We here at Integrity Plumbing absolutely love our family of customers but truly hate when they are forced to call us when frozen pipes are the reason. We have put together the following list of tasks you can do ahead of a cold snap to hopefully prevent this from happening to you. Extreme freeze and frozen pipes can happen and leave you with an emergency, and at times, a rather large repair bill.
Cover pipes with insulation sleeves.
Seal cracks in walls to keep cold air out.
Turn off and empty outdoor faucets.
Keep cabinet doors open below your sinks to allow warm air in.
Leave your faucets open just the slightest bit.
Keep an eye on unheated areas of your home such as the exterior walls and your garage. Consider using a heating source during extremely cold periods.
Keep garage doors closed as much as possible.
Keep your home’s temperature the same day and night.
In the event that you do end up with frozen pipes try the following before calling us:
If you haven’t, open the cabinet doors to any cabinets with plumbing behind them.
Turn up the heat in your home by at least 5 degrees.
If you are dealing with a frozen pipe in an area of your home that experiences cooler temps, provide a source of heat to increase the heat of that room with a space heater for example.
You can run a hair dryer near a frozen pipe if you are able to locate where the pipe is frozen at and it is exposed for you to do so.
If your frozen pipe is in the garage area, you can open the door from your home into your garage and turn your thermostat as high as it will go to allow your garage to heat to the temp of the home inside.
Of course, Nebraska is home to some extreme cold weather events and even after practicing prevention and going through the list of suggestions to thaw a pipe yourself you can still need our services if the pipe wont thaw after a period of a few hours, or you had a pipe burst and are now dealing with an active leak.
Should this be the case, we would love to hear from you and be a part of the solution. Our technicians can provide you with the best solution with the most affordable cost in mind. One of our goals is to help people who find themselves in this type of emergency and get them through this without taking advantage of their emergency situation.