An Recommended Winterizing Strategies: Five Approaches to Guard Pipe Bursts
An Recommended Winterizing Strategies: Five Approaches to Guard Pipe Bursts
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What are your beliefs about Winterizing Your Pipes?
All homeowners that live in pleasant climates must do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can mean disaster like frozen, fractured, or burst pipes.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature drops and also it appears as if the freezing temperature level will last, it will certainly aid to activate your water both indoors and outdoors. This will maintain the water moving through your plumbing systems. On top of that, the activity will certainly slow down the freezing procedure. Notably, there's no demand to transform it on full force. You'll end up wasting gallons of water in this manner. Rather, aim for regarding 5 drops per min.
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cool outside, it would certainly be helpful to open closet doors that are concealing your pipelines. Doing this small technique can keep your pipelines warm as well as limit the possibly dangerous end results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Time to Cover Exposed Pipeline
One nifty and also easy hack to warm up icy pipelines is to wrap them with warm towels. You can cover them first with towels. After securing them in position, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to allow the towels absorb the liquid. You can also use pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not neglect to use protective handwear covers to guard your hands from the warm.
Try a Hair Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipes are virtually freezing, your dependable hair clothes dryer or heat gun is a godsend. Bowling hot air directly into them might help if the warm towels do not assist remove any type of resolving ice in your pipes. However, do not utilize other items that produce direct flames like an impact torch. This can lead to a bigger disaster that you can not regulate. You may end up harmful your pipelines while attempting to melt the ice. And in the long run, you may also end up burning your residence. So beware!
Turn off Water When Pipelines are Frozen
Shut off the main water shutoff right away if you discover that your pipelines are completely frozen or practically nearing that phase. You will usually find this in your cellar or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off immediately to avoid more damages.
Do not neglect to shut external water resources, too, such as your hookup for the garden house. Doing this will certainly avoid extra water from filling your plumbing system. Regrettably, with more water, even more ice will certainly accumulate, which will ultimately bring about burst pipes. It is best to call a specialist plumber for an assessment if you are unsure concerning the state of your pipelines this wintertime. Taking this proactive strategy can conserve you hundreds of bucks out of commission.
All home owners that live in temperate climates need to do their best to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can spell disaster like frozen, split, or ruptured pipelines. If the hot towels do not help displace any type of settling ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air straight into them might help. Transform off the major water shutoff quickly if you discover that your pipelines are totally icy or practically nearing that phase. With even more water, more ice will certainly stack 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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