One of the biggest risks when living in the Treasure Valley is your outdoor or indoor plumbing freezing during the winter. Along with a broken main water line and a leaky water heater, a frozen pipe is one of the biggest plumbing emergencies you can experience. All these issues are serious because they have the potential to create a flood that causes severe water damage to your home. That’s why it’s important to know how to prevent frozen pipes and what steps to take if it happens.
Install Frost-Proof Sillcocks on All Hose Connections
A sillcock, commonly known as a frost-proof outdoor faucet, prevents freezing by extending the valve into the warmer interior of the home. Frost-proof sillcocks have been around since the mid-1960s. That means the majority of homes in Montana built from the early 1970s onward most likely have them already. If your home was built earlier than this and your plumbing hasn’t ever been updated, check that each outdoor fixture has a frost-proof sillcock. If there isn’t a round anti-siphon cap on the top part of the pipe near the wall, it means it’s a traditional hose bib, and you need a plumber to replace it as soon as possible.
All of a traditional hose bib is located outside the house, whereas a sillcock extends all the way inside before finally connecting to the water line. That means the shutoff valve for a sillcock is farther from the wall instead of right next to the foundation where the air can get freezing cold over the winter. Having the shutoff valve farther inside is what makes a frost-proof sillcock so effective at preventing everything from freezing. It ensures you don’t have water in a pipe right next to your foundation.
Drain All the Water From Your Outdoor Plumbing
Draining all your outdoor plumbing, including hose bibs and anything like a sink in an outdoor kitchen, is critical and something you should always do before the first freeze arrives. The first step is to locate the valve inside your house for each fixture that allows you to shut the water off. These valves will normally be just below the ceiling in your crawl space or basement right next to an exterior wall. There could be one or more valves in your attached garage as well.
Once the valves are closed, turn on the outdoor fixtures until no more water comes out. However, you need to first unhook any hoses that are still connected, or else the bib may not drain fully. Once you’ve drained each fixture, shut it back off.
If you have a sprinkler system in your yard, make sure to shut the water to it off as well. However, you will still need to hire a professional to use a compressor and blow your sprinkler system out. If you shut the water off without taking this additional step, some or all of your underground sprinkler lines will almost certainly freeze and break at some point during the winter.
Insulate Pipes Whenever Possible
Even when your house is fully warm during the winter, there’s still a chance of some pipes freezing. The ones you need to worry most about are those within the ceiling in your basement or crawl space and pipes running along a bare concrete wall in the basement. Any pipes in an unheated garage or an attic also have a high potential of freezing. Placing foam pipe insulation over these pipes and securing it with tape blocks cold air from reaching the pipe and is usually sufficient to keep it from freezing. It’s also a good idea to insulate the exposed pipes that supply hot and cold water to your sinks.
Take Additional Precautions When It’s Extremely Cold
The Treasure Valley area typically has at least a few days each winter when the temperature plummets below zero. During these times, you need to take additional precautions, or you could still end up with frozen pipes even if you’ve done everything else that you need to. The first thing to do is open the cabinet doors underneath each sink that’s on an exterior wall so that warm air can circulate around the pipes within the cabinet. The inside surface of an exterior wall often gets quite cold at below-zero temperatures. If the doors to the cabinet are closed, the chill emanating from the wall can cause the nearby pipes to freeze.
The other thing you must do is leave a small stream of warm water running in sinks and showers on exterior walls to keep the water moving through both the hot and cold pipes. That way, the pipes are much less likely to freeze.
What Should You Do If a Pipe in Your Home Freezes?
Whenever it’s extremely cold outside and there’s a chance of your plumbing freezing, it’s a good idea to check all your fixtures a few times a day to make sure the water still runs. If you go to turn a sink or shower faucet on and no water comes out, it means a pipe is frozen. An even bigger concern is if your entire house has no water since this indicates your main water supply line is frozen. The part of the main water line outside your house should never freeze due to how far below ground it is, but the part of it that sticks inside your house can.
The biggest issue is if the main water line freezes before the shutoff valve does since you then won’t be able to shut your water off if the pipe bursts. That’s why it’s best to contact the city water department’s emergency line so they can shut off your water from the street. If only one fixture gives you no water, you can shut the water off yourself by closing the valve on the main line. Once your water is off, contact a plumber.
Never leave your water on if you have a frozen pipe since it will result in much more extensive flooding if the pipe ends up bursting. You normally won’t need to worry about a PEX pipe bursting like a copper pipe, but if you have PEX water lines, it’s still a good idea to shut the water off to be safe.
When the plumber arrives, they’ll quickly locate the frozen pipe. From there, it’s just a matter of them using something like a space heater or hair dryer to start safely thawing the pipe out. Once they’re satisfied that all the ice has melted, they’ll turn your water on again and check that nothing is leaking. If the pipe did crack as the ice inside it expanded, the plumber should be able to cut out the cracked section and replace it fairly easily.
For the past four decades, Perfect, Plumbing Heating & Air has been providing reliable, experienced home services in Boise, ID, and throughout the Treasure Valley. When you need any plumbing, heating, or air conditioning service, you can trust us to provide prompt, high-quality work. All our service professionals are highly skilled and will treat your home with the same respect they would their own. Whether you need pipe repair, to insulate your pipes, or upgrade your outdoor plumbing, give us a call, and we’ll help you avoid frozen pipes this winter.
