How to best protect your indoor and outdoor pipes for the freeze

THE WOODLANDS, TX – As the Polar Express prepares to bear down on The Woodlands area late this weekend (and lasting well into next week) and our temperatures plummet down to shoe-size numbers, local residents are being inundated with alerts from everyone about bringing in plants and pets and wrapping your pipes.

However, as is typical when dealing with mass hysteria in the face of a natural phenomenon, urban legends, misinformation, and flat-out fake instructions can turn what can be a relatively benign – if not frigid and frustrating – few days into a multi-thousand-dollar financial disaster.

Fortunately, Kevin Dempsey with Woodlands Plumbing & Air was available to tell Woodlands Online – and the rest of the community – simple, effective, and correct ways to keep your pipes safe over the freeze, whether they’re indoors or outside.

Here’s a handy breakdown of what to do:

Outdoor pipes

Simply draping a towel over your outdoor pipes won’t do much good. According to Dempsey, every piece of exposed metal needs to be covered with something waterproof – if all you have are rags and towels, cover those with plastic bags. Ideally, pipe insulation or pool noodles are your best bet. They are easily cut with saws and sharp kitchen knives alike. Be sure the backsides of your pipes are covered and duct tape everything down. Even the faucet needs to be insulated. If there’s been a run on traditional insulation, other items like newspapers, bubble wrap, and packing paper will work, as long as there is at least an inch worth covering the pipes, taped down, and made waterproof.

For this freeze, it’s brief enough that you most likely won’t need to turn off the main valve of your outside pipe; but if you feel the need to, make sure the handle is securely in the ‘off’ position, then open the faucet all the way until the water in the pipe is completely drained.

Outdoor faucets

These are easier to handle. If you’ve run out of pool noodles, you can find an outdoor faucet sock or cover (made of insulated cloth or styrofoam) to completely cover and tie down. Again, you don’t want any metal of the faucet exposed.

Kitchen sinks

Usually, an outdoor faucet is directly across from your kitchen sink piping inside the house. This is an indoor tap you want to keep dripping for the entire run of the freeze. As long as the water is running – anywhere from a steady drop to a slow stream – this pipe shouldn’t freeze. Dempsey suggests you drip warm water – midway through the temperature extremes if it’s an integrated single tap or a bit of each tap if there are two – and also keep the cabinet under your sink to be warmed by your house air.

Inside faucets

Besides your kitchen sink, you should also set to drip a sink that’s farthest away from your exposed outdoor pipe. When in doubt, set all your faucets to drip – it shouldn’t raise your next water bill, and this is one situation to be safe rather than sorry.

Garage

Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to insulate your garage more than it already is. Believe it or not, leaving the interior garage lights on will help warm the area a tad, and sometimes it’s a fraction of a degree that makes the difference between a burst pipe overhead and a dry garage floor. If you run a space heater in your garage, use extreme caution – it’s better to use a ceramic warm air blower than a hot-coil heater. Never plug a space heater into an extension cord; it can easily overpower it – literally and figuratively – and cause a burnout or meltdown that would ironically add fire to the cold mix. And never leave a space heater unattended. Most modern heaters shut off automatically if they run for too long or are tipped over – check yours out before leaving the room or heading to bed.

Attic

There is a surprisingly simple way to help keep any pipes in your attic from bursting. If you have a traditional pull-down ceiling hatch / ladder combo common to most houses, pull it open and brace it ajar with anything from a thick folded towel, a sturdy shoebox, or even a shoe. With this hallway ceiling egress kept open a few inches, warm air from your house will rise up and pass through, warming the attic a little. Don’t forget to keep your attic lights on as well; every fraction of a degree helps.

What to do if a pipe bursts?

Keep an ear out for any unusual bangs or thumps. Sometimes a pipe will go with a whimper and not a bang, and once it bursts every microsecond counts. If you hear such a noise, immediately check your ceilings for wetness or discoloration. Then head up to your attic. The pressure will make any water escape very loud and forceful, so if there is a broken pipe up there it will be easy to find. Try to get a town and plastic bags to wrap around the burst area, but if the water pressure is too great, don’t waste valuable time. Instead, place a call to a plumber like Woodlands Plumbing & Air, who can take emergency service calls 24/7, then attempt to turn off your water at the main, usually under the plastic cover somewhere in your front yard.

With preparation and some common sense (and level heads should it come to it), you should be able to end next week with warmer weather and no extra water or plumbing bills; but should something go down, rely on experts such as Woodlands Plumbing & Air.