Now that temperatures are starting to sink and we’re enjoying all of the fall festivities, we need to talk about our plumbing systems. Mainly, why you might want to consult with a plumber in Westlake, OH to ensure your pipes don’t freeze this winter.
Frozen pipes are an insidious problem. They can be disruptive, messy, and cause your home to waste a lot of water. Luckily, they can be avoided with a few DIY steps and some help from your friendly, local plumber!
This blog post is dedicated to preparing your home for the frigid temperatures ahead and making sure that you don’t become the victim of a frozen pipe. From pipe insulation, to calling a professional to have your plumbing system inspected for exposed pipes, we’re going to detail all of our solutions and be as informative as possible.
Insulate Your Pipes
Pipes need to be insulated from the outside weather when temperatures dip below freezing. This isn’t just a good practice, but it’s absolutely necessary.
For starters, water expands when it freezes, which is the primary reason why burst pipes are so bad to encounter. That ice will burst open your pipe since it rapidly expands after freezing, and you’ll have a large leak to deal with. Also, you might not even know that your pipe is burst until the ice thaws in the springtime or on a warm day, which means you’ll suddenly be inundated with a problem at an inconvenient time.
Pipe insulation is a cover that stops frigid, sub-freezing air from reaching the liquid in the pipes. Many people use pool noodles and duct tape to create a DIY pipe cover, but there are hardware stores and professionals that offer more specialized pipe insulation that can work better in extremely cold environments.
Keep Your Cabinets Open
Have you ever walked into someone’s house during the winter and noticed that all of their kitchen cabinets were open? This isn’t by accident, it’s actually a sound strategy for keeping pipes from freezing and bursting.
Cabinet doors block the airflow from the rest of your home to where many of your pipes are located. Unfortunately, for many kitchen spaces, they’re connected to the exterior wall which means the cabinets can get quite cold if there’s no heat reaching them.
By keeping the cabinet doors open, you’re allowing heat from your HVAC system to reach the cabinets and your kitchen pipes so they don’t freeze up.
Call a Plumber for an Inspection
Sometimes, there’s very little you can do without the help of a professional plumber. Exposed pipes, (meaning pipes that are outside of your home) can sometimes be in weird places, especially if you’ve got an older home or a house that was built with additions. It could’ve been something a previous plumber overlooked, or perhaps there is a new hole in one of the sides of your home’s exterior, allowing the cold to reach your exposed pipes.
Either way, you’re going to want to have a professional give your home a look. You can call our team for an inspection, and we’ll point out any exposed pipes we see, or even tell you if your basement pipes are in danger of freezing.
Contact Westland Heating, Air Conditioning and Plumbing for help with your plumbing system.
