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I am insulating a floor above a vented crawlspace. This is an old house built on piers. I am adding insulation to the floor just above the crawlspace, and closing it with plywood from below to avoid animals nesting in the insulation (this has been a problem with this house in the past.)

The problem I have is that water comes from a well that's relatively far from the house. The water main from the well is buried right until it gets to the house, then is exposed between the soil and the house on piers. Up to now, this old house has been used as a seasonal cabin and winterized during the coldest months. But now it will be changed to full-time residence. For many reasons, encasing the crawlspace and making it part of the conditioned space should be considered the least preferable option.

How does one deal with the exposed 2' of main between the soil and the house, so that it does not freeze during the winter? I am sure that people with mobile homes in Maine deal with this all the time, but I don't have any direct experience with mobile homes. Do they use a heated tape? If so, how do they do it? Install an outdoor electrical outlet in the crawlspace and plug the heated tape?

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    Heat tape will work, just need to add an outlet near by. Do not need to encase the whole crawlspace, just a small area near the pipe. An well insulated box that allows the warm house air into it. Having passive(box) and active(tape) protection will help if the tape ever fails/power goes out. Also need to worry about ground freezing, why pipes are buried below the frost line, above the frost line the ground can freeze water in pipe.
    – crip659
    Commented Jul 12 at 15:52

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I have dealt with this issue personally and professionally and crip659 is correct when suggesting heat tape. Now the outlet you install will need to be GFI and as far off the ground as possible. Now heat tape should also be wrapped and fully encased in fiberglass insulation or it will not.work as well due to heat loss. You should find rolls of fiberglass insulation that are just a few inches wide and about 2 inches in thickness and just wrap the tape to the pipes with the insulation and the insulation should come with some kind of plastic wrap to encase the whole thing which will also be a couple inches in width. The heat tape doesn't get very hot so the plastic wrap will be fine just use some heavy duty tape (such as Gorilla or Duct tape) to hold everything nicely secured to the water line. Hope this helps.

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