Clever Winterizing Solutions: Five Approaches to Secure Your Pipes in Cold Weather
Clever Winterizing Solutions: Five Approaches to Secure Your Pipes in Cold Weather
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Just about everyone may have their own piece of advice involving How to Prevent Frozen Pipes.
All home owners who live in temperate climates have to do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like icy, cracked, or burst pipes.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature level decreases and it appears as if the cold temperature level will last, it will certainly assist to turn on your water both inside and also outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water moving via your plumbing systems. You'll end up wasting gallons of water this means.
Open Up Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would certainly be practical to open cupboard doors that are concealing your pipelines. Doing this small technique can keep your pipelines warm as well as restrict the potentially harmful results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipes
One great and also very easy hack to heat up cold pipelines is to cover them with warm towels. You can cover them first with towels. After protecting them in place, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to let the towels soak up the liquid. You can additionally use pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not forget to use safety handwear covers to guard your hands from the warm.
Attempt a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipelines are practically freezing, your trusty hair clothes dryer or warmth weapon is a blessing. If the hot towels do not help remove any kind of resolving ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air directly right into them may help. You might end up harmful your pipes while attempting to melt the ice.
When Pipelines are Frozen, close Off Water
Turn off the primary water shutoff right away if you see that your pipelines are entirely icy or nearly nearing that stage. You will usually locate this in your basement or utility room near the heating system or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off right away to avoid more damage.
Don't fail to remember to shut exterior water resources, as well, such as your hookup for the garden house. Doing this will certainly protect against added water from filling out your plumbing system. With more water, more ice will certainly stack up, which will at some point lead to burst pipes. It is best to call a professional plumber for an assessment if you are not sure about the state of your pipelines this wintertime. Taking this proactive technique can conserve you hundreds of bucks out of commission.
All homeowners who live in temperate environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can lead to catastrophe like icy, split, or ruptured pipes. If the warm towels do not help displace any clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly right into them may aid. Transform off the primary water shutoff immediately if you notice that your pipelines are completely frozen or virtually nearing that stage. With more water, more ice will stack up, which will at some point 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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