Maybe you just woke up on a particularly arctic morning, or maybe you just got back to your cold house from a lovely vacation.
Your heater’s been turned off, and you wander into the bathroom, looking forward to a nice, warm shower.
You turn the knob, dreaming of hot steam, but no water comes out.
Will Norris, owner of Norris Plumbing and Heating, says it’s a familiar scene in the wintertime. When temperatures fall low enough, pipes can easily freeze – or worse, burst open. And with temperatures this week hovering in the teens during the day and the single digits at night, Norris’ business has been flooded with distress calls.
“Given that everyone is just getting back from vacation, the phone calls have really been coming in for frozen pipes,” Norris says. “But the people that stayed home and have been attentive have been okay.”
That’s the good news, Norris says: with a little attention and preparation, you can easily avoid one of the wintertime’s most inconvenient headaches.
The biggest cause of frozen pipes is simply from people either turning their heaters down too low or off completely, Norris says, but that’s also the easiest fix.
Many people skimp on the heat in an understandable attempt to keep their heating bills low, but that can end up costing you a bundle if a frozen pipe bursts open. Norris recommends keeping your home heated to at least 50 degrees, which will keep the cold from overtaking your plumbing.
Norris says that areas like untreated basements without heating systems are especially problematic for pipes, but space heaters can work wonders for individual rooms. Bathrooms and rooms adjacent to bathrooms are also filled with piping, and should be given extra attention to ensure that the water keeps moving.
“It’s typically the hot water that freezes first, and most of the time it’s because there’s some sort of air leak within the structure of the house,” Norris says. “There will be a hole where the air blows in, usually right onto a pipe. That’s where keeping the heat up comes into play.”
Norris says that simply being aware of how the plumbing in your house fits together can be helpful.
Pipes that run around the perimeter of the house are closer to the cold, and will freeze the quickest. New PEX plumbing systems (which are made of a flexible plastic) are fairly resistant to bursting open from expanding ice, while other materials – like copper – will split more easily, and should be given more careful attention.
“There are some people who leave their hoses on their faucets outside over the winter, meaning that the water can’t drain, which puts your outside hydrant at risk,” Norris says. “The problem with that is you won’t realize it until the spring, when you start finding water in your house.”
If you do wake up one chilly morning to find yourself with frozen pipes, all is not lost. Before you call a plumber, Norris recommends turning the heat back up and letting the pipes warm up. For kitchens and bathrooms, you can open the cabinets up and use a space heater to warm the pipes more directly.
“We try to educate our customers, and most are responsive,” Norris says. “Turn your heat up, find and seal up the drafts in your walls. There are lots of simple things that homeowners can do to help themselves.”
For more winter weather tips, check out our guide on how to winterize a car and our general cold weather advice page.
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