There is very little that can derail your winter plans quite as badly as having your pipes freeze. When water freezes, it expands. You may have noticed this in an ice cube tray: the tops of the cubes are higher when they’re frozen than the level the water was at when it was liquid. When that water is stuck inside your plumbing when it freezes, with nowhere to go as it expands, it can burst the pipes! When it thaws again, that leaves you with a gushing leak. What a pain!
There are some simple steps you can take to make sure your pipes make it through the fall and winter months without freezing and bursting. If you start to keep these in mind now, it will be easy to follow through on them all winter.
Keep Cold Air Out
Anything you can do to prevent winter’s worst weather from creeping into your home will decrease the risk of pipes freezing. Your garage door might not seem like it’s great at keeping your house warm, but it does make a significant difference, especially to plumbing in any walls against the garage. Storm windows, insulating snakes at the bottom of doors, or weatherizing strips or fresh caulk on windows are good ideas, and you can even get inexpensive insulated curtains to cover sliding glass doors.
Let Warmth Circulate in Your House
Sometimes, a closed door can dramatically drop the temperature in a room. If that room is one with a lot of plumbing, like your kitchen or bathroom, that temperature drop can raise the risk of frozen pipes. Keep doors open to those areas so the heat from the rest of your house can reach them.
Don’t Turn Your Heat Off
While you may want to lower your thermostat when everyone is out of the house for the day, or when you leave the cold of the north for a sunny vacation, you should never lower it too far. Keeping the temperature in the fifties, no colder, can help decrease the odds of coming home to a terrible plumbing emergency.
Leave Water Running
If you have pipes that are particularly prone to freezing, or in an area of your home that you are unable to keep at a steady temperature, consider this tactic during particularly cold periods. The tiniest trickle of water will keep everything moving in that section of your plumbing, and moving water doesn’t freeze as easily. Also, if water does freeze, it will have an outlet and be less likely to burst the pipe.
Following these tips will be a good step on the way to avoiding major problems. However, if you do find yourself needing good plumbing in Belmont, MA, remember that Cooling Unlimited has been providing reliable service since 1986, with true 24/7 emergency service, for all your plumbing needs.
Reach out to Cooling Unlimited, Inc. with any plumbing needs.
