What're your beliefs about How to Prevent Frozen Pipes?
All property owners who live in temperate environments need to do their best to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can spell calamity like icy, broken, or burst pipelines.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature level drops as well as it seems as if the freezing temperature will last, it will certainly assist to activate your water both inside as well as outdoors. This will maintain the water flowing via your plumbing systems. Additionally, the activity will certainly decrease the cold procedure. Notably, there's no demand to transform it on full force. You'll wind up losing gallons of water in this manner. Rather, aim for regarding 5 declines per minute.
Open Up Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would be helpful to open up closet doors that are concealing your pipes when it's chilly outside. They can be somewhere in your kitchen area or restroom. This will enable the warm air from your heating unit to distribute there. Because of this, you avoid these exposed pipelines from cold. Doing this little method can keep your pipes cozy and also limit the potentially dangerous end results of freezing temperatures.
Take Time to Cover Exposed Pipes
One very easy and awesome hack to warm up icy pipelines is to cover them with cozy towels. You can also utilize pre-soaked towels in warm water, just don't neglect to wear safety gloves to secure your hands from the warm.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipes are nearly freezing, your trusty hair dryer or heat gun is a godsend. If the warm towels do not help displace any clearing up ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly into them may help. You might end up damaging your pipes while trying to melt the ice.
When Pipes are Frozen, close Off Water
If you observe that your pipelines are completely frozen or nearly nearing that phase, turn off the primary water valve quickly. You will typically discover this in your basement or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off right away to avoid additional damage.
Don't fail to remember to shut external water sources, as well, such as your connection for the garden home. Doing this will certainly protect against additional water from filling out your plumbing system. With more water, even more ice will certainly stack up, which will eventually lead to burst pipes. If you are unsure regarding the state of your pipes this wintertime, it is best to call an expert plumber for an assessment. Taking this aggressive strategy can save you hundreds of bucks in repairs.
All home owners that live in warm climates must do their ideal to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can mean catastrophe like frozen, fractured, or ruptured pipes. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any kind of clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly into them might assist. Turn off the main water valve instantly if you discover that your pipes are completely icy or almost nearing that stage. With more water, even more ice will certainly load up, which will ultimately lead to break 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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