Talked to a plumber about pipe insulation and it changed my mind

I ran into a retired plumber named Tom at the hardware store last Saturday. He told me I was wasting money on foam pipe insulation because the real problem was gaps around the foundation letting cold air in. Has anyone else had better luck sealing drafts before wrapping pipes?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_spencer21d ago

That's a classic 'treat the symptom not the cause' scenario right there. So I basically paid good money to wrap my pipes in little foam jackets while my whole house was just letting the arctic breeze waltz right in. Guess Tom is out there saving people from themselves one hardware store parking lot at a time.

wren30721d ago

Tom is 100% right. I did the same thing a couple winters ago and it was night and day. I wrapped up all my pipes with that foam stuff but still had cold drafts in the basement. Then I got a can of spray foam and sealed every little gap around the rim joist and where the foundation meets the sill plate. After that, the basement stayed way warmer and I bet my heating bill dropped like 50 bucks a month. Pipes barely got cold either, even during that bad freeze we had last January. Good advice from Tom.