Winter in Brunswick, ME can wreak havoc on plumbing systems. When the mercury plummets, hose bibs and exposed, uninsulated pipes can freeze. With temperatures dipping well below freezing, homeowners who don’t prepare can contend with significant property damage. Fortunately, you can avoid burst pipes, water leaks, and more with the tips that follow. Check out our fall guide for priming plumbing systems for the region’s first frost.
Disconnect Your Hoses and Drain Them
Trapped water in outdoor hoses and faucets can freeze and expand. This could damage your hoses, your hose bibs, and the connecting water supply lines. Before the first frost arrives, unscrew your hoses and let all residual water run out. You can store your hoses in your shed, basement, or garage to protect them from freeze and thaw cycles and other weather-related damage.
Turn Your Outdoor Faucets Off
Turn off the water supply to your outdoor faucets and open their taps. This will drain all residual water out to prevent freezing and expansion. You’ll likely find the main shutoff valve for all outdoor taps in your crawlspace, your basement, or near the main shutoff valve for the entire building. If you’re unsure how to turn your outdoor faucets off, give us a call.
Protect Your Outdoor Faucets
Install hose bib covers to prevent corrosion, freezing, and expansion-related damage. Hose bib covers provide the additional benefit of slowing heat loss from your home. This will help you maintain manageable home energy bills throughout winter while enjoying comfortable conditions indoors.
Winterize Your Landscape Irrigation System
If you have an in-ground sprinkler system, turn its water supply off as well. You should also drain your irrigation system. Follow your irrigation system installer’s or manufacturer’s instructions for winterization. Given the exceedingly cold conditions of Brunswick’s winters, you may need to blow your sprinkler lines out to ensure that no residual moisture remains.
Insulate Exposed Pipes
Make sure that all exposed pipes at the exterior of your home have adequate insulation. You should also insulate exposed pipes in vulnerable areas in the interior of the building, including in your:
- Attic
- Basement
- Attached garage
- Crawlspaces
- Under-sink cabinets
Find Your Home’s Main Water Valve
Find your home’s main water shut-off valve and practice using it. This way, if a pipe does rupture, you’ll know how to shut the inflow of fresh water off. Locating and testing this valve will also ensure that it isn’t stuck in place or too difficult to use when you need it.
Maintain a Comfortable Temperature Indoors
Among the best ways to protect your pipes from freezing is maintaining a safe, comfortable temperature indoors. Keep your thermostat set to 55 degrees Fahrenheit or higher during the winter months. This is especially important to do when you go out of town.
If you do leave town before the first frost arrives, open the doors to all under-sink cabinets. This way, heat from your HVAC system can move into these spaces. When paired with adequate pipe insulation, open cabinet doors will keep exposed, under-sink pipes warm enough to prevent freezing.
Tighten Your Home’s Envelope
Keep more of the heated air that your HVAC system produces trapped inside by tightening your home’s envelope. Install weatherstripping around your windows and doors, add more insulation, and seal up small cracks and gaps in building materials. These measures will give you greater peace of mind if you’re away from home when the first frost arrives.
Weatherstrip Your Garage Door
In winter, garage doors can be a significant source of heat loss. If you have exposed pipes in your garage, add weatherstripping and insulation to your garage door.
Clean Your Gutters
Make sure that your gutters and downspouts are clean. This will prevent ice dams at your roof’s edge and help your rooftop drainage route water away from the building. With warmer exterior walls and a dry foundation, pipes in low-lying areas will stay warmer.
Schedule a Fall Plumbing Inspection
Schedule a whole-house plumbing inspection in the fall to check for leaky pipes, slow and hidden leaks, damaged hose bibs, and faulty shut-off valves. Finding and fixing problems before winter will keep them from escalating when the temperature plummets. The first frost typically arrives in Brunswick during the second or third week of October, so schedule accordingly.
Dog House provides comprehensive plumbing services in Brunswick and the surrounding communities. As a company with a Master Plumber, we’ve proudly served the region since 2010. We offer expert pipe repair and replacement services. With ongoing specials, convenient online scheduling, and honest, upfront pricing, we make plumbing maintenance easy.
For help winterizing the plumbing system in your Brunswick home, get in touch with Dog House today.
