Pipes frozen? Here’s what you should do now

To prevent frozen pipes, keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines in the garage.

“Crazy, insane busy, not only with frozen pipes but leaky boilers and leaky water heaters and such”, he said.

“This expansion puts tremendous pressure on whatever is containing it (the water), including metal or plastic pipes”, the site reads. When temperatures in southern climates dip below 20 degrees, pipes can freeze and burst.

While these might seem silly, or annoying, they are much better than the alternative. The cost of a short-term trickle is much less costly than a fix of a burst pipe.

Spending less than a dollar extra on your monthly water bill seems like a fair investment compared to repairing thousands of dollars of damage.

Leave a pencil-lead-thin stream of water flowing from an outside and inside faucet.

Know where and how to shut off your water from the main shut-off valve. Allowing cold water to trickle from faucets during extremely cold weather is helpful, too.

“We want to especially avoid any sprinklers from spraying onto city streets, which could ice over during the freezing temperatures and potentially cause vehicular accidents”, said Traffic Manager Larry Ogden.

Broken pipes have already had a significant impact in SC. In emergencies, use the house-side service valve to shut off your water supply, they say. “The Philadelphia Water Department is not responsible for your pipes, even if they are outside of your home”, they say. That depends, but in southern states and other areas where freezing weather is the exception rather than the rule (and where houses often do not provide adequate built-in protection), the temperature alert threshold is 20°F.

Do not forget to keep a full charge on your cell phone and mobile devices so that they can be used during an emergency. When water freezes, it expands.

“Normally around here, you can open it go to work and by the time you get home it’s above freezing”.

Another concern of the winter weather is power failures due to ice or snow storms.

The city is only legally responsible for frozen water services lines on public property – the section of water line from the underground main pipe to your private property.

Smith says if you have frozen pipes you can take some steps, such as turning on water faucets, not full force but just allow them to drip to help thaw out the pipes.

If you can shut off the flow of water to outdoor faucets or even drain the water from them, that is also a good way to limit the amount of pipe that can freeze.

Keep alternative heating sources prepared.

A quick and effective method to thaw pipes is to use a hair dryer, but it can also pose some risks.