Prevent Frozen Pipes In Your Home

By Scott Rodgers

One problem that you often encounter in every winter is freezing of water pipes. If water in pipe is still and do not move then that water is liable to get frozen fast. Also, if you are going for a holiday and turn off your heat valve then the pipes could get frozen. If temperature inside the pipe becomes 32F or less then it could get frozen.

If your pipes are installed at attics, unheated rooms, outside a wall or in an unheated crawlspace then they are more likely to get frozen.

If you will keep heat valve on at all the times, you can prevent freezing in pipes. No doubt when you will go out for a long holiday, you will turn heat off to save your electricity. But this can cause freezing in pipes, so better is to turn down the heat level to low instead of turning it off. Putting the heat level at 50 degrees is enough to protect your pipes and also keep your heating bills low.

Still water is another big cause of frozen pipes. It is quite important to keep a faucet dripping or running because moving water freezes at a lower temperature than still water. If you will keep on moving the water in your pipe, you will be able to prevent it from freezing up to a great extent.

One more effective way is to insulate the water pipes so that they get less affected by the outside temperature. Some pipes that are exposed directly to wind and outer environment are in more need of insulation.

When water gets frozen it will start pushing the walls of pipe as they need more space. In this pushing the pipes may get damaged. Now when the frozen pipes start thawing, the water could expel out of the pipes and could cause a huge damage. The consequences of this situation are very bad so you should try to avoid this situation in every possible manner.

A frozen pipe would damage the pipe and when we thaw this damaged pipe, water will spread all around your home and basement causing a big loss to you.

In case the pipe bursts, stay away from that water because that water is very cold and could harm you. Ask all your family members to stay away from that. If something is there in the room that could be damaged with the water then remove it from there after wearing a rain coat and waterproof boots. Call a plumber immediately to handle the situation. - 30517

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