Avoid the Freeze: Five Essential Hacks to Keep Your Pipes From Bursting This Winter
Avoid the Freeze: Five Essential Hacks to Keep Your Pipes From Bursting This Winter
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How do you really feel in regards to Prevent Freezing and Bursting Pipes?
All property owners that live in warm environments must do their ideal to winterize their pipes. It is something you have to do during fall prior to deep wintertime genuinely begins. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like frozen, fractured, or burst pipelines. Right here are some useful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system protected even if the climate outside is terrible.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature drops and also it seems as if the cold temperature level will certainly last, it will aid 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 end up losing gallons of water this method.
Open Up Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would certainly be valuable to open cupboard doors that are concealing your pipelines. Doing this tiny method can maintain your pipes warm and restrict the possibly dangerous end results of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Cover Exposed Pipeline
One simple and also great hack to heat up cold pipelines is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can likewise make use of pre-soaked towels in warm water, simply do not neglect to put on protective gloves to safeguard your hands from the warm.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your dependable hair dryer or warmth weapon is a blessing. If the hot towels do not aid remove any type of clearing up ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air straight into them might aid. You might finish up harmful your pipelines while attempting to thaw the ice.
When Pipes are Frozen, close Off Water
If you see that your pipes are completely frozen or nearly nearing that stage, transform off the major water valve promptly. You will typically discover this in your basement or laundry room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off right now to stop additional damages.
Do not neglect to shut external water sources, also, such as your hookup for the garden home. Doing this will certainly prevent extra water from filling up your plumbing system. Sadly, with even more water, even more ice will pile up, which will at some point cause break pipes. If you are unsure regarding the state of your pipes this winter months, it is best to call an expert plumber for an evaluation. Taking this aggressive strategy can save you countless dollars in repairs.
All property owners who live in temperate environments should do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can lead to catastrophe like frozen, fractured, or ruptured pipes. If the warm towels do not help displace any working out ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly right into them may help. Turn off the primary water shutoff immediately if you see that your pipelines are completely icy or nearly nearing that stage. With 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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