Protect Outdoor Pipes in Winter

Well, Winter 2020 is official here in North Vancouver. We often have a lot of people renting our storage units because a pipe burst in their home and need a place to store some items while dealing with the aftermath. So we have decided to send out a little PSA about protecting your outdoor pipes.

How to Protect Outdoor Pipes

Seal Cracks

Go around your house and start inspecting the areas around your pipes. Specifically where they come out of the wall, if you notice any cracking around the area, it needs to be sealed. Grab some spray foam insulation and fill those cracks. Having cracks allows air to reach the piping behind the wall and freeze it.

Drip

Most people know that dripping your pipes is the best way to prevent freezing. By keeping the faucets slightly open during especially cold days will allow the continuous flow of water. It’s much harder to freeze running water than still. Always make sure to close the faucets when the weather warms up, not cool to waste water.

Insulate Pipes

Any outdoor pipes that are exposed need to be insulated. Head to your local hardware store and grab some foam pipe insulation. Next, go around your home and put this on any and all uncovered pipes. You should also be doing this for the interior of your home as well. Especially inside the crawl space, all pipes need to be covered.

Allow Air Flow

This is more for interior pipes than outdoor pipes, but by keeping your cabinets open, it will help the warm air in the home to reach the pipes behind them. This is useful for those especially cold days. If you are leaving on vacation during the winter, make sure to leave some cabinets open just in case.

Avoid disaster and make sure your pipes are winterized.