In the spirit of kindness, John the Plumber would like to help Ottawa home owners out with something that is generally easily preventable and very simple to do. Protect your outside taps from freezing and/or bursting. Follow these simple instructions and hopefully you will not need to call us in the spring.
Hose bibs commonly burst because water stays trapped inside, freezes as the temperature drops, expands and bursts. Unfortunately, you may not notice this until spring when things start to warm up and you start to hear water where you shouldn’t and now have to deal with a burst pipe.
Frost free hose bibs are fantastic and we love to install them, but Ottawa winters are harsh and long, and they fluctuate in extreme temperatures. So this common knowledge we are about to bestow upon you is for them too. So, first things first, you have to locate the shut offs for the hose bibs. Many homes have one hose bib in the garage (do this one too please!) and one on the side and the back of the house.
The shut offs for these are generally inside the house, in the basement. You can look close to your perimeter walls and generally find the shut off above your head in unfinished or partially unfinished basements. Hop onto a ladder and shut the water off.
Afterwards, head outside and to your garage and disconnect the hose from the hose bib. Open the tap and let all the water bleed out. Close the tap. That’s it! Very simple to do, and may save you oodles of money and heartache in the spring.
Another good idea is to shut your main water supply off when you go on vacation, just in case you have a pipe burst while you are away. And remember to not let the indoor house temperature go too low, even if you’re e gone a long time as that could cause pipes to burst too.
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To discover more on the full range of services offered by our Ottawa-based John the Plumber, please call our offices today at 613-227-7465 or visit our business website at johntheplumber.ca
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