New England is a beautiful place to live, but owning a home in an area of the country that gets as much snow and freezing temperatures as we do comes with some hardships. One of the major concerns for homeowners in the Winter is the risk of freezing pipes. At Tbros the last thing we want is for our clients homes to be damaged by freezing pipes! Here are five great ways to prevent that from happening.
1. Keep the heat on all over your home:
We have all been in a situation when we turned the heat up only in the room we were in because we were getting a bit cold, you might have even turned the heat down in other rooms to try and save some money on your heating bill. Pipes run through multiple areas of your house, If it gets cold enough to start freezing your pipes, make sure you heat your entire home.
2. Seal off your house from outside garden hoses:
While winterizing your home it can be easy to forget about the external piping of your house. If you are expecting a freeze, disconnect your garden hoses and sprinklers from the piping in your house.
3. Open your kitchen cabinets:
In a deep freeze, you might find yourself in a situation where heating your home is not enough to prevent your pipes from freezing. Ideally your pipes will be insulated, but a good extra effort to prevent freezing when it is getting really cold, is to open the cabinets under your sink, this will allow for faster heat transfer between your home and the pipes under your sink.
4. Let your sink drip:
We usually hate leaky faucets! But in the case of a deep freeze, allowing for slow movement of water through your pipes can go a long way towards preventing a freeze. Your water bill might be a few cents higher than usual, but that is nothing compared to the cost of damage caused by burst pipes.
5. Find your water main shutoff:
If a pipe bursts, or you think one is about to, shutoff your water main. This is especially relevant if you are going to be away from home for a while. The last thing you want to do is come back from your Winter vacation to find your home damaged because of a burst pipe. If you don’t know where your shut-off is, ask us, we are more than willing to help.
We hope these tips help prevent unnecessary damage during a Winter freeze, and of course, if you need help feel free to give us a call!
