Even though our winters are relatively mild, homes in the Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN area can experience frozen pipes in the winter months. Different factors can lead to burst pipes, including cold outdoor temperatures, chilly temperatures inside your home, plumbing damage, and more. Let’s explore the dangers of frozen pipes and the best ways to avoid a burst pipe and the plumbing repair cost that comes with it.
The Dangers of Frozen Pipes
If water freezes inside a pipe in your home, it will cause expansion of that water. Your pipe may be under stress, causing it to become damaged or burst completely. This can result in extensive water damage, even if you’re home to spot the issue. Water damage can destroy walls, flooring, and the structural integrity of your residence.
It’s also common for mold to grow when a pipe has burst and water has accumulated in areas where it shouldn’t be. Exposure to mold is dangerous to your health, causing headaches, inflammation, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and allergies. It doesn’t take long for this mold to spread. In some scenarios, it can even end up circulating through your HVAC system and into the various living spaces of your home.
Preventing Frozen Pipes
There are several ways that you can prevent frozen pipes in your home and avoid having to call an emergency plumber.
Leaving Water Dripping
Leave the water in some of your fixtures running just slightly when temperatures start to drop. This slow trickle is enough to prevent water from freezing and blocking your pipes.
Promote Warm Airflow
Make sure that there is warm air circulating throughout the areas of your home that house pipes and plumbing fixtures. If you have pipes underneath cabinets, leave those cabinet doors open during a cold snap or if the power goes out. This will allow warm air to circulate around the pipes and prevent water from freezing inside your plumbing system.
Insulate Your Pipes
You can add insulation around your pipes that are at risk of freezing. By using materials like foam tubing, spray foam insulation, and fiberglass batting, you can ensure temperatures around and inside your pipes are warm enough that burst pipes aren’t an issue. There are many discounts and incentives available for upgrading the insulation around your plumbing system and home.
Sealing Up Your Home
Seal up gaps or cracks on your home’s foundation and around windows and doors. This prevents cold air from coming inside where it can affect your plumbing system. You can use expanded spray foam, weatherstripping, and caulk to seal these gaps.
Secure Backup Power
If the power goes out in your home during the winter, this can allow interior temperatures to drop very quickly. Lowered temperatures can lead to your pipes freezing in a matter of hours. Consider investing in backup power for your home, such as a whole-home generator.
Invest in space heaters that you can use to apply heat to areas of your plumbing system that are prone to freezing. Just make sure you practice space heater safety to minimize the risk of fire. Monitor your space heater, and place it in an area where it won’t get knocked over or tripped on. Make sure you’re not applying too much direct heat to your pipes. This can cause damage.
Maintain a Warm Interior Temperature
Your home should never drop below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Even if you’re going to be going on vacation or will be away for an extended period, make sure you are running your heating equipment. You can monitor the temperature of your home by investing in a smart thermostat. You’ll be able to see what your interior temperature is and adjust it remotely. You can even set up notifications so you are alerted if there appears to be something wrong with your HVAC system that is affecting the safety of your home from a plumbing perspective.
Smart thermostats often integrate with smart plumbing features, such as smart water alarms. You’ll be able to catch a burst pipe early on, taking fast action to minimize damage.
For more information about how you can prevent frozen pipes in your home, reach out to Best Plumber for assistance. We can also help you address frozen pipes and perform plumbing maintenance in the Chattanooga and Knoxville areas. We also work with tankless water heaters, water softeners, hydro jetting, and sump pumps. If you need drain inspection and cleaning, sewer line work, leak detection, or gas line assistance, we do that too. Give our team at Best Plumber a call for all your plumbing needs.
