Winter Preparedness

1/22/2018 (Permalink)

Be prepared this winter

The winter is one of the busiest times of the year
for SERVPRO. Pipes freeze and cause water losses, while house fires hit a peak in December and January. Cold weather is the culprit for these incidents. When the temperature drops, water freezes and expands, which causes pipes to freeze. And when the weather gets colder, people are more likely to spend time inside and have the heat raised, increasing the chances of a fire. Candles, extra electric lighting, Christmas trees and an increase in cooking can all lead to fires. Winter also sees an increase in outside fires caused by open flame−fires ignited by matches, open fires (including campfires), and embers.
The winter also results in pipes freezing. Water expands when it freezes. This expansion puts tremendous pressure on whatever is containing it, including metal or plastic pipes, which can cause them to break. Pipes that are more likely to freeze are often exposed to severe cold (like outdoor hose bibs), swimming pool supply lines and water sprinkler lines. Water supply pipes in unheated interior areas like basements and crawl spaces, attics, garages or kitchen cabinets can also freeze, as well as pipes that run against exterior walls that have little or no insulation.
To protect pipes from freezing, it’s important to drain water from swimming pools and water sprinkler supply lines before the cold weather hits. Hoses used outdoors should be removed, drained and stored away. Inside valves supplying outdoor hose bibs should be closed and the outside hose bibs should be opened to allow water to drain. Keep the outside valve open so that any water remaining in the pipe can expand without causing the pipe to break. 
To prevent frozen pipes, keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines in the garage. Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warmer air to circulate around the plumbing. When it gets extremely cold outside, let the cold water drip from the faucet served by exposes pipes. Keep the thermostat set to the same temperature all day and if you’re going out of town, leave the heat on in your home and set it to no lower than 55 degrees.
You should suspect you have a frozen pipe when you turn on a faucet and only a trickle comes out. If you have a frozen pipe, apply heat to the section of pipe using an electric heating pad wrapped around the pipe, an electric hair dryer, a portable space heater (kept away from flammable materials) or by wrapping pipes with towels soaked in hot water. Check all other faucets in your home to find out if you have additional frozen pipes. If one pipe freezes, others may freeze, too.
Simply put, you don’t want burst pipes. Burst pipes within the home is the worst thing that can happen to your plumbing system due to the cost the water damage can do. If a pipe bursts in the ceiling or the floor it can be some time before you notice and all too often the first you know is when the bulge appears or the water flows in a torrent. The potential water loss from burst pipes in your house can be as much as 400 liters or two full baths an hour. This means if you were away for a full day, you could have up to 9,600 liters of water or 48 full baths of water in your house.