Flashbacks to my Youth
Hansen Buildings’ Designer Shea posed a question in regards to a client in Wisconsin. Her client will only be using their new pole building in the summer time, so it will not have a finished or insulated ceiling. The concern – it will be a “residence” (aka, I believe, cabin), and what do they do with the pipes freezing in the winter?
My current home first entered our family in 1937, when my great grandparents W.C. and Elenis McDowell purchased a 28 year old cabin on Newman Lake, which they, in turn, resold 9 years later to their son (my grandpa Boyd) and his wife (grandma Jerene).
Every fall grandpa would take me along with him to get the cabin prepared for winter. One of the tasks at hand was to take care of all of the water in the pipes (sounds familiar to Shea’s question).
I’ve always been somewhat plumbing challenged, probably dating back to my pre-teen days of gramps explaining to me the processes of water elimination from the cabin’s system, when I would much rather have been running rampant through the woods!
Once I experienced my own caused plumbing disaster (water was flowing out from under my kitchen sink, down the hallway and out the front door), I decided any future plumbing would be done by people who actually had ½ of a clue as to how to get the job done right.
As an adult, I now realize the cabin process was far simpler than I was able to absorb at the time – it came down to blowing the water out of the lines (think underground sprinkler systems in cold weather country) and putting restaurant antifreeze into sink drains and toilets. I am all into “safe and secure”, and this is probably the best answer for preventing pipes freezing. For me, it would be the only answer.
