With this year’s winter projected to be one of the coldest that we have ever experienced here in Ireland it’s more important than ever that you are prepared in order to avoid disasters like frozen pipes bursting. In this article I will be sharing 4 ways you can prevent frozen water pipes. These tips are especially essential if you are leaving your home unattended for any length of time over the winter months.
1: Insulate Your Pipes:
Keeping your water pipes insulated will help save them from the freezing conditions and give them the ability to endure freezing conditions for a little bit longer. However this will only stave off the cold for a limited amount of time, if the temperature falls below -2°C for more than four hours this won’t be enough to save them.
2: Don’t Turn Off Your Heating When You Are Away:
By this I don’t mean keep it on full blast day and night. Lower the temperature on your thermostat to as low as 10°C. This will prevent the temperature in your home from dropping dangerously low and into frozen pipe territory, while also not breaking the bank with the heating bill.
3: Keep Your Water Running:
I know what you’re thinking, you would be insane to leave your water running for a full week while you are on holidays, especially now that the water charges are in. However all that’s necessary is to keep faucets dripping at a slow rate, this prevents the water in the pipe from freezing as it isn’t kept in the ice cold pipe indefinitely.
4: Open Cabinet Doors
The final piece of advice that I will be giving you today is when you are away leave your cabinet doors open. Generally under the sink isn’t the best insulated place in the world so leaving the cabinet doors open allow the heat from your house make contact with your pipes and further reduce the risk of them flooding.
If your pipes do freeze and burst while you are away, call a professional. At AMLTD we have all the tools for the job, but hopefully it never comes to that. Good luck this winter and don’t let your pipes freeze.
