HELENA – Winter weather has caused many residents to deal with the inconvenience of frozen pipes.
The “danger zone” for pipes to freeze is between 20 and 0 degrees.
Temperatures can quickly shift leaving frozen water in pipelines that will then suddenly warm up, resulting in potential flooding.
There are ways to take precaution including closing all doors and windows and keeping a sink low-running – leaving the faucet open to keep water flowing.
Doug Dronen, service manager at Big Sky Heating and Plumbing, said, “Being just a little bit preemptive on looking at your house and making sure that things are closed up can prevent a lot of problems.”
A primary key to keeping your pipes flowing is being conscientiousness of rapid weather changes.
Dronen continued, “80 percent of our freeze-ups are kind of common sense situations. If people take the time to look around and know that the cold weather is coming in and do some checking what’s around the house and what’s going on, they can prevent a lot of their freeze-ups.”
The American Red Cross has information about how to prevent your pipes from freezing: Remove, drain and store indoors any hoses used outside. Open kitchen and bathroom cabinets to let the heat form around inner plumbing, add insulation to basements, floor boards and any open crawl spaces.
For more information, visit here.
-Reported by Christine Sullivan/MTN News
