5 Practical Hacks for Winterizing Your Home's Plumbing Against Severe Cold
5 Practical Hacks for Winterizing Your Home's Plumbing Against Severe Cold
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All home owners that reside in temperate environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipes. It is something you have to do during fall prior to deep winter really starts. Failing to do so can spell catastrophe like frozen, fractured, or burst pipes. Here are some handy winterizing hacks to maintain your plumbing system secured even if the climate outside is shocking.
Try a Hair Dryer or Heat Gun
When your pipes are nearly freezing, your trusty hair dryer or warmth weapon is a blessing. Bowling warm air straight into them may help if the warm towels do not help dislodge any settling ice in your pipelines. However, do not utilize various other objects that generate direct fires like an impact torch. This can lead to a larger catastrophe that you can not control. You might wind up damaging your pipelines while trying to thaw the ice. And also in the long run, you might also end up shedding your residence. Beware!
Open Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cool outside, it would be useful to open up closet doors that are camouflaging your pipes. Doing this little method can keep your pipelines cozy as well as restrict the potentially unsafe outcomes of freezing temperatures.
Take Time to Cover Exposed Pipes
One clever as well as easy hack to heat up frigid pipes is to cover them with cozy towels. You can cover them first with towels. After protecting them in position, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to allow the towels take in the fluid. You can also make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply don't forget to use safety gloves to secure your hands from the heat.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature drops as well as it seems as if the icy temperature level will certainly last, it will certainly aid to activate your water both inside and outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water streaming with your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the motion will certainly decrease the freezing procedure. Significantly, there's no need to transform it on full blast. You'll wind up losing gallons of water this way. Rather, aim for regarding 5 drops per min.
Shut down Water When Pipes are Frozen
If you observe that your pipelines are entirely icy or virtually nearing that phase, turn off the primary water valve instantly. You will usually locate this in your cellar or laundry room near the heater or the front wall surface closest to the street. Transform it off as soon as possible to avoid additional damage.
Don't fail to remember to shut outside water resources, also, such as your connection for the garden residence. Doing this will prevent added water from filling your plumbing system. With more water, even more ice will certainly stack up, which will at some point lead to burst pipelines. It is best to call an expert plumber for an inspection if you are unclear about the state of your pipes this wintertime. Taking this aggressive strategy can conserve you thousands of bucks out of commission.
All property owners that live in temperate environments need to do their ideal to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can mean catastrophe like frozen, fractured, or burst pipes. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any settling ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly right into them may assist. Transform off the main water shutoff quickly if you discover that your pipes are totally frozen or almost nearing that phase. With even more water, more ice will pile 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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