Efficient Methods to Protect Your Plumbing and Prevent Freezing in Frigid Weather
Efficient Methods to Protect Your Plumbing and Prevent Freezing in Frigid Weather
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What are your thoughts concerning Winterizing Your Pipes?
All property owners that live in warm climates need to do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can spell calamity like icy, fractured, or ruptured pipelines.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your dependable hair dryer or warm gun is a blessing. Bowling warm air directly into them may aid if the hot towels do not help dislodge any clearing up ice in your pipelines. Do not utilize other items that produce direct flames like a strike torch. This can result in a bigger catastrophe that you can not manage. You may end up damaging your pipelines while attempting to thaw the ice. As well as over time, you may even end up shedding your home. So be careful!
Open Up Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would certainly be useful to open cupboard doors that are camouflaging your pipelines. They might be someplace in your kitchen or shower room. This will certainly permit the warm air from your heating unit to distribute there. Because of this, you protect against these revealed pipelines from cold. Doing this little technique can keep your pipes cozy and also restrict the possibly harmful outcomes of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipeline
One nifty and simple hack to warm up cold pipelines is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After securing them in position, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to allow the towels absorb the liquid. You can additionally use pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not neglect to wear safety handwear covers to guard your hands from the heat.
Turn On the Faucets
When the temperature level drops as well as it appears as if the icy temperature will last, it will certainly help to turn on your water both inside as well as outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water flowing via your plumbing systems. You'll end up losing gallons of water this way.
When Pipes are Frozen, shut Off Water
If you notice that your pipelines are entirely icy or practically nearing that stage, turn off the main water shutoff promptly. You will normally discover this in your basement or utility room near the heating system or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off immediately to stop additional damage.
Do not fail to remember to shut outside water resources, too, such as your connection for the garden home. Doing this will stop additional water from filling up your plumbing system. With more water, even more ice will stack up, which will eventually lead to burst pipelines. It is best to call an expert plumber for an examination if you are not sure concerning the state of your pipelines this winter months. Taking this aggressive technique can save you hundreds of bucks out of commission.
All house owners who live in pleasant climates have to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like icy, cracked, or ruptured pipelines. If the hot towels do not assist displace any type of resolving ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them may help. Transform off the major water valve promptly if you observe that your pipelines are completely frozen or virtually nearing that phase. With more water, more ice will certainly pile up, which will ultimately lead to burst 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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