Although the subzero temperature days are, hopefully, long gone we are still feeling the aftermath in our households. This weekend our family experienced a pipe leak in our basement. It is one thing to help families get their homes back to working order after a pipe leak / fire and another to experience it firsthand. Although I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone we are grateful for it because it truly helped us better understand the frustration and inconvenience these events are to the families we help. We can definitely say that our inconvenience and frustration was EXTREMELY minimal in comparison to all the families we help. We hope that your household did not sustain damage from the cold temperatures! Below are a few more tips to ensure you don’t experience a pipe leak in the winter days ahead:
- Make sure all water pipes exposed to cold air are insulted and keep them dry.
- Make sure you know where the main water shut off valve is located in your home. In our case I was filling a gallon jug of water as my husband shut off the water so I would have something to make bottles with for our baby. If you do have a leak it may be a good idea to fill a jug of water before shutting off your water in case it is off for a few hours.
- Make sure you seal / caulk all holes and cracks in your foundation.
- If temperatures dip and you have access panels to pipes make sure you open the access panels so the inside temperatures keep them warm. The plumber was kind enough to put a hole for an access panel in our basement after fixing our cracked pipe.
- Always remove your hose from the outdoor water spigot in the winter. The water in the spigot can freeze and this can continue into the pvc piping in your home. We removed our hoses but unfortunately our pipes were not insulated well enough behind the drywall and our leak happened at the pvc piping in the basement leading to the spigot.
- When on vacation or away from home do not let the inside temperature of your home dip below 55 degrees. If you have a vacant home make sure you winterize the home.
If you do experience a pipe leak:
- Make sure you turn your water off to stop the flow of water. Do this by locating the main water shut off valve to your home. Some homes also have water shut off valves located by their street curb.
- Contact your insurance company and/or a plumber. In our case we live in a newer home so we contacted the builder’s home warranty program. Insurance companies are great and may give great recommendations for contractors / companies to call and contact. In our case our carpets were soaked as was the pad under the carpet so we needed water extraction along with a plumber to fix the pipes. If we didn’t have a home warranty and our own resources to handle the leak in our home our insurance company would have been our first call.
- AND… because it wouldn’t make sense if I didn’t put in a small plug – Paul Davis Restoration can handle all of your leaking/burst pipe clean-up from water extraction to plumbing / drywall replacement etc.
We hope all of you enjoy the warmer temperatures this week!