Tips to Prevent Pipes from Freezing
It typically takes a few days in a row of freezing temperatures without warming up during the day for pipes to freeze.
- They cost just a few bucks, but an investment in Styrofoam insulators could keep your pipes and hose bibs from freezing this winter. They make some little Styrofoam covers that cost a dollar a piece at any of the local home or hardware stores.
- Disconnect your garden hose, draining the water and putting on the cover over the hose bib is easy preventative maintenance.
- In extreme weather conditions, keep your indoor water faucets at a trickle to prevent pipes from freezing.
- If you have a kitchen sink or a lavatory or a bathroom that’s on an exterior wall, open up the vanity doors so that the room heat can get under the vanity that will help penetrate the wall and keep those pipes warm enough to keep them from freezing.
- Foundation vents outside of the home should be closed and sealed or stuffed with newspaper or some type of insulation.
- Make sure that the crawl space doors to get under your house are shut, fastened and sealed up good so wind and air can’t get under there. The wind chill will make it freeze under there.
- If your pipes do freeze this winter, you will likely hear it before you see it. You’ll hear a hissing sound, a spraying sound- it’d be obvious to you that something wasn’t right.
- If you do find yourself dealing with frozen pipes, it’s important to immediately cut off the water to minimize the damage. Shut the water off at the meter or at your main service valve coming into your house so that when it does thaw out it doesn’t flood everything.
- If you can locate the area of pipe that is frozen you can try to thaw it out with a hair dryer but if that doesn’t work you can always call a professional to help take care of the issue.
Lummi Nation Housing Authority 360-312-8407