Your home’s plumbing system is functionally one of the most important parts of the entire property which makes it one of the most important to properly and regularly service as well. In the winter, this becomes even more important as freezing pipes become more common and reliable access to hot water becomes more necessary. Homeowners who make sure to complete a full winterization of their plumbing system tend to have lower repair costs and greater comfort all winter long just from taking a few steps of preparation before the first snow starts to fall. If you’re ready to winterize your plumbing system here’s how to get started:
Exterior Plumbing Services for Winter
Before it gets too cold homeowners should make sure to disconnect, drain, and properly seal all exterior hoses and spigots. While this has the obvious purpose of prevent an ice flow on your front lawn where your hose has split, it also is one of the easiest and most unrecognized ways to control damage to your home’s plumbing pipes from cracking and leaking due to the increased pressure which ice can cause. This has grown to be such a problematic area of the home come wintertime that today there are many different kinds of frost-proof spigots, hose bibbs, and faucets on the market which are aimed at preventing the freezing temperatures of the winter from entering the regulated temperatures of your home’s pipes. Installing these features is simple, quick, and much more affordable than the burst plumbing they can help prevent.
Interior Plumbing Services for Winter
Just as the majority of your home’s plumbing system is indoors, so are the projects that can help protect them from freezing, cracking, and leaking. To start it’s important to remember years prior when things like mold growth and leaking water may have appeared along certain walls of your home. These are often signs of plumbing pipes which either froze or came close enough to freezing that water began leaking to relieve the internal pipe pressure. Making sure that those spots are inspected thoroughly by experienced plumbers and that those walls are especially insulated this coming winter is one of the best ways to prevent past plumbing freezing issues from arising again.
Both in these previously troubling areas and all over your home’s plumbing system, pipe insulation can be an excellent way to ensure that the water running around your home stays warm enough to reduce the risk of damage significantly. This is especially important in uninsulated and exposed portions of your plumbing system such as in the basement, attic, or crawl space. Because your home’s heating system isn't designed to provide as much comfort to these less occupied rooms the temperature is often lower and the risk for freezing and bursting is much higher. Applying pipe insulation typically doesn't cost more than $200 and the money it can save you is far greater than that.
