5 Easy Steps – Prevent frozen pipes

Frozen pipes can lead to some serious damage to your home. If you are dealing with this freezing weather we just had, you might have gotten frozen pipes. I am going to give you 5 Easy steps to prevent frozen pipes.

Step 1 – Leave a faucet on to drip

If you typically always deal with frozen pipes during certain types of weather than this can be a good idea. If the water is moving in your pipes it won’t give it a chance to freeze. Now be careful to make sure your sink can not clog, you don’t want an overflow onto the floor! This is not a good idea for the long term because the water usage can get pretty large!

Step 2 – Leave cabinet doors open

Cabinets that have a sink the cabinet doors can be opened to allow the heat of the home to warm up the pipes. You want to do this in your kitchen and all your bathrooms.

Step 3 – Turn the heat up at night

If you live in a home that tends to have pipes that freeze, leave your heat on at night. People tend to lower the temp in the home at night for sleeping. The temp drops at night and that might be the catalyst needed for your pipes to freeze.

Step 4 – Add heat to the basement

If you have a basement that is stone or brick and not a poured foundation, you could be dealing with outside air entering the basement. During the temp drop at night or during really cold spells your pipes can freeze. I would add some space heaters. Be careful with adding space heaters and you cant think of them as a permanent solution. These heaters can be unsafe if not used properly. Do not use extension cords for these types of heaters.

Step 5 – Insulate problem areas

This is probably the most permanent solutions to prevent pipes from freezing in the future. If you have a stone foundation filling in holes with insulating foam will help! If you have a metal bulkhead door that lets lots of cold in, you might want to add another door and insulate around the frame.

Using these simple steps might save you in the next really cold weather that we have. Hiring a plumber during cold spells can be expensive and sometimes even impossible depending on how busy they are. The worst thing would be frozen pipes that burst!