozen water lines in outside wall
 

is putting supply lines in an outside wall against plumbing code or just poor common sense. Have a condo with water lines in an outside wall but within the attic space on the 1st floor condo. They are only covered but about 2 inches of insulation. They have frozen and burst, much to the dismay of the 1st floor occupant

Codes tend to be local, so you can ask your building department. Bad idea? Well, you have the evidence.

If they are properly insulated, it passes code. We are experiencing a bone chilling cold here in the past couple weeks and insulation only slows down the transfer of temperature, not prevent it.


Partially clogged drains in exterior walls can freeze up as well.


My advice is to leave the valves open, start heating that room up or tear into the wall and expose the pipe, put a ceramic heater close to the wall.


The layout can be tricky, preventing any type of layout other than what you have.

The rule of tradesmenship is to prevent an outside wall application if at all possible.