My cousin called me last week and was once again complaining about his pipes freezing.
I told him he should use heat tape around the pipes and put insulation around them, but he didn’t listen.
He didn’t think they made insulation for water pipes. My husband and I used cheap pool noodles. We split them up the side and they fit perfectly around hot water pipes, and were excellent insulation. Heat tapes were cheap and lasted for years. When he said the water pipes were in the basement, I couldn’t think of any reason for them to freeze, unless the furnace broke. There was enough residual heat coming off the furnace, that the basement shouldn’t go below freezing for temperatures. He said he didn’t care how they froze, but he wanted someone who could thaw them for him. We were the same age as he, and we weren’t going into his basement and doing the work. I told him to call a plumber or the HVAC company. When he said he didn’t want to put that much money out, I told him to suffer and figure out how to do the job himself. We didn’t mind helping when someone had a problem, but we weren’t going to do the thawing and repairs for him. I didn’t hear anything else from him for almost a month. He called to tell his his furnace was broken, and his pipes froze again. Once again I asked about heat tapes, and he hemmed and hawed. I told him to call the HVAC company and see if someone was available to do an emergency repair.