Frozen Pipes: How to Avoid them and what to do When You Encounter them

It’s been a freezing cold winter here in the Metro East area; and when temperatures dip well below zero, the chances of your home’s pipes freezing increase dramatically. Today we’re going to help you avoid this issue by offering some tips on how to prevent frozen pipes and what to do if you ever encounter them!

How to prevent frozen pipes during cold weather

• Let water drip from your faucets. If you know that we’re in for excessively cold weather, let your faucets drip a little bit of water throughout the night. This will keep the water in your pipes moving, which will make it harder for them to freeze. Although this will waste a bit of water, it will help you avoid potentially expensive repairs to your pipes.
• Open kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Most people have pipes located inside their kitchen and bathroom cabinets. If you open the doors to these cabinets overnight, you can expose those pipes to the warm air from your home and decrease the likelihood of having them freeze. 
• Don’t set your thermostat back. Setting your thermostat back while you’re away from home or sleeping is a great way to save energy during normal winter days, but you should avoid doing it when it’s excessively cold outside so that the pipes in your home and near your furnace can stay warmer.

What to do when you have frozen pipes in your home

If the pipes in your home do end up freezing over, you can attempt to unthaw them on your own using an electric heating pad or a blow dryer. Try to identify the source of the problem and apply heat directly to it. If your water starts flowing again, make sure that every faucet in your home is working.

If you don’t want to try to unthaw your pipes on your own, or if you’ve tried and you can’t seem to fix the problem, be sure to contact Tiger Services. The earlier you give us a call, the sooner one of our trained technicians can fix the problem and help prevent your pipes from bursting.

If you have any questions about what to do to about frozen pipes, or if you’d like a plumbing system serviced or installed in your home, contact Tiger, your Metro East plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractor.

photo credit: jeffreylcohen via photopin cc