When Your Pipes Freeze, You Need a Quick and Reliable Plumber
In cold climates one of the biggest worries for homeowners in winter is having your pipes freeze. Generally it has to be cold for a long period of time before we get calls about frozen pipes at Mayfield Plumbing. Frozen pipes are definitely a plumbing emergency and can cause quite a lot of damage. Luckily Mayfield Plumbing is the emergency plumber you should call in the Boulder area to get your pipes fixed quickly.
What Causes Frozen Pipes?
Most of the time, frozen pipes occur because of cold air drafts. Either there is a hole to the outside that is bringing in cold air or there’s improper insulation. When our plumbers are exploring the cause most of the time we’re going to find that a cold air draft was the issue. But there are some instances where the plumbing lines of the house were run on the exterior of the building. This is a major problem, water lines should never be on the exterior of a house. It will only lead to repeated issues with freezing pipes.
HELP! My Pipes Froze!
When your pipes freeze it really is time to call an emergency plumber! Usually we get a frantic call, “Water is pouring down from my ceiling!” or “my whole carpet is soaked!”. The first thing the homeowner needs to do is turn off their water main. This will stop the water from flowing into your home, and allow our plumbers time to arrive.
Typically your water main is in your basement, on the side of the house that’s closest to the street. To turn it off, if you have a knife style valve (straight handle) you want to turn it a quarter turn so it’s perpendicular to the pipe. If you have a round handle valve (like on an outdoor spigot), you want to turn it clockwise several times until it’s closed. If you can’t find your water main line, it should be in the “plumbing section” of your inspection report from when you bought the house.
Once our plumber arrives at your home, the first thing we need to determine is where the water is coming from. So we need to know where you first found the water leaking. Then our plumber has to start breaking open the wall or ceiling to find the pipe that burst. This can be startling, but after we’ve found the pipe and repaired it, the drywall can be replaced and it’ll look good as new.
My Pipes Freeze Every Year, What Do I Do?
If you’ve tried all of the classic prevention methods against frozen pipes, like opening cabinet doors to allow warm air under the sink, or dripping both the hot and cold water from your tap. And you are still having issues, this could mean that the way your house was built is causing certain areas to be prone to freezing. This could be because pipes are on the exterior of the house or there isn’t a way to insulate and protect your pipes. The solution is going to be relocating the water lines in your home. Ultimately this will save you money, because paying to get emergency plumbers out every year can really add up! Mayfield Plumbing can move the water lines and give you peace of mind.
When Your Exterior Spigot Freezes
If you forget to put up your outdoor water hose and leave it attached to your exterior spigot, this can cause a split in the water line over winter. What happens is the water in the hose will crawl back up the hose into the waterline. Once it freezes behind the bib it will burst the pipe. You likely won’t notice this until spring and you get out your hose to water, and nothing comes out. Unfortunately the water is still flowing, but it’s spraying into your basement or crawl space! To fix this one of our plumbers will replace your hose bib with a Woodford #19 hose bib. This new and improved option has a relief valve that will prevent it from splitting.
Mayfield Plumbing & Backflow is the emergency plumber you should call when your pipes freeze in or around Boulder County, contact us today at 720-505-0731.