Helpful Tips to Finding Frozen Pipes
John The Plumber Barrhaven here with some tips about frozen pipes!
Winter is on the way, and with that can come some plumbing issues with your pipes. Everyone here knows how cold it can become in this area sometimes; no matter how much you prepare your home your pipes might still freeze over. Before calling in the professionals, John THE Plumber offers some helpful tips to fixing and finding your frozen pipes.
Find The Frozen Pipe
First thing you need to do is find the location of the frozen pipe. This is easily achieved by turning on each faucet in your home one at a time. Sometimes you will see water flowing from some faucets and not others; this can mean the problem might be the pipe connected to the faucet that has no water flow. Other times you may note that water isn’t coming out of any faucet in your home; if that’s the case then it is likely your main water supply where the freezing has occurred. The pipes to the main water supply are generally located on the street side of your basement.
Where is it Frozen?
Now you need to find out where exactly the freezing is within that pipe; you can do this by running your hand along the pipes that aren’t insulated and see where you feel is the coldest spot. You’ll also want to check the cold spot for cracks, splits or bulges, especially if you have copper or plastic pipes. If you notice any of this call our Barrhaven Plumbers immediately as these issues can cause flooding in those areas once the thaw begins.
Thawing The Situation
If your pipes don’t have any cracks, splits or bulges then you can try and thaw the frozen area on your own. A space heater placed near the pipes to warm the area is a good idea, but exercise caution when leave a device like that unattended for long periods of time can become a fire hazard. Also think to keep the heat source back from any chemicals or flammable materials. EG: If it is the pipes to your kitchen sink that are frozen, you need to remove any cleaning supplies you may have under your sink before you turn on the space heater. A standard hair dryer is another good option to thaw your pipes as you can monitor how the pipe is thawing.
Just be aware that hair dryers can get very hot so be careful if you have plastic pipes in your home, and know you will be standing there holding it for a good while.
If at any time you are unsure of what to do, please give our Barrhaven Plumbers a call. We’ll be happy to come to your home right away and defrost your situation!
