Are you currently hunting for advice concerning Winterizing Your Pipes?
All house owners that live in temperate environments must do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like icy, fractured, or burst pipes.
Try a Hair Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipes are virtually freezing, your trusty hair dryer or warmth gun is a blessing. If the warm towels do not help remove any kind of settling ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight into them may assist. Nonetheless, do not utilize various other things that produce direct flames like a strike lantern. This can result in a larger calamity that you can not regulate. You might wind up damaging your pipes while trying to melt the ice. And also in the future, you might also end up melting your residence. Be careful!
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would certainly be helpful to open up closet doors that are masking your pipelines when it's cold outside. They might be somewhere in your kitchen or bathroom. This will certainly allow the cozy air from your heating system to distribute there. Because of this, you stop these subjected pipes from cold. Doing this tiny method can maintain your pipes warm and also restrict the potentially harmful outcomes of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Piping
One clever and simple hack to heat up freezing pipelines is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After protecting them in position, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to let the towels soak up the liquid. You can likewise use pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not fail to remember to put on protective handwear covers to protect your hands from the warm.
Turn On the Faucets
When the temperature level declines and it seems as if the icy temperature level will last, it will certainly aid to turn on your water both inside your home and also outdoors. This will certainly keep the water streaming via your plumbing systems. You'll finish up wasting gallons of water this method.
Shut down Water When Pipelines are Frozen
If you discover that your pipes are totally frozen or practically nearing that phase, transform off the primary water shutoff immediately. You will usually find this in your basement or utility room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off today to prevent further damages.
Do not neglect to shut exterior water resources, also, such as your connection for the yard residence. Doing this will certainly stop extra water from filling your plumbing system. Sadly, with even more water, more ice will pile up, which will eventually bring about break pipelines. It is best to call an expert plumber for an assessment if you are uncertain about the state of your pipelines this wintertime. Taking this proactive approach can conserve you thousands of dollars out of commission.
All property owners that live in temperate environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can mean disaster like frozen, fractured, or burst pipelines. If the warm towels do not help displace any type of clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly right into them may aid. Transform off the main water shutoff promptly if you discover that your pipelines are totally frozen or nearly nearing that stage. With even more water, more ice will certainly stack up, which will eventually lead to rupture 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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