Winterizing Your Home

Located in New Hope, MN, our family at Paul Bunyan Plumbing & Drains is happy to help you understand the essential steps that need to be taken in order to prevent costly leaks or other damage to your home through the winter months. At Paul Bunyan, we take pride in our work, and we know the value of treating our customers right. Whether you call to discuss water softeners or to discuss ways to improve the efficiency that you are using gas in your home, we are thrilled to be able to make the connection with you to start building the trust that will instill confidence in our work.

Prepping for Winterization

The first step you should take in winterizing your home is drawing out everything you need to do. Maybe you missed something last year that you do not want to miss again this year. In your list should be a checklist of all exposed plumbing. You need to include all taps, valves, and pipes on your checklist so that as you complete them you can check them off to prevent any surprises after that first hard freeze.

Preventing Freezing Pipes

Frozen pipes can be a problem in two ways. First, a pipe completely frozen means you no longer have access to running water out of that faucet. If it is a pipe leading to a bathroom you may even be without a shower or running toilet. The second issue is because of water expanding as it freezes. When the expanding water has nowhere to go it will break out of the plumbing at the weakest point. Things you can do to prevent frozen pipes include:

• Insulate Pipes – wrapping with an insulating wrap or using slip-on foam insulations can help prevent freezing
• Maintaining Indoor Heat – heaters keeping the inside warm can help prevent pipes in walls from freezing
• Ensure Ventilation in Crawl Space – the crawl space under your home should have vents blocked off with cardboard or wood
• Leave Faucets Dripping – a higher than normal water bill is far cheaper than a pipe bursting, so leaving a drip can help by giving the water a place to go instead of just filling the pipes
• Disconnect Exterior Components – draining the water out of things like garden hoses and storing them through winter help prevent internal freezing

Key Steps to Winterizing Your Home

1. Shut off your main water valve and turn off your water pump and water heater where applicable. This will help with protecting your heating elements in the water heater when no water is inside of the tank.
2. Opening your drain valves on all taps prevents a vacuum from forming inside of the pipes that will trap in ice, causing pipes to burst.
3. Blow excess water out of pipes with an air compressor.
4. Drain water in your holding tanks like the rubber diaphragm and the one that is used with the water tank to build pressure.
5. Flush toilets to remove as much water as possible.
6. Add antifreeze to sink drains, tub drains, and toilets to help prevent any freezing and cracking there.