Helpful Methods to Protect Your Plumbing and Safeguard Freezing in Frigid Conditions
Helpful Methods to Protect Your Plumbing and Safeguard Freezing in Frigid Conditions
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All homeowners who live in temperate climates must do their ideal to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can mean catastrophe like frozen, cracked, or ruptured pipes.
Turn On the Faucets
When the temperature level decreases and it seems as if the frigid temperature will certainly last, it will certainly help to turn on your water both inside your home as well as outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water moving via your plumbing systems. You'll finish up wasting gallons of water this way.
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would certainly be useful to open up closet doors that are camouflaging your pipelines when it's cool outside. They might be somewhere in your cooking area or shower room. This will enable the warm air from your heating unit to distribute there. Consequently, you prevent these subjected pipes from freezing. Doing this little trick can keep your pipelines cozy and also limit the potentially dangerous results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Water Lines
One awesome as well as very easy hack to heat up cold pipelines is to cover them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After protecting them in place, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to allow the towels soak up the liquid. You can likewise use pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not fail to remember to use protective gloves to guard your hands from the warmth.
Try a Hair Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipes are virtually freezing, your dependable hair dryer or heat weapon is a godsend. If the warm towels do not help displace any type of settling ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air straight right into them may aid. You might end up harmful your pipelines while trying to melt the ice.
When Pipes are Frozen, shut Off Water
Turn off the major water shutoff promptly if you notice that your pipes are completely frozen or nearly nearing that stage. You will typically locate this in your cellar or laundry room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off right away to avoid further damage.
Do not neglect to close external water resources, too, such as your connection for the yard home. Doing this will certainly stop added water from filling out your plumbing system. Sadly, with even more water, even more ice will certainly pile up, which will eventually result in burst pipes. It is best to call a professional plumber for an evaluation if you are uncertain regarding the state of your pipelines this wintertime. Taking this aggressive method can conserve you countless bucks in repairs.
All home owners that live in pleasant environments need to do their best to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can lead to catastrophe like frozen, fractured, or burst pipelines. If the hot towels do not help remove any kind of resolving ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them might aid. Turn off the major water valve instantly if you notice that your pipes are completely icy or virtually nearing that stage. With even more water, even more ice will load up, which will at some point lead to rupture pipelines.
Planning Ahead for Winter Plumbing!
Given how the weather has been recently here in Kansas City, it may not seem like it, but the truth is winter is quickly approaching. As we near the end of September, it is never a bad idea to start considering which areas of your home could use some preventative maintenance heading into the colder months, as well as what you should remember to do once the colder temps settle in. And considering your plumbing system can certainly be impacted by changing weather conditions, guess what we’ll be talking about today?
For those that are visiting our blog for the very first time, welcome to Stine-Nichols Plumbing. Here on the blog, we post weekly about various aspects of the plumbing world. Whether that be DIY tips, brand highlights or anything else, they’re all designed to make homeowners more knowledgeable about their plumbing systems. Believe it or not, even just some general knowledge about one’s plumbing can go a long way in preventing unneeded repairs and keeping everything running smoothly. As referenced in the previous paragraph, this week’s blog will walk through a few of the steps you can do to your own plumbing system to ensure you’re ready to go for the upcoming winter weather and tips for keeping it all in working order as the winter carries on. Let’s hop right in!
Disconnect Hoses
You’ve likely heard this one on multiple occasions, but it is certainly something worth mentioning. Make sure to disconnect any and all outdoor hoses and then turn off those outdoor faucets at the shut-off. The logic behind this is probably something you would have learned in a grade school science class. When water freezes, it expands. Thus, due to this, it’s going to occupy more space. And if there’s no space to occupy, trouble ensues. It’s as simple as that!
Long story short, if you have room to store them indoors, do so. If not, just be sure to completely drain them and then store them in a dry area, such as the garage or a shed. Failure to disconnect the hoses can easily result in frozen/bursting pipes and plumbing headaches for you, especially if there is still water sitting in the hose! Do yourself a favor and disconnect your hoses once you know you won’t be using them anymore for that season. It’s a quick-and-easy step that’s always worth the time.
Headed Out of Town?
Our next point will likely get more and more relevant as we get into the holiday season. Do you remember the extreme arctic blast that hit the Kansas City area in February of 2021? Sub-zero temps, frigid wind chills, it was definitely not the funnest of times for KC residents. Nonetheless, here at Stine-Nichols Plumbing, it’s safe to say our technicians were quite busy dealing with frozen/bursting pipes. What I’m hinting at here is that you never know when we’ll experience extremely cold temperatures. So if you’re going to be out of town for a little bit, it’s never a bad idea to turn off your water at the main shut-off valve. While this won’t prevent every possible plumbing issue, it will at least limit the damage if something bad were to occur. Especially if you don’t have a family member or friend that’ll be checking on your home while you’re away, make sure to keep this tip in mind!
By the way, it may sound like a no-brainer to most, but if you are headed out of town, make sure to also keep the heat on inside while away. You will have some added energy costs from heating a home while nobody’s there, but if it prevents you from dealing with a plumbing emergency, it’s well worth it!
Leave Cabinet Doors Open
As you may start to notice, the primary winter plumbing problem that you need to be mindful of involves pipes freezing. Whether it be indoors or outdoors, they can freeze for a few different reasons, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of various tactics you can implement to improve your odds of keeping everything in working order. Yet another one of these that you’ve likely heard before is leaving the cabinet doors under your bathroom or kitchen sink open. Will this provide complete protection? Not necessarily. However, this is an easy way to make sure some of the heat in your home is reaching those pipes that aren’t insulated under your sinks.
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