Prepare Your Plumbing for Freezing Weather

It's going to be annoying because if we're walking around in the kitchen, it's a knee- knocker. You're gonna, you know, be uh be be dancing around it. However, opening your cabinet doors and making sure that the heat from your house is able to infiltrate underneath the cabinet is going to be a huge help to making sure those water lines stay nice and toasty as opposed to potentially freezing. Because in the walls is where we're going to see water lines freeze most of the time. nose. [music]

But local businesses have also seen an increase in calls related to heating systems that can't keep up with outdoor temps. >> We had a lot of calls of heaters not being able to keep up. A lot of frozen water lines uh and and really just I mean kind of all the stuff that we'd see similar to the AC season uh but just this time uh the inverse because uh we're relying on heaters now. The businesses recommend people drip their faucets, disconnect outdoor hoses, and make sure furnaces are turned up to a temperature in the upper 60s or lower 70s. And if that is not enough to prevent a utility emergency, >> we can come out and winterize a house for three or 4 hundred bucks and essentially do the hose bib covers and a furnace tuneup and a water heater check and and all of that versus on the back end, you know, if we have a furnace failure or if we have a water heater failure or a busted water line, you know, you're talking about potential thousands of dollars. >> Yarro recommends calling HVAC and plumbing professionals before extreme weather hits, adding that preventative work is far less expensive than emergency repairs after a failure. I rose. [singing] [music]

All right, James. What is worse, a slow-dripping faucet or letting a toilet run continuously? >> Letting the toilet run continuously will cost you a lot more money. >> All right, what's worse, letting the toilet run continuously or flushing wipes and other non-flushables? >> Oh, flushing wipes and all that is a lot worse cuz that's going to cost you in the long run by having somebody come out and clean out your sewer line. >> All right, what's worse, flushing wipes or ignoring a leaking pipe under the sink? >> Oh, ignoring a leaking pipe under the sink, it will rot wood and everything else. >> All right, what's worse than that, ignoring the leaking pipe under the sink or frequently using harsh chemical drain cleaners? >> Oh, using harsh chemical drain cleaners will tear up if you've got the wrong kind of pipes, it will eat through them and you'll be replacing pipes under the house. >> All right, final question. What's worse, using harsh chemical drain cleaners or leaving a hose connected in winter? >> Oh, leaving a hose connected in winter cuz you don't know about it till the spring when it thaws out. Then you flood your house. >> So, these got progressively worse. >> Oh, yes. >> All of these just got They one-upped each other. >> Oh, yeah. >> All right, cool. Thanks, man. >> No problem.

I'm looking at our live chat on the uh YouTube channel and Yar Bro and Suns, which is a great local company, is chiming in and giving outdoor tips on spots, outdoor, you know, what to do your HVAC filter. They're giving some really good advice that I need to share with my husband. So, we do that. >> JD's got some work to do today. >> Connect your garden hoses. Cover all the outdoor spets. Make sure exterior spets are fully shut off and not dripping. Check the doors and window seals for drafts. replace the worn weather stripping. >> We are getting ready for that winter storm. >> It arrives tomorrow night, guys. Very cold, heavy snow. We'll be tracking it. >> Buckle up.

As sub freezing temperatures threaten to overwhelm heating units and burst pipes, Metro plumbing and HVAC specialists are gearing up for a surge in service calls in Oklahoma. A lot of times the houses, you know, aren't built to withstand long stretches of sub 10°ree weather, you know, like we've got coming up. But there are things that homeowners can do that will really help, you know, make sure that they're at least preventing the easily preventable things. So like, you know, one of the things I recommend is get spigot covers. One, first off, before you put a spigot cover on, you've got to take your water hose off. So, take your water hose off because if we have a water hose connected to a spigot, we're going to have some sort of standing water in there. And whenever that cold air comes, it's going to freeze and cause that to burst. So, get a spigot cover. I'd recommend getting a hard plastic shell. And then, if you've got some rags or t-shirts or armlex laying around, go ahead and pack some of that in there with it. We're just trying to increase the amount of insulation that's around that spade. The next thing that a homeowner can do is one, if you've got a faucet like it's behind me here, uh, on the outside wall of a house and you're worried about it getting cold, set it to drip. It doesn't need to be a solid stream. It just needs to be just a nice steady just drip at a time. And that's going to keep the water from freezing in the pipe because we have moving water. And moving water is a whole lot harder to freeze than stationary water. And then also too, because if it's on an outside wall, I would say recommending opening up those cabinets. If we open up those cabinets, we're going to allow the heat from the house to infiltrate below the cabinet and make sure that those water lines stay nice and nice and toasty. >> [music]

The plumbers obviously we want to make sure that we're using spigot covers, make sure that we're insulating any exposed water lines. That's what they would do if we came out to winterize your house there. And then on the HVAC side is if you haven't had a heater tuneup, I would recommend doing so. Um because we've got a long stretch of cold coming in. And whenever we have, you know, we're used to air conditioners breaking in Oklahoma, heaters break far less because we don't run them nearly as often. And so with a long stretch of heat or of heating requirement coming down the pipeline, um a tuneup is imperative because if we've got, you know, all electric heat, we want to make sure that all the all the heat strips are working. Or if we've got gas heat, we want to make sure that there's no cracks in the uh in the heat exchanger cuz if there's cracks in our heat exchanger, that's actually leading to carbon monoxide being produced in our furnace, and that is not safe for anybody to breathe. So, I would say get a tuneup, have a plumber come winterize your house, and also get a carbon monoxide detector for 30 bucks. Just plug it in in a hight traffic area and at least that way if your heater doesn't get checked out, we can make sure that we're not producing carbon dioxide in the house. [singing] nose. [music]

If someone has had their house, maybe their house is older than 2000. Can someone go from an older type of plumbing uh model or material to PEX, can it be do like full repipe? >> Oh yeah, absolutely. We do a lot of them. Copper pipe in our area, there's an acid in the ground that will actually eat the copper. >> Oh, no way. >> It will cause pin holes in it. So there's a lot of times we will either reroute it overhead. Sometimes we're able to pull pipes underneath through the sand and that's if it's a slab house. >> Okay. >> If it's a crawl space house, you can definitely replace all that very easily. It's not cheap, but it can be done. And then if it does freeze, you don't have to worry cuz it won't bust. [singing] nose. [music]

Moving water is the key, you know, because if we have moving water out there with our water heater, it's less likely to freeze. A lot of times with water heaters, most time they're either in a garage or in an attic space and that is a lot of times where our water is entering the house. And so if that's not in a wellinssulated area, well, we can see the same thing happen. And it's a high degree that you we have freezing occur [music] there. And so I would say, you know, if we can make sure our area of the water heater, tankless water heater that we've got is insulated. Uh, like [music] I said, if we've got a space heater or some way to condition it, that's the ideal. [singing] >> [music]

have been frozen pipes. That's a pretty typical one. Anytime you have a pipe that has water in it, that water expands when it's frozen. And you know, the structure of the pipe wasn't able to to to stretch if it's especially if it's not PEX, um which is just a a type of material that water pipes are made out of now. Um and so if homes that are, you know, a little bit older have older um building materials in them and so it don't have that stretching capacity. So they did burst, a lot of people are going to drip their faucets and just to to ensure that they've got moving water and that water's not just staying [music] stagnant in those pipes and so they're not freezing. [singing] >> [music]

So, a lot of times with water heaters, uh, what we have is most time they're either in a garage or in an attic space. Um, and that is a lot of times where our water is entering the house. And so, if that's not in a well-insulated area, well, we can see the same thing happen. And it's a high degree that, you know, we have freezing occur there. And so, [music] I would say, you know, if we can make sure our area of the water heater, tankless water heater that we've got is insulated. Um, like I said, if we've got a space heater or some way to condition it, that's the ideal. Um, but as the temperatures come through, if you don't have a means of of of weatherizing it, making sure that it's, you know, of temperature, I would say just go check on it, make sure that we're still running. But again, that moving water is the key, you know. So, that's why it's so important to open up your faucets because if we have moving water out there with our water heater, it's less likely to freeze. >> [music]

preemptive is the best time to take care of things, right? So, before the freeze or before the hot weather, whatever sets in, whatever weather we're calling for, if you've had issues with your plumbing system in the past or had issues with your HVAC system in the past, uh, and we see a long stretch of inclement weather on the way, get somebody out and take take a look at it. Get a tuneup. make sure that your system is in the best potential, you know, spot it can be uh prior to the storm setting in, you know, because the customers we see on the front end of something like this versus the back end are two two different customers, you know, cuz we can come out and winterize a house for three or 400 bucks and essentially do the hose bib covers and a furnace tuneup and a water heater check and and all of that versus on the back end, you know, if we have a furnace failure or if we have a water heater failure or a busted water line, you know, you're talking about potential thousands of dollars. And so the, you know, it's kind of like paying the paying for an insurance policy essentially. It's a pain whenever you have to initially pay for it, but whenever the time comes to actually need it, uh, you're thankful that you have it. [singing] >> [music]

We had a lot of calls of heaters not being able to keep up, a lot of frozen water lines. If you go to try to turn on a faucet and no water comes out, you know, that's we know, okay, we've got a frozen line. Especially if you've got water elsewhere in the house. And that's why as we go into the the big freeze and sustained cold temperatures, you'll hear, you know, every plumber uh that's out there telling you, "Hey, just get a drip going." Uh because if we can get a drip going, if we can have water moving in the the water system of your house, it is far less likely to freeze than if we just uh let it sit there stagnant in the lines. [singing] nose. [music]

We're getting into the whole home generator business. And why that is is because we get calls every spring, every fall and winter, whenever we have the most extreme weather on the planet sometimes, whenever the power grid is either at risk and fails and or has already failed in some way, shape, or form because of an event, you know, like taking out a power line or a substation. And now the house is not livable, we're worried about groceries, we're worried about the freezer not staying cold enough. And frankly, like we get a call a lot of times because we're the heat and air side and the plumbing side of worrying about well, it's not warm enough in my house or I'm worried about the water lines freezing. And let's be honest, like there's nothing we can do about it unless you have power. If you don't have power in the home, there's nothing we can do to mitigate any risk of heat going out, water lines freezing, things like that. The necessary thing is the power.

I would say if you have an uncomfortable house, like if you're if you struggle with humidity or you struggle with drafty areas or hot and cold spots or you're just not overall pleased with the way your house has performed on a normal beautiful day, um I would recommend, you know, getting as much as you can covered while you can, you know, before this cold weather comes in. You know, insulating the pipes under your sink, though could be seen as a little bit of overkill, um I'd rather go over the top uh and be wrong than uh not do anything at all and and it actually happen, you know. So insulation again with if we're packing insulation around those pipes, we're just doing another step to prevent heartache and headache with water coming out of a place that it shouldn't be. [singing] >> [music]