Prevent a Burst Pipe in Your Home
When water freezes, it expands. This can create a plumbing disaster in winter if water in your plumbing pipes freezes. Avoid this by taking the following steps.
Insulate Pipes
Inspect your home’s plumbing pipes and their location throughout the home. In older homes especially, you will often find they network through unconditioned areas, such as crawlspaces and cold attics. Have any leaks sealed and then insulate all exposed pipes using flexible foam tubes made for this purpose. This helps to keep the water above the freezing point by preventing heat loss. Insulation will not heat the pipes, but it will help them from losing heat.
Insulate Walls near Pipes
Pipes that run through poorly insulated exterior walls can easily freeze and burst inside the walls, creating a costly mess. Have a contractor inspect these walls for insulation and add new insulation if necessary. In many cases, loose-fill insulation can be blown in, which reduces the time and avoids the mess of removing large sections of drywall.
Open Cabinet Doors
Pipes that are housed beneath kitchen, bathroom or laundry room cabinets are at increased risk of bursting if they are on or near an exterior wall. Keep these pipes warmer by opening the cabinet doors to allow warmed air to circulate around them. Do this whenever a potential freeze is forecast and if you plan on being gone from the home for more than a day.
Leave Faucet On
Running water will not freeze as quickly. Turn on both the hot and cold faucets allowing them to drip. This keeps water continually flowing through the plumbing system and can prevent freezing. If you know your pipes are prone to freezing due to past experience, consider letting the water stream instead of trickle overnight when temperatures plummet.
Disconnect Outside Hoses
Before freezing temperatures occur, disconnect your outside garden hoses and then put an insulating cover over the outdoor faucet. If you don’t do this, you can experience a worse scenario than merely a damaged garden hose. What can happen is cold air can travel into the water faucet and freeze the indoor pipes.
No one wants to experience burst pipes on a cold winter day or night. It costs in terms of your water bill, damage to property and other costly repairs. After taking these steps, remember to also have your plumbing inspected anytime you suspect leaks or freezing in the pipes of your home.
Avoid a costly pipe burst with these key tips! Call NixCo Plumbing at (513) 398-5907 for repairs in your home.