How to Prevent Your Pipes From Freezing This Winter

One of the biggest problems that can afflict plumbing systems during the winter is frozen pipes. If you don’t take steps to prevent them from freezing, your pipes can cause all kinds of issues over the next couple of months. Let’s take a look at how you can prevent your pipes from freezing this winter.

Open Your Outdoor Faucets

The reason that frozen pipes are such a problem is that, as the water in the pipes freezes and expands, the pressure on the walls increases. If the pressure isn’t eased, it could cause leaks and ruptures. If you have any outdoor faucets that you’re not going to be using during the winter, turn off the flow of water to them and open them. This will drain most of the water from the pipes, preventing them from freezing over and leaking.

Insulate Your Pipes

There are some pipes in your home that are vulnerable, but which you still need to use during the winter. These include uninsulated pipes in basements, crawlspaces, and under sinks. If you have pipes like that, you need to insulate them yourself to prevent them from freezing. There are two ways that you can do this.

First, you can buy pipe insulation sleeves from most hardware stores. These are sleeves are designed for this purpose, and are an ideal way to insulate your pipes if you’re doing it yourself. If you don’t want to go that route, another thing you can do is wrap your pipes in towels. This will obviously not work quite as well as manufactured insulation sleeves, but it will do for the season.

Bell Plumbing and Heating offers plumbing services throughout Littleton, CO. If you need plumbing services of any kind, call today to schedule an appointment with one of our plumbers.