My mother owns a 100 year old farm house. It never fails almost every winter that her frozen pipes burst. Every year. Her pipes scream out, NOOO don’t allow me to burst. It hurts to feel the ice in my veins. The shards of ice as the pipe pop open is excruciating to those poor pipes. It’s just cruel really. Why? There are ways to prevent it. Sometimes the temps get down so low that they could still freeze. But don’t you want to do what you can to try to prevent it. Here are 5 easy things you can do to keep your pipes healthy, happy and unfrozen.
1. Wrap the pipes in insulation.You can use the spray insulation or get the wrap around kind.
2. Leave your faucets dripping in the house. The moving water helps to keep it from freezing in the pipes.
3. Close the vents in the crawlspace of your house and turn off the faucets outside and cover them with those styrofoam covers.
4. On the nights that the temperatures dip below freezing make sure you open the cabinets where the pipes are located (bathrooms, kitchen) so that the warm heat can get into them.
5. Purchase heat tape to wrap your pipes in. This can be purchased at most home supply stores. After wrapping this you do have to plug it in for it to heat. Use this as your last resort. The first 4 work really well at helping you to not have frozen pipes.
This is something that if prepared for in advance you can prevent. Try to get it out of the way now before the temps dip below freezing. Hope this helps your home and pipes keep from freezing.
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