Protecting your pipes, keeping house warm, safe during extreme cold temperatures
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When it’s cold outside, problems can find their way inside your home.
Kansas City area plumbers say their phones are ringing, as homeowners are discovering water pipes frozen inside their homes. In some cases, the calamity includes water pouring from those pipes.
Plumbers at Kansas City’s A.B. May recommend the simplest of all solutions when it gets this cold outside. Keeping your faucets at a slow drip is the smartest first step.
“I would bring it to a slow trickle,” Tony Belzer, a plumbing installation specialist with A.B. May, said on Friday.
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A demonstration showed that even a small trickle of water kept water circulating through the pipes, and prevented the pipes from freezing. The average service call to repair a broken water pipe can cost a homeowner as much as $1,000. A.B. May has eight service techs on call this weekend for pipe repair problems.
Belzer also recommends leaving cabinet doors underneath sinks and basins open, which will allow warm air to reach pipes, and safe use of a space heater will also warm pipes.
“I think being proactive about the situation is the best way to prevent anything from happening in your house,” Belzer said.
For homeowners who discover frozen water pipes, Belzer recommends turning off the water to the home. He said using a hairdryer to slowly thaw a pipe will also work.
In the case of sinks that aren’t used often, like a laundry room or a garage, Belzer said the smart play might be to shut off the water there completely until the weather warms up.
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Keeping the entire house warm is also a priority, given temperatures that will likely fall below zero this weekend.
Dawn Tripp, a spokesperson for Kansas Gas Service, said there’s no magic number or predetermined temperature that will keep a house warm in an energy-efficient way.
Kansas Gas service recommends using their average payment plan, which can ease the strain of higher utility costs in the winter. Tripp also recommends sealing leaks in doors and windows to keep warm air inside your home.
“Every household is unique. You may have an elderly family member. You may have an infant or someone who has health concern. You probably do want to turn thermostat down but not hot,” Tripp said on Friday.
