As the temperatures continue to drop, you want to make sure that your home is staying warm and safe. Without the proper precautions, your exterior plumbing systems can freeze during the colder months of the winter, which are still ahead of us. While you may be warm and toasty on the inside of your home, you want to stay alert and watch for frozen pipes along the exterior surfaces of your home.

Frozen pipes can be more than an interruption in the water flow to your home. They can also burst, causing flooding or other issues that require an emergency plumber. Understanding the proper measures to take to prevent frozen exterior pipes is essential to protect your home from low temperatures.

Allow Your Faucets to Drip

Keep a close eye on the weather forecast during the coldest months, and you can leave your faucets slightly open to allow water to flow. Doing this in sinks, bathtubs, or showers that have pipes along the exterior walls of your home can help to keep them steadily moving. This water flow will prevent any water from sitting stagnant inside your pipes, leaving it susceptible to freezing.

Open Cabinet Doors

If you are concerned about uninsulated pipes underneath your sinks, consider opening your cabinet doors to expose them to the heat inside your home. Although this may not give them ultimate protection, it can help to keep them slightly warmer than if they were completely closed off to your home’s cozy internal temperature.

Apply Heating Tape

Proper insulation can protect pipes that run alongside the exterior walls of your home. By applying heating tape or heating cable to these pipes, you can provide them with extra heat protection to get them through the winter months. Be sure that you follow the manufacturer’s instructions when installing these heat protection elements.

Disconnect Hose Bibbs

One of the best ways to protect your home’s exterior pipes is to disconnect any exterior hose bibbs or faucets at the end of the fall months. As winter grows closer, you should unhook any outdoor hoses and turn off any faucets to prevent any water from sitting stagnantly all winter. This can completely eliminate the risk of frozen pipes along that side of your home.

Install Pressure Relief Valves

If you need to keep your hose in usage during the cold months of the year, you should install pressure relief valves on the ends of these pipes. These valves work to release any pressure that builds up inside your water lines. While this may not prevent freezing inside your pipes, it can drastically reduce the risk of burst pipes.

By preparing your home for the coldest months, you can prevent large plumbing issues, like frozen or burst pipes that commonly occur on the poorly insulated pipes along the outside of your home. For more solutions on how to prevent common plumbing issues this winter, trust the emergency plumber at Capital Plumbing and Heating.

If you have experienced frozen or burst pipes in your home, contact our emergency plumber for immediate assistance.