By Aydan Corkern
It is a lucky thing for all of those people who live in places like Florida where they never have to worry about frozen water pipes in the winter time. For those of us who live where the weather can turn in on a dime, we are not so lucky during the frigid months. You can go to sleep at night and everything is fine only to awaken to no water pressure because it is all frozen up.
IF you are a smart homeowner, you will not have this problem when you take the right precautions, but hind sight is always 20/20. Once you have ever had to deal with frozen water lines and especially if you have one to burst, it is not likely that you will allow it to happen for a second time.
Preventing your home or business water lines from freezing is simple enough and fairly inexpensive. If you are a handy type person, you can probably even do it yourself. Pipe wrapping insulators can be bought at your hardware, home improvement, or sometimes a local department store. They are foam insulation that are rounded like a water pipe and are slit on one side. This allows you to cut the length to your specification and simply slide it onto the pipes. Secure the slit with duct tape. Heat wrapping tape is available too.
Insulation should be done before the cold weather, but it is never too late. If your pipes freeze, you can use a blow dryer or heat gun to help thaw them and get the water moving again. It is important to check all of your pipes for places that have frozen and burst before you thaw unless you want a terrible mess to clean up. It can be a good idea to shut the water off completely before you thaw just in case there is a ruptured line. This happens because when the water freezes in your water pipe, it expands and will often cause the pipe to burst or come apart at junctures or around fittings.
IF your pipes freeze and you are unable to thaw them yourself, you can call in a professional water damage company and they will likely be able to check everything out for you and get your water running again. Sometimes when the weather warms up, water lines will thaw themselves, but you can not depend on that to happen when the temperature might stay below freezing for days on end.
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