What To Do About Frozen Pipes

It’s an unpleasant surprise no homeowner wants to face. You’re ready to take a shower to jump-start your morning or treat yourself to a nice, hot bath at the end of a long winter’s day, but you can’t because when you turn the taps, water doesn’t come out. Your pipes have frozen.

Why It Happens

This isn’t something that occurs every winter, but for some homeowners, they already know that there are certain occasions when it’s a possibility. Some water pipes are not insulated or are positioned in such a way that they are closer to the exterior of a home and exposed to the colder temperatures during the winter months.

Continue reading →

How to Prepare your Home for the Winter to Avoid a Plumbing Emergency

Today's Frozen Pipes Are Tomorrow's Plumbing Emergency

Plumbing emergencies are something many people don’t want to deal with because it can result in a lot of damages and cost a lot of money to deal with. This is why it is wise for people take steps to reduce the risks of having to deal with an emergency.

Winter is a season when many people end up calling us for emergency plumbing services. The good thing is you can reduce the risks before the weather gets too cold. Below are some tips that will go a long way in helping you when preparing your home for the winter season. We know that if you follow these tips you will go a long way towards protecting your property.

Plumbing tips For Winter

Winterize Outside Faucets

The faucets are exposed to the elements, making it important to winterize them. Start by disconnecting and draining the water hoses, then shutting off the water supply to the outside spigots if there is a separate shutoff valve. If you have an outdoor kitchen faucet, use the same process. When the water left inside the faucet freezes, it will result in a buildup of pressure and this could result in the bursting of the pipe inside or underneath the home. Do this and you will not have to start dealing with burst pipes.

Insulate Water Pipes In Unheated Areas

Water lines that run through the attic, crawl spaces, or garage are prone to freezing when there is a drop in temperature. Adding a layer of insulation is a good idea. You can wrap them using a heat tape, foam sleeves, or newspaper. If you are looking for even more protection, then ensure the garage door is shut down during the cold days to protect the pipes inside the garage.

Check Your Furnace

If your furnace breaks down you will have to live without heat until the problem is fixed, and this will leave the water pipes vulnerable to freezing temperature. You should make sure that your heating system is in good condition before winter comes.

Open Cabinets

If outside is very cold, there are rooms in your home that will be colder than others, and when you leave the cabinet doors open, warm air will be able to circulate around the pipes. This can seem like a small thing, but it has a lot of impact.

Call a plumber when you need help

Consult a Local Plumber

It is a good idea to talk to a professional plumber who will help you with more tips to avoid problems during the winter. Call Plumbing Emergency Rescue to speak with a plumber near you.

Tips On How To Thaw Out A Frozen Pipe

How to thaw a frozen pipe Thawing a frozen water pipe quickly is crucial. However, it is equally important to ensure you thaw a frozen pipe correctly. Here are top tips that will help you get water flowing and help you avert the crisis of a burst pipe or potentially damaging floods in your home.

Tip #1: Locating the Frozen Pipe

Thawing frozen pipes starts with determining which pipe or pipes have frozen. First, turn on all water faucets. If no water pours or just a little of it trickles, then you should know that the pipe leading to the valve is frozen. And, if the pipe is exposed, like in the basement, under the sink, or on the exterior of your house, you could see the frozen part of the pipe. Frozen pipes usually have frost on them or could have a small bulge.

Tip #2: Open the Faucet

Before you can commence any attempts to thaw frozen pipes, you will need to open all faucets which the pipe delivers water into. You should open both the cold and hot handles in this case. This is a good way to release the pressure in the system, and it will let water escape when you start to thaw your frozen pipe.

Tip #3: Where Should You Begin?

If you are doing the thawing on your own, you should start the process close to the faucet and work your way slowly down the blockage point. This aids in ensuring that the steam and melting ice escape via the open section. If you begin the process nearer to the blockage, the melting ice will probably get stuck behind your blockage, create more pressure in your pipes and increase the chances of your pipe bursting.

Tip #4: Thawing the Exposed Pipes

If your frozen pipe is in an area that you can access easily, there are numerous options for trying to thaw the pipe. You should not stop applying heat until the water running through the faucet runs at full strength.

Here are your options for thawing exposed pipes.

A Hair Dryer: A hair dryer is the easiest way to thaw a frozen pipe. Just turn on your dryer and point its heat at the frozen pipe, beginning with the section near the faucet.
Heat Lamp: Another good way to thaw pipes is with a heat lamp. You should, however, position this device in a manner that the heat reaches the frozen pipe. The indirect heat aids in quickly thawing pipes.
Hot Towels: Wrapping towels that have been dipped in hot water around frozen pipes is another easy way to thaw, and it helps to thaw blockages slowly.

Here’s a video from Ace Hardware which explains how to thaw a frozen pipe…

We hope that these tips on thawing frozen pipes have helped you. However, if you need professional pipe repair services for a frozen or burst pipe then call Plumbing Emergency Rescue and we’ll send a plumber out to you quickly.

Repairing Frozen Pipes

frozen pipe repair service Mother Nature can wreak havoc on your plumbing system very quickly. When temperatures plummet on Long Island your pipes can become frozen and burst, resulting in serious damage to your home. If your pipes become frozen, you must act quickly to thaw them and prevent your pipes from bursting due to rising pressure within your pipes.

If a pipe bursts, hundreds of gallons of water can quickly enter your home and cause thousands of dollars of damage. Here are some tips to help you minimize the potential of a burst pipe.

The first step to thawing a frozen pipe is to determine which pipe is frozen. If the pipe is in an exposed location, it will be easier to defrost than a price that is located behind a wall, in the ceiling or under the floor. If the pipe is located in a hidden area, you may need to cut out a section of a wall or your ceiling. Once you expose the pipe, you will need to inspect the pipe to look for any bulges or cracks. If you see a bulge or crack, the pipe could burst at any time, so you need to act quickly to avoid a disaster.

You need to immediately locate your water main shut off valve. You may need to shut off the water quickly if the pipe bursts; so, you may want to have someone ready to shut off the water to your home quickly.

Most experts recommend using a hair dryer to defrost a frozen pipe. Turn the hair dryer on high and move it along the pipe. Start with the main intake and travel towards the frozen area. Keep the hair dryer continually moving, being careful to avoid concentrating on any one area for too long. If the pipe is located in a wall, place a metal baking sheet behind the pipe. This will reflect the heat from the hair dryer back to the pipe. This will make your job easier and ensure that all sides of the pipe are heated equally.

Another way to help thaw a frozen pipe is to wrap a hot, wet rag around the pipe. Never pour hot water over the pipe as doing so can cause pressure to build up in the pipe and cause it to burst. The hot rag will slowly and equally thaw the pipe and help to prevent a burst.

It may be tempting to heat a frozen pipe using an open flame, a propane heater or a blow torch. This will heat the pipe up too quickly and can lead to a burst pipe. Additionally, using an open flame is dangerous. Many homes have been destroyed by either water damage or fire by homeowners attempting to thaw frozen pipes.

Tips For Preventing Your Pipes From Freezing

frozen pipes in basement Plumbing leaks are something that many homeowners on Long Island face and can be caused by freezing during the winter. These leaks come about when the frozen water starts to expand instead of contract. When this happens, the water needs more space than it did before which causes the leaks.

The enclosed space of the pipe will not be able to hold the expanding water. When the pipe reaches its limit, it will burst and cause a plumbing leak. It is possible that this issue with freezing water can cause a number of leaks around the house which is a large problem that you will want to avoid.

This is why you should be aware of the different ways that you can prevent freezing in your pipes.

These prevention methods are particularly important if you are moving into a new house and are unsure about the state of the pipes. Of course, it is recommended that before you buy a house, you check the plumbing to ensure that preventative measures have been taken. If they have not been, you will need to know what they are, how to implement them and how they can help.

Coating The Pipes With Fiberglass

One of the simplest prevention methods is to coat the pipes in fiberglass. It is easy to find the materials for this in the local department store. If you are looking to reduce the costs of this process, you should look at only insulating the pipes that are out of the way such as those in the crawl space. These are the pipes that will not be exposed to the heat of the house and are more likely to freeze during the cold winter months.

If you are going to use fiberglass, you need to be careful as it can be dangerous particularly if you inhale it. This is why you need to have protective clothing including a mask before you start. If you are nervous about doing this yourself, you can hire a professional plumber to handle the job instead. This provides the additional benefit of ensuring the job is done correctly.

Get A Heat Trace Cable

A heat trace cable is a cable which has been made of metal with a very high heat conductivity rate. These cables are used to spread heat from any part of the house to another. When you run these cables along the pipes in your home, you can easily transfer heat from a warm part of your home to the pipes that do not generally feel this.

Most of these cables are actually very easy to install and it is something that you could do yourself. Of course, if you have a lot of pipes or do not have to time to do this yourself, you should consider hiring a plumber. Hiring a plumber to do this will cost more than doing it yourself, but it could take less time and be more effective in the long-run.

Make Use Of A Space Heater

Many people do not consider using a space heater to avoid freezing pipes. However, if you have an area of the house where most of your plumbing is located, you can use a space heater to ensure that the area is warm. The key to using this method is to ensure that the room is always at a warm temperature so that the water in the pipes cannot completely freeze and cause any damage.

Open Your Cabinet Doors

In most Long Island homes, the plumbing will run behind the cabinets. The problem with this is that the walls might not be properly insulated and this could allow the pipes to freeze. If this is the case in your home, you should open the cabinets to let the heat from the house warm the pipes. It is recommended that you try this method if you are sure that the pipes run through the wall and that the wall is not correctly insulated. If the wall is insulated, this method will not help very much.

Reducing the chance of freezing pipes using these methods is only a temporary solution and should not be considered a permanent fix. Many of these solutions will only help stop the freezing of water in the pipes, but will not reduce freezing completely. It is recommended that you use these solutions in the winter, but look at a more permanent solution during the summer months.

It is recommended that you hire a professional plumber to assess your plumbing during the summer. They will then be able to offer suggestions which will help you protect your plumbing in the winter. Getting a permanent solution in place will be cheaper in the long-run than constantly using temporary solutions of having to deal with the aftermath of freezing and bursting pipes. It will also be more convenient as you will not have to worry about anything.

How to Keep Your Pipes From Cracking or Clogging

As the weather begins to get cold here in the Long Island/New York City area you need to attend to all of your exposed pipes by adding insulation to them. Pay particular attention to pipes located in crawl spaces and the outside walls of your residence. Taking this step will help ensure that your pipes continue to function throughout the winter.

When concerned with plumbing, you need to know what can cause noisy pipes. This is important because it can mean the difference between an annoying noise and flooding in your house. Do your research to distinguish between the different noises and hire a professional if any serious risk is posed.

Do not pour grease or oil down any of your household drains. Put them in containers and place in the fridge until they are solid, then throw them away. If you pour them down the drain, they can solidify in cold pipes. These solid masses will clog your pipes and are very difficult to remove.

Make sure that you disconnect all hoses outside your house when the fall season hits. This is important to reduce the chance of freezing, which can cause damage to the connecting pipes. Disconnect all of your water hoses and store them safely to put your family in the best position for the fall.

We hope these tips provide you some much needed insight on how to keep your home’s pipe from cracking or clogging. However, if you do have damage to your pipes that need to be repaired please use the information on this site, www.plumbingemergencyrescue.com as your main resource.

Click here to go back to the home page.