WASHINGTON — When it gets bitter cold, plumbers are busy dealing with frozen water pipes and the repairs can be costly. But there are some precautions that homeowners can take to keep pipes from freezing.
If your kitchen or bathroom pipes are on an outside wall of the house, open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow the room’s warm air to circulate around the plumbing. Remember to remove harmful cleaning chemicals from the reach of any small children.
The American Red Cross offers other helpful hints. If there are water supply lines in the garage, keep the garage doors closed.
Many homeowners lower the home’s thermostat at night. In the extreme cold, for the sake of the pipes, the thermostat could be kept at the same setting night and day.
Also, letting cold water drip from a faucet, even a trickle, will help faucets from freezing.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission recommends tightly closing all doors and windows and sealing leaks in crawl spaces and basements.
If a pipe breaks inside your home, shut off the main water line into the home and call a plumber.
