Ingenious Strategies to Protect Your Pipes in Cold Weather
Ingenious Strategies to Protect Your Pipes in Cold Weather
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What are your thoughts and feelings about How to stop pipes from freezing during the winter?
All house owners that live in warm environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipes. It is something you must do throughout autumn prior to deep winter season absolutely begins. Failure to do so can spell disaster like frozen, cracked, or burst pipelines. Here are some useful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system shielded even if the weather exterior is terrible.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature drops and also it seems as if the frigid temperature level will certainly last, it will assist to transform on your water both inside your home and also outdoors. This will certainly keep the water moving with your plumbing systems. You'll finish up losing gallons of water this way.
Open Up Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's chilly outside, it would certainly be valuable to open up cabinet doors that are camouflaging your pipes. Doing this little method can maintain your pipelines cozy and also restrict the possibly dangerous results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Cover Exposed Piping
One simple and also cool hack to heat up frigid pipes is to cover them with cozy towels. You can also make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not neglect to use safety gloves to guard your hands from the heat.
Try a Hair Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your trusty hair dryer or warmth weapon is a godsend. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any resolving ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight into them may assist. Do not use various other items that create direct fires like an impact torch. This can result in a bigger disaster that you can not regulate. You might wind up damaging your pipes while attempting to thaw the ice. As well as over time, you might even wind up melting your home. Be careful!
Shut Off Water When Pipes are Frozen
If you discover that your pipes are completely frozen or almost nearing that stage, transform off the main water valve immediately. You will normally locate this in your basement or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off today to prevent more damages.
Don't fail to remember to shut outside water sources, too, such as your connection for the yard residence. Doing this will prevent additional water from filling out your plumbing system. However, with more water, more ice will certainly pile up, which will eventually lead to break pipes. It is best to call a specialist plumber for an assessment if you are unclear about the state of your pipes this winter season. Taking this aggressive approach can save you hundreds of dollars out of commission.
All property owners that live in temperate climates need to do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can spell catastrophe like icy, fractured, or ruptured pipelines. If the hot towels do not help dislodge any type of working out ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air directly right into them might assist. Turn off the main water shutoff instantly if you see that your pipes are completely icy or almost nearing that phase. With more water, more ice will load up, which will at some point lead to burst pipes.
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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