The weatherman has informed you that a cold front is barreling its way into your local area. You go to sleep the night earlier with extra covers on the bed and the thermal blanket set to “high”. When you awake in the morning, it takes all of your willpower to crawl from between the warm covers to start your day. As you step to the AC pipes and turn the check on, nothing happens. Oh no! Your water is frozen in your AC pipes overnight. Water has frozen in the pipes. Thankfully, you look around everywhere in the house and you see no indication of a water leak. You may assume that the only tragedy is that your AC will stop working with it, but think again. You can hire a plumber in Tacoma to resolve your this issues and it will recover your AC again.
Why it is important?
The most susceptible pipes in your home are the ones located in the exterior walls or attic. I have seen pipes that were protected away from the warm interior and left showing to the exterior wall of the home; others that were never protected at all. This is a builder’s mistake that should have been fixed by the building inspector during the construction of the home. As we all know, water increases when it freezes. We study this pretty early in school. As the water in your pipes freezes, it increases and the pipes crack. While the climate is still very cold, the water in the pipes keeps frozen, so you will see no indication of water leaking into your home. However, as the temperature increases during the day, the water will begin to melt. Now that the pipe has broke, as the water melts and the pressure in the water line starts to flow again, water will then start to pour into your home. If you’ve gone to work, or out shopping, you do not know about what’s happening until you return and see water sheeting down out of your home. A strange amount of damage can occur in just a short time in such a situation. You need to call the plumber in Tacoma immediately for help.
Call the plumber for help:
In the period in between, if you wake to frozen pipes, find out where the main water shutoff valve to your home is situated. Once you turn the water off, see if any other faucets are occupied inside the house. If there is a working faucet, turn it on to drain as much water from the pipes as probable (this is best done on the lowest level of the home). This will lessen the water damage to the home once the frozen pipe thaws. A visual inspection may disclose where damage has occurred. Think of it, more than one pipe that may have frozen. Once you have found out the damage, contact your insurance company and a plumber in Tacoma. A frozen pipe is one occurrence where the insurance company will pay for the plumbing repair. The insurance company will also pay for the resulting damage to the home.
Hire professionals for emergencies:
Of course, as I’ve suggested before, contact a local, trustworthy contractor to complete repairs to your home. They will negotiate with your insurance company to obtain the funds essential to return your home to its pre-loss condition (less your deductible, but that’s another article all to itself). A pipe has frozen in your home. Do not sit around and wait for it to erupt. What you must do is thaw out the frozen pipe right away without postponement. Do this by bringing heat to the area that surrounds it. Maximum people use a hair dryer but you can also use a heating pad or a space heater. Whatever you do, do not effort to thaw a frozen pipe with an open flame or a torch. Begin your work at the end that is closest to the faucet and then slowly works your way back. If your efforts do not offer the result you are looking for then you require to call a plumber.
But let us backtrack a bit. What could you have done to prevent this scenario from happening in the first place? There are things you can do right now to prevent the unthinkable from taking place. Read on.
Protect the AC pipes:
Protect all of the pipes found in the attic of your home and/or any crawl spaces you have. Unprotected pipes are the most likely to freeze all pipes found in your dwelling. Any defenseless pipes in your house should be wrapped with either heat tape or else heat cables that are thermostatically measured. Always purchase products that are UL-approved. When you use these products follow the manufacturer’s orders and do not assume that you know what to do without reading the instructions first!
Leaks can main to frozen pipes. For this reason, you should seal all of the leaks you are alert of either with insulation or caulk. This will keep the cold air outside where it is thought to be. Leaks that are not exposed and plugged can cause cold air to enter and find its way into the areas around your pipes. This is mainly the case when it comes to dryer vents and electrical wiring.
When winter rolls around the fear of a frozen pipe is maximum. To help calm your fears and to escape issues always turn off all of the faucets on the exterior of your home and then separate the hoses. Ensure you keep your house heated to a temperature of at least 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you have a door in the middle of a room that is heated and one that is not, keep the door open most of the time. This will make it potential for the warm air to flow into the unheated room and from there to circulate. The cupboard doors that find out below your sinks should be kept open in the winter months for the warm indoor air to find its way around the plumbing in these areas.
Before a frozen pipe, matter comes calling always know where the main water shut-off is in your home. Try it yourself to assurance that it is in proper working order before anything unforeseen takes place.
Burst pipes can be a tragedy. And you won’t just require a plumber, either. While the plumber will replace the pipe and should make sure it doesn’t happen again-even a small crack can release hundreds of gallons of water into your home each day, destroying properties, causing structural damage, and creating the kinds of situations that dangerous molds love.
First a Little Physics: Why Do Pipes Burst?
Water increases when it freezes. Think of ice cubes-when you first put the tray in the freezer, the water is neatly limited in its little compartments. If the tray is filled a little too full, however, when you go to add a cube to your drink, you’ll find they’re all frozen together. At some point, the water in each compartment extended, overflowed, and fused with its buddy in the next compartment over.
The same principle is at work when pipes burst.
Interestingly, though, it’s not frequently the outward pressure of expanding water on the pipe walls that causes the pipe to burst. Here’s why. When a pipe is blocked by ice, water gets trapped between the ice dam at one end and the closed faucet at the other. As water increases further down the pipe and freezes, pressure builds up between the blockage and the tap… and the pipe will burst at its frailest point.
Think Prevention: Winterize Your Plumbing
They say an ounce of stoppage is worth a pound of cure… and in the case of frozen and burst pipes, a little avoidance will save you a whack of cash and some huge headaches, too. Otherwise, you need to get plumbing Tacoma service as soon as possible.
Here are four tips worth taking as winter gets closer
1. Wrap up to keep warm. Check that some pipes close to the exterior walls or floors in a basement or crawlspace are correctly insulated. Insulation value rises with the thickness of insulation you use, so don’t be frightened to wrap to the max. Not sure if you’ve got sufficient insulation? Call a plumber in Tacoma to do a quick valuation.
2. Keep the heat in… and the cold out. Seal up any air leaks near your interior pipes to ensure they aren’t being revealed to freezing outdoor air. Cover any nearby outdoor vents that could let in cold air. Don’t overlook to check that there aren’t any gaps or cracks where the pipes enter your house, too.
3. Turn off the taps. Outdoor water taps are a recipe for pipe disaster if the pipe runs in the middle of the tap and the interior pipe freezes and bursts. Turn off the external water source… and don’t forget to turn on the taps to drain all lasting water.
4. Keep the heat on. If your heater quits, your basement pipes won’t stay warm for long. Invest in little proactive heating repairs to keep your water flowing well all winter. Even if your furnace is functioning correctly, if your thermostat is turned down too low or you’ve closed all the openings in your basement, it may not be warm sufficient to keep pipes from freezing.
