It’s cold outside!
When the temperature drops, frozen pipes are one of the biggest risks of damage to your home. During a severe cold spell, sprinkler or water pipes can freeze, burst, and produce devastating losses.
Here are some simple ways you can help prevent frozen pipes in your home:
- Keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines in the garage.
- Disconnect all outdoor hoses and turn off water to exterior faucets and drain lawn sprinkler systems.
- Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warmer air to circulate around the plumbing.
- Keep heat at 55 degrees or higher even when you are out of town.
- During a cold spell, turn on both hot and cold faucets near outside walls to allow a small trickle of water to run during the night.
- Wrap pipes in foam insulation tubes, especially those close to outside walls, attics or crawl spaces where the chance of freezing is greatest.
- Seal air leaks surrounding or near pipes.
- If you need to be away from your home, or business leave the heat on and drain your water system before you go.
- Identify the locations of shutoff valves so you are prepared to stop the flow of water as soon as possible should a pipe burst.
For more tips, including what to do if a pipe does freeze, check out this helpful article on freezing and bursting pipes from the IBHS or contact your M3 Personal Account Executive.
