Good pipes gone bad! How to keep these record-lows from freezing and bursting your pipes

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) -

You may have never worried about the water pipes in your house freezing or bursting in the past.

But with the Ozarks experiencing record-lows with temperatures below-zero, these are the times to consider it.

The fact is the pipes in your home or business are in danger of freezing anytime the temps drop below 20-degrees. That of course is not a hard-set rule as your pipes’ susceptibility to freezing depends on a lot of factors based on the ability of cold air to reach parts of your water system.

But considering the temperatures the area is dealing with this week, there’s no doubt that our plumbing is being put to the test so it’s best to think about what you can do to prevent your pipes from freezing and/or bursting because plumbers have their hands full already.

At All-Service Professional Plumbing in Springfield General Manager Rich Callahan said his business was swamped even before the worst of the snow hit on Monday.

“I have 50 employees and almost all of them worked past 3 a.m. last night,” he said. “We are solidly booked.”

When it comes to flooding caused by broken pipes 37 percent of those incidents occur in basements.

“Basements have flood issues because a lot of them are in unconditioned spaces and you have that cold down there,” Callahan said. “And a lot of time there’s no duct work running down into those areas and those concrete outside walls really get cold. They tend to freeze as well. Also around here we have a lot of what we call ‘crawlspace homes ‘where the duct work is underneath the house and when you’re running the heat there’s natural leakage from your duct work that is radiating some heat underneath your home to keep the pipes from freezing. But if your system is in the attic and your plumbing is in the crawl space, your pipes are going to freeze a lot quicker.”

So here are some ways to keep your pipes from freezing and bursting:

1.) Insulate your pipes

2.) Keep garage doors closed especially if your water supply line goes through the garage

3.) Keep your cabinets where pipes are located open to let heated air circulate

4.) Let faucets drip because moving water is harder to freeze than standing water

5.) Keep the thermostat consistent and leave the heat on because steady temperatures (anything above 55 degrees) will keep your pipes safe

6.) Seal cracks and openings in walls, floors, etc. that could create drafts

7.) Open interior doors because most homes have uneven distribution of heat

8.) Cover ventilated crawl spaces

9.) Apply heating tape to a pipe to help it retain heat

Callahan pointed out that the main thing that will determine your home’s water system vulnerability is the house’s level of insulation.

“Insulation is the number one thing you can do for your home as far as energy efficiency and preventing pipes from freezing and bursting,” he said.

And that also includes getting insulation for your pipes.

“If you have a lot of exposed lines or the lines are close to the exterior of the home underneath a crawl space, you can get foam insulation that fits around your pipes,” Callahan said. “I recommend doing that especially if you have a tendency to have frozen pipes. We also have problems with condensation lines for high-efficiency furnaces or drain lines freezing up that’s causing furnaces to shut down and for that there’s heat tape, an electric strip that runs along your water lines to keep it above freezing.”

Callahan acknowledged that a lot of people don’t like running their faucets at a trickle to keep the pipes from freezing. But he points out that a little higher water bill is far more preferable than the damage to a home from pipes that burst open. That’s why he recommends leaving more-than-one faucet running, especially the ones furthest away from your main water line.

“Sometimes you gotta realize that the plumbing comes into the middle of your house and you have a branch that goes both ways,” he said. “So you may have two furthest points.”

If your pipes do freeze and you can determine that they haven’t burst yet, there are some do’s and don’ts for trying to unfreeze them.

“You can put space heaters, extra heat, in there with all the cabinets open,” he said. “You can use a drop light that’s shining on the pipes. We don’t recommend using hair dryers or heat guns. Heat guns use such a high temperature that it can cause damage to the plumbing systems and it could actually melt the piping.”

There are also things you should do once this cold spell lets up.

“As we’re thawing out it’s super important to go around your home and see if you hear running water with all the faucets off to make sure you don’t have a water leak that’s going to cause a lot of damage,” Callahan pointed out. “We already have a lot of calls of homes that are completely frozen solid to where they can’t use their water and those are the ones that we worry about after they thaw. What’s going to happen as far as water damage.”

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