Preventing Frozen Pipes This Winter

1/9/2020 (Permalink)

Insulate pipes that pass through unheated areas of the building

As the weather turns colder and the snow piles up, it’s important to understand how the changing seasons affect your facility’s maintenance routine. Winter poses different hazards and there are different methods of preventing them. Keeping your building warm and dry means understanding these risks and doing the work that will protect you from them. Let’s talk about how to prevent frozen pipes, which can burst and lead to water damage indoors.

Tips for Preventing Pipe Freezing

Use the following tips to help prevent issues with pipes freezing:

• Keep the thermostat at the same temperature day and night.
• Add insulation to crawlspaces and utility access areas.
• Insulate pipes that pass through unheated areas of the building.
• Increase ventilation to pipes in kitchen and bathroom areas.
  
  

The general rule you want to follow is this simple: Making sure your pipes receive the benefit of your regular HVAC climate controls will prevent ice from forming in them. That’s why it’s important to check on insulation and to keep your temperature controls at a reasonable setting day and night. Temperature fluctuations in the main work areas are amplified in crawl spaces and other less-insulated parts of the building.

Pipes Freezing in Extreme Temperatures

No matter how hard you try to prevent frozen pipes in Smiths Grove, KY the winter weather occasionally just throws you a curveball. That means there’s a chance an extreme cold period could overcome your prevention measures, especially if that cold snap is more drastic and longer than usual for Smiths Grove, KY. When that happens, it’s important to have an emergency plan.

This emergency plan needs to include local restoration experts who know how to deal with a burst pipe, so you know that you will get help with cleanup and with water line repair afterward. If you work with your insurance company and plan, it’s easy to make sure your choice will be covered, too, so you have an easy-to-follow plan of action when an emergency strikes that will help your facility bounce back after an emergency.