Protecting Your Pipes

Because we're facing the lowest temperatures of the season Tuesday night, protecting your homeâ€™s water pipes is more important than ever.<br/><br/>Something you may not know, a crack only an eighth-of-an-inch

Tuesday, January 16th 2007, 12:34 pm

By: News On 6

Because we're facing the lowest temperatures of the season Tuesday night, protecting your homeâ€™s water pipes is more important than ever.

Something you may not know, a crack only an eighth-of-an-inch long can spew up to 250-gallons of water a day into your home.

News on 6 anchor Lori Fullbright tells us four ways to prevent that kind of expensive mess.

Both plastic and copper pipes can burst, even in homes with the heater running. Experts say an easy way to remember the four steps is, I-SOD: insulate, seal, open, disconnect.

This insulation is easy to wrap around your pipes and experts recommend you do so for the pipes in a crawl space and in the attic.

"One place you don't want to put this is under your sink," said Justin Williams with Williams Plumbing.

Justin says it's better to open your cabinet doors to let the heat in and don't go to bed until you open the faucets, especially if you have a kitchen or bathroom sink on an exterior wall.

Both hot and cold should be running.

"A little trickle doesn't do it," Williams said.

This one seems obvious, but if you forgot to disconnect a hose from an outside faucet, do it now. Even anti-siphon devices aren't a guarantee in weather like this.

"Every water hose still has water inside of it and it siphons back in, causing problems inside. You won't even know you have problems until the thawing out," said Williams.

The fourth thing is seal, seal up anything that lets air underneath your house. Strong winds getting into crawl spaces, are the real culprit of broken pipes.

â€œMost houses have vents that are open most of the year. In the summer that's okay, but in the winter close those and get some cardboard to block them, the more the better," Williams said.

If all the prevention fails, everyone in the house should know where the water shut-off valve is, itâ€™s generally on top of a water heater. That will at least keep the leak from turning into a major flood.

If you turn on the faucet and no water comes out, you can use a blow dryer to thaw things out. Plumbers told us, start at the top and slowly work your way down until the water starts flowing.

They don't recommend a torch or open flames, because they've seen that turn bad, too many times.