plumbing tips

Mastering Winter Plumbing: Essential Tips for Your Home

Introduction

As winter approaches, it is important to safeguard plumbing systems in our home. This is because the cold temperature can cause expensive leaks and pipe damage.In my line of work as a plumbing professional, it is my pleasure to share these tips to help you winterize plumbing appliances outside and inside your home.After reading this content, you should know how to maintain a functional plumbing in your home in the winter.

how to winterize your interior plumbing

Below are some helpful tips for protecting plumbing systems within your home from winter damage:

Turn off the main water valve:

Check and turn off the main water valve either in your utility room, baseline area or crawl space. When you turn your main water supply and faucets, you can properly drain the appliances.If your home has two or more floors, ensure you begin draining from the base level. However, if your home has just one level, then start from the nearest tap to the main water valve.

Change Your water heater settings

Next, make changes to your water heater setting. You can either reduce the water heater to the barest minimum or set it to "vacation mode". This will help you reduce the likelihood of tank freezing. And by doing this, there would be no need to reignite the gas pilot when you get back from your trip.

Flush your toilet and apply anti freeze

When you are done with shutting off the water and draining the plumbing system, the next step is to drain excess water from I recommend You can achieve this by flushing the toilets.Furthermore, I suggest you apply a nontoxic antifreeze solution to your toilet bowl. This way you will avoid deterioration and decaying in the flapper and seals. It will also help in lubricating those plumbing components.

Prepare drains with antifreeze

Apply antifreeze to the drainage point in your bathroom unit, tub, floor space, and sink. This way, you will safeguard your trap seals from freezing. This tip will also effectively reduce the likelihood of a situation where water retained in the trap is freezed.

Maintain heat and air circulation

In order to prevent freezing temperature from damaging your pipe, I recommend setting your thermostat to a minimum of 55°F. Furthermore, it'd be best to get a qualified heating and gas expert to inspect and fix your heating system to keep it running at its best. Also, it's also a good idea to leave the cabinet doors underneath your kitchen and bathroom sink open to let warm air to access the pipes.

Cover exposed pipes with insulating material

By insulating your pipes with sheaths or wraps, you can safeguard your pipes in exposed areas. This helps protect your plumbing appliance against cold temperatures.

Seal off the garage

Another important tip is to close your garage door. This way, you can limit cold air from gettung to the plumbing appliances on nearby wall. You can also seal the gaps in the bottom of the garage door with PVC or silicone strip for a more effective thermal insulation from freezing temperature.

Conclusion

To prevent your pipe from getting damaged from freezing, you have winterize your property. With the tips in this article, you can safeguard your plumbing and avoid costly repair and issues.