Posted by a Matte's Plumbing on Facebook: Good morning! Here's some tips from a plumber on this up coming freeze this week. Please do your best to prepare.
If this coming freeze is anything like the one that hit Baton Rouge in the late 80’s, plumbers will be over whelmed, and many families will not find a plumber for a couple weeks. There are lessons learned from that nightmare. Turn the heat up in your house when it gets below freezing, especially when it is in the 20’s or lower, or low 30’s with a strong wind chill. You can decrease the heat in your bedroom by adjusting the vent there, so you can still sleep comfortably with the heat turned up. Open a 1 foot gap in your attic stairway to let the heat into your attic. Back then, even the pipes insulated in attics and in walls froze and busted. Many homeowners didn’t realize it until their pipes unfroze and flooded their homes. Important that you know how to cut your water off and that you don’t leave your home unattended if your pipes freeze. Don’t use a blow dryer to unfreeze your pipes without it being plugged to a ground fault electrical cord or receptacle, and don’t use it at all if you find the pipe has a crack or break. To any wannabe plumbers, don’t use a solder torch outside close to any opening in the brick like the tiny gap beside an outside faucet pipe, that’s an easy way for a fire to start in the wall. Inside your home, open the cabinet doors to any kitchen sink or lavatory on an outside wall to allow heat in, many pipes busted in the wall in the last huge freeze, despite having insulation. If your house is off the ground, cut a 3 ft wide roll of plastic sheet and wrap all around the bottom of your house. If you have an outside washer or hot water heater, place a work lamp light high up or electric heater away from all of the plumbing just to provide some heat in the room, it’s important that you use an electrical cord or receptacle for the heater or lamp light that has a ground fault breaker. Insulation to outside faucets and water lines to the house may not be enough, install extra insulation or cover the insulation with plastic bags, anything that can provide more cover from the wind and hard freeze. Don’t run a steady stream on your faucets to prevent freezing, it decreases the water pressure for firemen and others, instead use one faucet to drip every couple seconds on the hot side which allows water to move very slowly on both hot and cold. The best method of protecting your pipes is by providing added insulation and heat in your attic, under your house, and in the cabinets of fixtures in your home. For a vacant house or house left unattended, don’t just cut the water off, use air pressure to blow existing water out of the hot and cold lines. What is most heartbreaking about a massive hard freeze and having many pipes busting is not just seeing the damage that occurs, it’s also being forced to pick which customers we cant get to in a day or week out of the thousands affected.
Sincerely, Mark with Matte’s Plumbing
If this coming freeze is anything like the one that hit Baton Rouge in the late 80’s, plumbers will be over whelmed, and many families will not find a plumber for a couple weeks. There are lessons learned from that nightmare. Turn the heat up in your house when it gets below freezing, especially when it is in the 20’s or lower, or low 30’s with a strong wind chill. You can decrease the heat in your bedroom by adjusting the vent there, so you can still sleep comfortably with the heat turned up. Open a 1 foot gap in your attic stairway to let the heat into your attic. Back then, even the pipes insulated in attics and in walls froze and busted. Many homeowners didn’t realize it until their pipes unfroze and flooded their homes. Important that you know how to cut your water off and that you don’t leave your home unattended if your pipes freeze. Don’t use a blow dryer to unfreeze your pipes without it being plugged to a ground fault electrical cord or receptacle, and don’t use it at all if you find the pipe has a crack or break. To any wannabe plumbers, don’t use a solder torch outside close to any opening in the brick like the tiny gap beside an outside faucet pipe, that’s an easy way for a fire to start in the wall. Inside your home, open the cabinet doors to any kitchen sink or lavatory on an outside wall to allow heat in, many pipes busted in the wall in the last huge freeze, despite having insulation. If your house is off the ground, cut a 3 ft wide roll of plastic sheet and wrap all around the bottom of your house. If you have an outside washer or hot water heater, place a work lamp light high up or electric heater away from all of the plumbing just to provide some heat in the room, it’s important that you use an electrical cord or receptacle for the heater or lamp light that has a ground fault breaker. Insulation to outside faucets and water lines to the house may not be enough, install extra insulation or cover the insulation with plastic bags, anything that can provide more cover from the wind and hard freeze. Don’t run a steady stream on your faucets to prevent freezing, it decreases the water pressure for firemen and others, instead use one faucet to drip every couple seconds on the hot side which allows water to move very slowly on both hot and cold. The best method of protecting your pipes is by providing added insulation and heat in your attic, under your house, and in the cabinets of fixtures in your home. For a vacant house or house left unattended, don’t just cut the water off, use air pressure to blow existing water out of the hot and cold lines. What is most heartbreaking about a massive hard freeze and having many pipes busting is not just seeing the damage that occurs, it’s also being forced to pick which customers we cant get to in a day or week out of the thousands affected.
Sincerely, Mark with Matte’s Plumbing
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