# Melting frozen basement



## garylaps (Sep 28, 2012)

Any good suggestions on how to melt three feet of ice in a 600 sq. ft basement?...Salt? livestock water heater?


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

Point a torpedo heater down the steps and wait. If you can pump water out from under it you can get blowing under the ice the ice itself makes a nice duct work. 

I used to work in the water tank industry and we would have massive 1,000,000 gallon tanks freeze up on occasion. Chromalox makes some interesting heater options but I have never seen anything that really works for what we do.

Good luck! Charge a fortune!


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## mtmtnman (May 1, 2012)

If it's floating, Ice auger through in a few places, pump the water out, Cut a nice size hole with a chainsaw and stick a heater in. Stock heater would take weeks.....


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## MKT (May 7, 2014)

garylaps said:


> Any good suggestions on how to melt three feet of ice in a 600 sq. ft basement?...Salt? livestock water heater?


Solid? You could try gutter / roof / downspout heating lines. At least you know they are water safe.


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## BRADSConst (Oct 2, 2012)

The one time I did this, it wasn't frozen solid. About six inches of ice or so and 30" of water. I chipped a hole through it and dropped in a trash pump and let it run. It wasn't the coldest in the house so the churn from the trash pump helped thaw the ice. As the water left, the ice started collapsing and breaking into smaller pieces and melting it faster. By the time we got to the end, we just hauled the remaining ice chunks outside.


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## Zuse (Nov 17, 2012)

Take a pic and go home, cant be done for allowable. Fixed.:whistling2:


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## BRADSConst (Oct 2, 2012)

Zuse said:


> Take a pic and go home, cant be done for allowable. Fixed.:whistling2:


Zuse,

Do you guys down south even see a basement? Let alone a frozen ice block? :lol::lol::lol:

My sister in Atlanta said the kids were off of school today and the bad weather hadn't even started yet.

All ya'll southerners got it easy :yes::yes:


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## Zuse (Nov 17, 2012)

BRADSConst said:


> Zuse,
> 
> Do you guys down south even see a basement? Let alone a frozen ice block? :lol::lol::lol:
> 
> ...


What the hell is a basement, its either a slab or a crawl space down here..

Yeah if we even get a hint of snow everything shuts down, grocery store shelf's empty in hours.. car wreaks everywhere, its a mess. 

We just stay in and drink :drink:.. i got like 300 snow removals and i don't even send them out, my guys wont leave the house when the weather gets bad..i really dont know how y'all deal with it.


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## Wannabe (Oct 1, 2012)

Gary,

Be very careful for a "blowout". This is something that I've seen several times. Don't laugh but go buy a bunch of vegetable oil and cover the ice. It will melt on it's own slowly since its under the frost line. 

I pucker when heat is applied due to ice expansion can blowout the foundation walls and then the freeze is the least of your concerns. I'll look in my old pic files for the last job I turned down that another contractor heat melted and 1/2 the house collapsed.


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## BRADSConst (Oct 2, 2012)

Zuse said:


> What the hell is a basement, its either a slab or a crawl space down here..
> 
> Yeah if we even get a hint of snow everything shuts down, grocery store shelf's empty in hours.. car wreaks everywhere, its a mess.
> 
> We just stay in and drink :drink:.. i got like 300 snow removals and i don't even send them out, my guys wont leave the house when the weather gets bad..i really dont know how y'all deal with it.


It's getting harder for me to deal with it. Started at a balmy a 6 deg and now we're up to 14 deg. I decided to stay in and work on bookwork and estimates today. Too damn cold to be hanging vinyl siding anyway...


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

BRADSConst said:


> It's getting harder for me to deal with it. Started at a balmy a 6 deg and now we're up to 14 deg. I decided to stay in and work on bookwork and estimates today. Too damn cold to be hanging vinyl siding anyway...


I've been in all week and continuing the process today.


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## garylaps (Sep 28, 2012)

Wannabe said:


> Gary,
> 
> Be very careful for a "blowout". This is something that I've seen several times. Don't laugh but go buy a bunch of vegetable oil and cover the ice. It will melt on it's own slowly since its under the frost line.
> 
> I pucker when heat is applied due to ice expansion can blowout the foundation walls and then the freeze is the least of your concerns. I'll look in my old pic files for the last job I turned down that another contractor heat melted and 1/2 the house collapsed.


WOW, that's something that I hadn't considered...Scary as hell. I already gave a bid I thought they wouldn't take (2400.00 after discount) now they have accepted. 
Maybe go around the perimeter with a chainsaw and cut some relief joints? or salt around the block? heat tape? I haven't been to the job and bid off pics so I'm not sure if it's solid 3ft of ice.


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

garylaps said:


> WOW, that's something that I hadn't considered...Scary as hell. I already gave a bid I thought they wouldn't take (2400.00 after discount) now they have accepted.
> Maybe go around the perimeter with a chainsaw and cut some relief joints? or salt around the block? heat tape? I haven't been to the job and bid off pics so I'm not sure if it's solid 3ft of ice.


I've done a few of these and NEVER had this problem. I have heard of it before but never seen it. You can smack the ice with a sledge as you go like Brad said.


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## GTX63 (Apr 12, 2012)

BRADSConst said:


> It's getting harder for me to deal with it. Started at a balmy a 6 deg and now we're up to 14 deg. I decided to stay in and work on bookwork and estimates today. Too damn cold to be hanging vinyl siding anyway...


I had a siding job years ago on an old two story house. It was the week of Christmas and it was hovering around 10 degrees every day. I told the owners we couldn't do the job until the weather broke. I had a new guy working for me that wanted some brownie points I guess. I got a heads up and found him Christmas eve day at the property hanging vinyl siding on the 2nd floor. He set up a salamander in the basement and cut his pieces down there, laying them on saw horses by the heat to loosen up. Then he climbed onto the rear porch flat roof (covered in ice), and up a ladder to the 2nd story and did that over and over and over, until I told him to get down and get home before he killed himself. He was a character. He later killed his brother with an oxygen tank so he is currently working for the government.


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## Ohnojim (Mar 25, 2013)

*I was installing a temporary roof over a fire damaged*



GTX63 said:


> I had a siding job years ago on an old two story house. It was the week of Christmas and it was hovering around 10 degrees every day. I told the owners we couldn't do the job until the weather broke. I had a new guy working for me that wanted some brownie points I guess. I got a heads up and found him Christmas eve day at the property hanging vinyl siding on the 2nd floor. He set up a salamander in the basement and cut his pieces down there, laying them on saw horses by the heat to loosen up. Then he climbed onto the rear porch flat roof (covered in ice), and up a ladder to the 2nd story and did that over and over and over, until I told him to get down and get home before he killed himself. He was a character. He later killed his brother with an oxygen tank so he is currently working for the government.


Historical structure this week, around 0 up to 15 mid day, and windy most of the time, had to use a heat gun to get the weather guard to stick to the parapet walls and chimneys. It took twice as long as it normally would have but it's done.


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## Ohnojim (Mar 25, 2013)

*It's only 600 Sq. Ft, so heating shouldn't be an issue*

Dig a sump, install a pump, apply heat you don't have to attend(I recommend a trailer furnace, I have one on wheels, with flex exhaust). Check in from time to time.


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## NewYork (Mar 22, 2014)

*Thaw out basement with thick Ice*

My experience in Upstate New York with Full basements has been that at 30 inches the ice is no more than 10 inches thick depth of 15 inches or less has usually been solid ice especially this year.
Run salamander heater and if you can create a duct to blow into basement as much as possible yes if you can walk on it try to find if there is a sump pit in basement that will help as the water there is usually not frozen if a pump is there try to plug in and get water out top layer will crack once out if no pump try to break ice or chainsaw/ hole saw over pit and try to pump out 
this will take time there are alot of dangers so keep your head on straight


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## mtmtnman (May 1, 2012)

BRADSConst said:


> It's getting harder for me to deal with it. Started at a balmy a 6 deg and now we're up to 14 deg. I decided to stay in and work on bookwork and estimates today. Too damn cold to be hanging vinyl siding anyway...




Hmmm, Nice out here in the Rocky Mountain West!! Low 40's all week and teens at night. I don't know what your complaint is?


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## P3+ (Aug 16, 2012)

Excellent point Wannabe, if that foundation is brick or block...no way would I do a quick thaw. A slow controlled thaw is the only way to go. Having seen a block foundation blowout from ice expansion myself....I'd have to walk away from a job like that. 





Wannabe said:


> Gary,
> 
> Be very careful for a "blowout". This is something that I've seen several times. Don't laugh but go buy a bunch of vegetable oil and cover the ice. It will melt on it's own slowly since its under the frost line.
> 
> I pucker when heat is applied due to ice expansion can blowout the foundation walls and then the freeze is the least of your concerns. I'll look in my old pic files for the last job I turned down that another contractor heat melted and 1/2 the house collapsed.


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## BRADSConst (Oct 2, 2012)

mtmtnman said:


> Hmmm, Nice out here in the Rocky Mountain West!! Low 40's all week and teens at night. I don't know what your complaint is?


Thanks for rubbing it in....


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## PPPrincessNOT (Nov 11, 2013)

mtmtnman said:


> Hmmm, Nice out here in the Rocky Mountain West!! Low 40's all week and teens at night. I don't know what your complaint is?


 Yeah Im a bit south of Brad... I have a couple of words for you but I have to go plow some snow....


:whistling2:


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