The Ultimate Guide: Five Winterizing Techniques to Avoid Pipe Bursts in Chilly Conditions
The Ultimate Guide: Five Winterizing Techniques to Avoid Pipe Bursts in Chilly Conditions
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All home owners that stay in temperate climates must do their finest to winterize their pipelines. It is something you should do throughout autumn prior to deep wintertime truly begins. Failure to do so can mean calamity like icy, cracked, or burst pipes. Here are some handy winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system shielded even if the weather condition outside is frightful.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature level decreases and it appears as if the icy temperature will last, it will aid to turn on your water both inside your home and outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water moving with your plumbing systems. You'll finish up losing gallons of water this means.
Open Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would certainly be handy to open up cupboard doors that are camouflaging your pipes when it's cool outside. As an example, they could be somewhere in your kitchen or bathroom. This will allow the warm air from your heating unit to circulate there. Consequently, you avoid these exposed pipes from cold. Doing this little technique can maintain your pipes cozy and also limit the possibly unsafe results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Time to Wrap Exposed Pipes
One easy as well as nifty hack to warm up cold pipes is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After securing them in place, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to allow the towels soak up the liquid. You can also utilize pre-soaked towels in hot water, just don't forget to wear safety gloves to secure your hands from the warmth.
Try a Hair Dryer or Heat Gun
When your pipelines are practically freezing, your reliable hair clothes dryer or heat weapon is a blessing. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any kind of working out ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them might aid. You may end up harmful your pipelines while attempting to thaw the ice.
Turn off Water When Pipes are Frozen
Switch off the main water shutoff instantly if you notice that your pipelines are totally frozen or virtually nearing that phase. You will normally discover this in your basement or utility room near the heating system or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off today to avoid further damages.
With more water, more ice will certainly pile up, which will eventually lead to burst pipelines. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipelines this winter months, it is best to call a specialist plumber for an examination.
All home owners that live in warm climates must do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like frozen, broken, or burst pipes. If the hot towels do not help remove any type of clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly right into them might help. Turn off the major water shutoff quickly if you discover that your pipes are completely frozen or virtually nearing that phase. With more water, more ice will certainly pile up, which will ultimately lead to break 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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