Winter Home Maintenance and Preventative Tips
This the season for building snowmen, hot chocolate, Holiday parties, family gatherings and creating new memories with friends. The winter months can provide some of the most breathtaking picturesque scenes, but that beauty can turn into a beast quickly. The frigid weather can suddenly become disastrous, especially for your plumbing. We want you to be prepared this winter with our “Winter Home Maintenance & Preventative Tips”
Know Where Your Home’s Main Water Shut Off Valve Is Located
You don’t want to be frantically searching your home to find your main water shut-off valve when water is pouring out of pipes or walls, flooding areas and causing damage. Every second count. By knowing exactly where your home’s main water shut off valve is located it could save you $$$. We recommend that as many people in your household, who are able to turn the valve off, know where it is located. Remind yourself and others a few times a year of where your home’s main water shut-off valve is located.
Remove Garden Hoses From Outside Faucets
Why do you need to remove the hoses from your outside faucets? The water in the hose will freeze and expand which could cause connected faucets and pipes to freeze and break. While you are out there do a visual inspection of the faucet. Is it dripping or leaking? If so, it needs to be repaired before freezing temperatures start.
Perform A Home Inspection
Inspect the perimeter of your house for any gaps or spaces where weather elements may enter. When you are in your basement look where the pipes enter your home. Do you see sunlight? If you do, we suggest you seal it with a proper sealant.
Insulate Exposed Pipes
Pipes outside as well as pipes near outside walls should be insulated. Have you had issues with frozen pipes in the past? Make sure these pipes are wrapped with insulation. To further help protect those pipes that are easily frozen you can add heat tape under the insulation. The heat tape will help provide a constant flow of temperature to the water systems.
Check The Battery In Your Furnace Thermostat
Imagine coming home from a perfect, warm vacation to a freezing home with busted pipes, flooding and water damage. The culprit? A dead battery in your furnace thermostat. It was unable to keep your house at the recommended 55° temperature and Mother Nature decided to send a deep freeze resulting in all the damage. A great preventative measure is just to check the battery level in your thermostat before you go on any extended vacations.
Check Your Hot Water Heater Temperature
Double-check to make sure your water heater is set no higher than the recommended 120° to help reduce the risk of scalding.
We want you to be “walking in a winter wonderland” and not in ankle-deep water in your basement this winter. That is why we highly recommend you perform these maintenance and preventative tips before extreme cold temperatures hit. If you find you are having issues with your plumbing this winter give us a call, (740) 217-0450, we are available 24/7. For a full list of our services please visit our website at www.emergencyplumbingservice.com.
