Protect Your Home From Freezing & Bursting Pipes
Next week Pennsylvania is expecting extremely low temperatures! This is when we hear calls about pipes bursting and homes flooding from a pipe leak. No one wants to deal with the headache of leaking and frozen pipes. Now is the time to take precautions to protect your home and make sure your drywall remains dry.
Your Home & Business Frozen Pipe Prevention Checklist
It is time to check your pipes! Go through this list to ensure you prevent your pipes from freezing in the cold temperatures:
- Inspect Pipes On The Outside Of Your Home: Look at your pipes for any damage or existing leaks. High-risk pipes you should try to drain or cover include pipes leading to pools, exterior wall pipes, sprinkler systems, and pipes in crawl spaces.
- Turn Off Exterior Plumbing: Turn off any pipes that do not need to be on during the winter months. You can typically find a hose shut off valve in your basement close to where the faucet exits the building.
- Drain Pipes & Hose: Drain the faucet you shut off. If you leave the water in the faucet, it still has the potential to make your pipe burst. Draining the hose won’t help in preventing burst pipes, but it will save you from having to buy a new hose next spring.
- Cover Exterior Plumbing: If you cannot shut off or drain any of the exterior plumbing you can cover them to help keep them from freezing.
- Wrap Exterior Pipes With Insulation: This can help the pipes to retain heat from the building and resist freezing.
- Rooms Or Buildings Without Heat: If there are any rooms or buildings that do not have heat in them, you should try to maintain the temperature in those buildings to be well above freezing.
- Check Interior Piping: Make sure none of your interior pipes will be exposed to the cold. If you have plumbing in your basement that is exposed to the cold outside it can freeze and burst.
Pipe Freezing Warning To Apartment & Condo Renters
While you may not own the property, you own the personal items inside the rental or condo. Make sure you have renters insurance or condo insurance to protect your personal items. If a pipe bursts and your apartment ends up being flooded, your landlord’s insurance does not protect your personal items.
Pipe Freezing Warning To Mobile Home Owners
Mobile homes are extremely likely to have frozen pipes during cold snaps because the crawlspace and underside of mobile homes and doublewide trailers are exposed to cold outdoor temperatures. Be sure to have mobile home insurance and have a professional insulate underneath your trailer.
How To Prevent Frozen Pipes During A Cold Snap
Everything above covers ways to prevent your pipes from freezing before a cold snap. Now the cold is here! What can you do to protect your home and keep your pipes from bursting during a cold snap?
- Drip Water From Your Faucet: Let your internal sink drip water during the cold snap. Having your sink drip during a cold snap can help the water to continue to move. This keeps the pipes from freezing.
- Close Doors: If you have a garage, detached shed, or breezeway with plumbing in them, make sure you keep their doors closed as much as possible.
- Keep Your Heat On: Going on vacation? Leaving for the weekend? Don’t turn your heat down too low or you might come home to a waterlogged apartment!
- Open Doors: Your exterior walls behind your cabinet can get cold if they aren’t opened often. Open your cabinets and closets so warm air can get to the pipes.
If your pipes freeze check out our other article covering how to melt frozen pipes.
Contact Strickler Insurance To Protect Your Home
Strickler Insurance is located in Lebanon Pennsylvania and provides home insurance and business insurance to the local community, the state of Pennsylvania, and neighboring states. Contact us for a free insurance quote today!
