TULSA, Okla. — Frozen or burst pipes can throw a wrench in a homeowner's day and drain their pocketbook. Pipes obviously freeze more during the winter, but the chance of them bursting also goes up.
2 News spoke with an area company about tips on how to prevent this from happening.
A pipe freezing or bursting can range from being a minimal issue to an expensive and painstaking issue — depending on how soon a homeowner can catch it.
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It can start with something as simple as a pipe dripping or a hairline crack. However, once those pipes freeze, people can get into some serious trouble.
The company Quality Heating, Cooling & Plumbing obviously does a lot of plumbing. Vice President and co-owner Cassie Pound told 2 News they like to say they're part-time meteorologists because the weather can impact their business quite a bit.
"[2 News meteorologist] Mike Collier is in my back pocket on a regular basis to pay attention to the forecast. We want to be ahead of that so we can keep our plumbers open and available for those emergencies," she said. "We see a huge influx of those things happening."
Because of that influx of appointments this time of year, Pound said it's important for homeowners to get on top of their pipes when they first notice anything wrong, especially when we know those freezing temperatures are approaching.
If temperatures dip into the 30s for a couple of nights, pipes won't freeze that much. It's when those freezing temperatures hit the area for an extended period of time that those pipes begin to have issues.
One way to prevent pipes from freezing to begin with is insulating those pipes. Homeowners could apply heat tape, but that comes with some hidden dangers if they don't know what they're doing. For homeowners inexperienced with that, Pound recommends calling a plumber.
Should anyone stumble upon a frozen pipe, one thing she said they can do is thaw it out with a blow dryer or some other heat source to prevent it from bursting.
However, when we know that those temperatures are about to get really cold, make sure to turn on those faucets to at least a drip.
"A lot of people don't realize that hot water actually freezes first," Pound noted. "So, you want to have your hot and your cold on. If you have two options, let's have a little bit of both on, and not just a drip. I always say I want to see a, like, a pencil lead."
"But a pencil lead, so a steady flow," she said. "And that's causing the water to keep moving. When water stops moving, that's when we freeze."
She said as often as we can have that water dripping, that will help, especially in bathrooms, kitchens, or anywhere there's a water source on an outside wall.
But at what temperature should people leave their homes when they're not there?
"If you're going to be away, that's probably when something's going to happen," Pound remarked.
"You never leave your house cold," she emphasized. "Let's keep our temperature — our inside temperature of our house — at least over 60. Some may recommend 50, but we would like to see at least over 60 degrees."
Pound also suggested leaving those cabinet doors open to let the warm air flow in there.
If there's a spigot on the outside of a house, Pound said one thing to do is disconnect it from the water hose and keep it disconnected until it gets warmer outside.
It's also important for people to keep an eye on anything that has been an issue for their pipes in the past. Should anything happen, they can get in front of the problem early on.
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