Ready for winter? Follow this list and you will be!

Sewer Repair Normal, IL

Minimize Your Risk of a flooding basement this winter with these friendly tips! 

It’s better to prevent a disaster than to face one. Seems obvious, right? But when it comes to plumbing, we tend to ignore it until it’s too late. In warmer climates, the weather is more forgiving for piping. If you face winter every year, it’s a different story.

Here are six ways to prevent your pipes from bursting if an extra cold snap (or entire season) comes along.

INSULATE PIPES

While insulation doesn’t prevent heat loss, it slows it down significantly. This makes the difference between water flowing through your pipes and ice formation when the temperature drops. If your pipes are located in unheated or under heated spaces, make this a priority.

INSULATE ATTIC AND CRAWL SPACES

Insulating your pipes is only part of the solution. Keep your attic and crawl spaces insulated to protect any piping routed through them and prevent further heat loss from freezing (then bursting) your home’s pipes.

ALLOW AIRFLOW AROUND PIPES

Keeping pipes walled off in interior walls, even insulated ones, can spell disaster when the temperature drops outside. Openings in the wall at strategic locations will allow room airflow to keep pipes from freezing. Talk to a professional about the best way to approach this. You’ll need to know where the pipes are, whether it’s hot or cold water and how to allow air into the wall cavity without compromising the wall or losing too much heat.

WINTERIZE OUTDOOR HOSE BIBS

This might be an obvious one but it’s also easy to forget. With everything going on, you may overlook this task (then regret it in a few months). Put a reminder on your phone and add it to your to do list for the fall.

MAINTAIN INDOOR TEMPERATURE

Pipes won’t freeze and burst if they are kept at the right temperature. You may or may not get to travel this winter but in your efforts to save energy, make sure you don’t put pipes at risk by dropping the temperature too low.

RE-ROUTE AT-RISK PIPING

The best way to avoid burst pipes is to make sure they all run in heated spaces. If you have pipes in risky places, consider re-routing them to avoid the cold and minimize your risk further.

If you need help preparing your home’s piping for winter, give us a call and we can limit the risk of burst pipes this season.

Skip to content