Our Top Winterizing Techniques: A Handful of Ways to Secure Pipe Bursts
Our Top Winterizing Techniques: A Handful of Ways to Secure Pipe Bursts
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Are you hunting for answers on Winterizing Your Pipes?
All homeowners that reside in temperate climates need to do their ideal to winterize their pipes. It is something you need to do throughout fall prior to deep winter absolutely starts. Failure to do so can spell disaster like frozen, split, or ruptured pipelines. If the weather exterior is shocking, here are some helpful winterizing hacks to maintain your plumbing system safeguarded even.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipes are practically freezing, your reliable hair dryer or heat gun is a blessing. If the hot towels do not assist remove any type of working out ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight into them might help. Do not utilize other items that generate direct fires like a blow torch. This can lead to a larger catastrophe that you can not manage. You may end up harmful your pipelines while attempting to thaw the ice. And also in the long run, you might also wind up shedding your residence. Be cautious!
Open Up Cupboard Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's chilly outside, it would be useful to open cupboard doors that are masking your pipelines. Doing this tiny method can maintain your pipes warm and also restrict the possibly hazardous results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Time to Wrap Exposed Pipeline
One very easy as well as nifty hack to warm up icy pipelines is to cover them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After safeguarding them in position, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to let the towels soak up the fluid. You can also utilize pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not neglect to wear protective gloves to protect your hands from the warm.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature drops and it appears as if the freezing temperature will certainly last, it will help to activate your water both inside your home and outdoors. This will certainly keep the water moving through your plumbing systems. In addition, the motion will reduce the freezing process. Significantly, there's no requirement to transform it on full force. You'll end up squandering gallons of water this way. Instead, go for concerning 5 decreases per minute.
When Pipelines are Frozen, close Off Water
If you observe that your pipelines are entirely icy or practically nearing that stage, transform off the major water valve immediately. You will usually locate this in your basement or laundry room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off right now to prevent more damage.
With even more water, more ice will load up, which will ultimately lead to rupture pipes. If you are unclear regarding the state of your pipes this winter months, it is best to call a specialist plumber for an evaluation.
All homeowners that live in temperate environments should do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can lead to disaster like icy, cracked, or ruptured pipes. If the warm towels do not assist remove any type of settling ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air directly into them might help. Turn off the main water valve right away if you notice that your pipes are totally frozen or practically nearing that phase. With even more water, even 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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