Turn Up the Heat on Frozen Pipes

Colorado winters have a whimsical way of making our plumbing systems resemble the frozen caverns of the Ice Planet Hoth (yea, your plumber just referenced Star Wars, we’re cool like that).

See what I mean?

Anyways, as we all know prevention is better than reaction. So with that in mind we give you the number one way to prevent your pipes from freezing:

KEEP YOUR HEAT SET TO AT LEAST 65°F AT ALL TIMES!
(when it’s below freezing outside, of course)

Yep, that easy. Fight the freeze with heat!

Is it 100% effective? No, it certainly isn’t. Winter in Colorado can be brutal and when it hits 10 below outside there’s a good chance a pipe in your garage or along an exterior wall will freeze, but this will prevent the other, easy to avoid problems.

Now, you may ask, “Chris, why do I care if a pipe freezes, won’t it just thaw?”

Great question!

The answer is yes, over time it will thaw. But when the weather is consistently below freezing this can take a VERY long time; days even. It’s best to just prevent the pipe from freezing than worrying about thawing it.

“But can’t plumbing companies come out and thaw my pipe?”

Sure, some can, if they can find it. Because of the amount of and complexity of the waterlines in your home it may be difficult or impossible to locate the freeze, and even worse it may involve making several holes in your drywall and ceiling before successfully located. There’s also a higher than 50% chance that the thawing machine used to warm the freeze will cause the copper line to split, forcing you to repair the line at an additional cost. That’s why McAdams Plumbing doesn’t recommend this practice.

“But I have PEX piping, not copper, what about that?”

Great! Pex handles frozen pipes much better than copper. It can expand and contract to its original form dramatically. This protects your home from freeze breaks. If you can locate the freeze in your PEX pipe you can easily fix it by slowly warming the spot with a hair dryer. PEX is fracture resistant, so there’s lower chance of it splitting, but it’s still possible. If you can’t locate the freeze, however, you’re still in the same boat of having to wait for the freeze to thaw.

I hope that helps give you a plan for protecting your home from frozen and broken pipes. You can find more tips on how to prevent frozen and broken pipes below in the “More Prevention Tactics” section.

Happy Monday and stay warm everyone!

-Chris

 More Prevention Tactics:

In order to make keeping your heat above 65°F more effective you can also open up all your cabinets, closets, and access panels in the house to allow the warm air to move around freely. The more “cold pockets” you have in your home the more likely it is you will have to deal with a frozen pipe.

Also ensure that any pipes you have running along an exterior wall or exposed to the atmosphere in anyway (outside of home, crawlspace, garage) are heavily insulated. Standard fiberglass insulation and foam pipe insulation are good options for this.

Finally, but most effectively, simply turn off your whole house water and open your faucets before you go to bed. By doing this you remove all water and pressure from your plumbing system while you are sleeping, and when the weather is the coldest, and make it close to impossible for your pipes to freeze. No water, no ice!

*Image courtesy of Starwarsreport.com.

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Careful of Spring Freeze Breaks

Spring is upon us, which means it’s time to keep an eye open for any freeze breaks in the pipes that have been dormant all winter.

As we all gear up to start watering our lawns and playing outside again, make sure you inspect your yard waterlines for leaks.

Common points of freeze breaks include:

• Yard faucet (silcock)
• Pressure vacuum breakers (yard back flow prevention devices)
• Sprinkler system shut-off valves
• Waterlines running to sprinkler heads (Repaired by Sprinler Co.)

Some of these problems will become very obvious very quickly. Other might be a little under the radar.

When you activate your sprinkler system for the first time make sure you walk through each zone one by one and look for any abnormal pooling or inactivity among the spray heads. If there is a break it may prevent water from ever releasing out of the sprinkler. Also, check your sprinkler zone boxes in the ground for water accumulation. If this is happening contact your sprinkler service company ASAP.

Make sure to check your vacuum breaker, shut-off valves, and yard faucets for leaks. These leaks could appear inside or outside of the house, so for your own sake be thorough!

Also, if you fear you may have a leak but can’t find it, check your water gauge at the curb of your home. Make sure all sources of water are shut off inside the house then watch the water dial for any movement. If it shows water consumption but you know everything is in the off position you may have a hidden leak.

In any case of a leak it’s best to have it taken care of right away to prevent any further damage to your home or lawn and also prevent water waste.

If you have any questions or are worried you might have a leak you can’t find, give us a call at 303-465-1900 and we’ll get someone out to you ASAP.

Lastly, make sure your check our Specials page before you call to take advantage of any deals that my apply to you, including $25.00 off any yard faucet repair/replacement!

As a final thought, remember that the weather is still a bit unstable right now. So if you have already started enjoying your lawns, be sure to shut down your system when not in use and disconnect your hoses from yard faucets. A quick Colorado snow can be enough to break those connections overnight.

Thanks for reading along and happy Monday everyone!

The Proof is in the Plumbing!

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Looks Like Colorado Found the Winter

Happy Monday Colorado, and it looks like we finally found the winter!

So we know what winter means: Slick roads, early darkness, and temperatures dropping well below zero, especially at night. The most important thing to remember when the weather starts changing like this is to drive safe, keep your headlights or running lights on, even during the day, and be patient. Allow yourself extra time to get to and from work. Be forgiving to other people on the road and don’t let all the darkness get you down.

Also, from the plumbing angle, make sure to take a few steps to keep your home protected from potential freeze breaks and other weather-related issues. Try the following steps:

• Make sure to keep your heat on and set to no less than 64° F
• Keep the doors, closets, and cabinets open to ensure that warm air circulates
• Keep you garage door shut
• Don’t be fooled by random warm days; if you get a warm day and decide to do some gardening, make sure you disconnect your hose and fully shut the valve off
• If you’re leaving for more than 24 hours, shut your main water off and open a kitchen faucet to allow warm air in

These are just a few easy steps you can take to protect your home from the dangers of freeze breaks. If you do run into any frozen pipes, check out our Do-It-Yourself pipe thawing section. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to call, email, or leave a comment below. We’re here to help.

The Proof is in the Plumbing!

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Beware of Water Damage!

Water damage is can happen to anyone, at anytime. Water, as you probably know, is the most destructive force on Earth! It can carve valleys and move mountains. It can also collapse the ceiling in your home and destroy all your floors.  3 cubic feet of water weighs roughly 1,700 pounds, that’s as much as a Smart Car or an average Plains Bison. For that reason McAdams Plumbing wants to continue to push the point that during the cold winter months you must be careful to avoid freeze break in your pipes.

Since December of 2012 McAdams Plumbing has been called out to 31 calls for leaks related to freezes. Most of them were caught swiftly and (relatively) little damage was seen. But some of the others were not so lucky. This blog is going to highlight what happened to one of our “not so lucky” friends in Longmont.

What you see above is 4 separate water lines that froze, then burst in an unoccupied home in Longmont. Now this event was no fault of the owners. This was a home he owned and was remodeling one floor at a time. While he was away from the home for a week the furnace failed and afterward, with the very low temperatures outside, the house began to freeze. When the pipes burst (almost all in different locations) water began filling the home. I wish I could say it happened slowly but it did not.

All in all, 180,000 gallons (no, that is not a typo) of water flooded 2 stories of this 3 story home. If we follow the math that says every gallon of water weighs 8.34 lb., then this house withstood (over time) 1,501,200 lb. of water! That’s just an amazing.

This is why we always remind everyone we can to leave the heat in their home at no less than 62*F at all times and to insulate pipes that are on outer walls or exposed directly/indirectly to freezing temperatures. In cases like this one though, even those measures weren’t enough. You just can’t anticipate a furnace failing. That’s why we so strongly recommend the addition of a WaterCop Automatic Water Shut-Off Valve to any home that you claim ownership on. A little money out of pocket in advance could save you several thousand dollars in the future.

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