How to Protect Your Pipes When Freezing Weather Hits

Just like people and pets, your pipes need to stay warm when the weather gets cold outside. When pipes are exposed to freezing weather, they can burst and cause expensive damage to your home or business. We're here to help you with some free tips to help you prepare your plumbing for hard freezes.

How to protect your pipes before a hard freeze

Protecting indoor pipes

Turn on all your indodor faucets and leave them steadily dripping. This keeps water from sitting still and freezing in cold temperatures. It's also a good idea to open all the cabinet doors below your sinks so your pipes are exposed to the warm air inside your home. If you won't be at home, make sure your thermostat is set to at least 55°F or higher.

Protecting outdoor faucets and pipes in your attic

Make sure all pipes in your attic and outdoors are insulated with foam or fiberglass sleeves. You can find them at any hardware store. If you don't happen to have any insulating sleevess on hand, you can also wrap your pipes with any old rags you may have lying around. Just be sure your insulation is secured tightly around the pipes.

Outdoor faucets need to be covered with an outdoor faucet cover. Once again, they are available at most hardware stores. Before you apply the cover, make sure you've drained the faucet and turned off the water at its supply valve.

Protecting backflow preventers

Do you have a backflow preventer outside? If so, you'll want to make sure it's protected. Backflow preventers aren't just important for health and sanitation–they can also be super costly to fix. So make sure your backflow preventer is covered too. Lowe's, Home Depot, and other hardware stores sell sleeves that fit right over the top of them.

Have questions about preparing your plumbing for winter weather?

Our friendly team is here to help. Give us a call at (850) 533-1252, or click below to schedule an appointment with one of our qualified plumbing technicians.