Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Plumbing in Cold Weather

If you’ve spent any time in Dallas or the surrounding communities, you know that an arctic chill is not out of the question. Unfortunately, if you don’t take appropriate measures to protect your pipes and your plumbing, you could wake up one frigid winter morning with the water frozen in the line or, worse yet, a broken pipe. It won’t matter, either, whether your pipes are PVC, copper or galvanized steel, expanding water (as it changes to ice) has the power to break just about anything.

The pipes you’ll want to pay most attention to are:

• Any that run through walls or behind vanities that are exposed to an outside wall with little or no insulation
• Supply lines in unheated areas of the house, such as basements or crawl spaces, attics or garages
• Outdoor water supplies, such as hose bibs, hoses or sprinkler heads

Steps to Keep Your Pipes Safe

Here are some simple steps to reduce the risk of frozen pipes this year:

• Shut off all outside water lines — If you have an indoor shutoff, turn the water off inside, then open the spigot. Disconnect your hose, drain it and store it inside. NOTE: Never put antifreeze in a water line—it can be lethal to pets and people, and can damage your lawn
• To the extent possible, insulate any exposed water lines — You can buy insulation that’s designed to wrap around a pipe (known as a “pipe sleeve”), but you can use any type of insulation, as long as you wrap the pipe completely and tape it together.
• Open cabinets to keep pipes warm — Inside your house, if you have sinks on exterior walls, open the doors to the cabinets to allow warm air from the house to circulate around the pipes
• Let a couple sinks drip — Moving water is less likely to freeze, so it’s a good idea, if it’s going to be really cold, to open a couple faucets. They don’t need to be open wide—a steady drip is fine.
• Leave the heat on — If you are going away for a few days, there’s a temptation to turn the heat down. It’ll probably be cheaper in the long run to pay the extra heating bill than to cover the costs of a broken water pipe.

Public Service Plumbers

5610 Dyer Street
Dallas, Texas 75206
(214) 753-4633

We offer plumbing installation and repair services to individuals and businesses throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including Highland Park, University Park, Preston Hollow, Lakewood, Lake Highlands, Richardson, Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Coppell, Garland, Mesquite, Addison, Kessler Park, Farmers Branch, Grapevine, Southlake, Flower Mound and Lewisville.

We bring more than five decades of experience to our client. No job is too big or too small. Every member of our team has been in the plumbing trades for at least 10 years. In addition, our support staff offers more than 100 years of combined experience in the plumbing business.