How To Protect Your Home From Pipe Bursts This Winter
Water damage can get everywhere, in your walls & under your floors. Not to mention the damage it causes to the contents in your home or business. Do you know what to do to prevent pipes from bursting? Do you know who to call if they do?
A few helpful hints to prevent pipe bursts in your home include:
* Remove, drain, and carefully store hoses used outdoors. Close inside valves supplying outdoor hose bibs. Open the outside hose taps to allow water to drain. Keep the outside valve open so that any water remaining in the pipe can expand without causing the pipe to break.
* Check around the home for other areas where water supply lines are located and are in unheated areas. Look in basement, crawl space, attic, garage, and under kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Both hot and cold water pipes in these areas should be insulated. A hot water supply line can freeze just as a cold water supply lines can freeze if the water is not running through the pipe and the water temperature in the pipe is cold.
* During cold weather: keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines in the garage, open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warmer air to circulate around the plumbing. When it is -very- cold outside, let cold water drip from the faucet served by the exposed pipe.
If you have an unfortunate pipe burst in your home and find yourself in need of water damage restoration in Salt Lake City, Utah, contact RestorationMaster in Salt Lake to repair your house immediately.
Our water pipes are in the addict and one of them burst 6 or 7 years ago. It did some really expensive damage to our ceiling. It’s ready for an arctic freeze now but that was a tough way to learn.
Great info and just in time. Shared across my networks =)
My father was a master plumber & electrician and those are some of the same tips I remember him telling people when I was growing up. He would always tell people to leave ALL faucets dripping (I suppose some homes had poor insulation back when I was growing up). I do remember we never had problems with pipes bursting when it got below freezing and I never have since.
Thank goodness this isn’t something on my to-do list — I live in South Florida — but can understand how valuable these tips are for anyone who lives where it reaches freezing temperatures. And, yes, pipes do burst for other reasons … 😉