KENT, Wash. — As much of Puget Sound experiences freezing temperatures this week, experts are warning you to prepare your pipes.
Frozen pipes can lead to burst pipes, which can cause flooding and become a costly cleanup.
“It’s very common,” said John Alisker, a sewer and drain technician with Roto-Rooter. “Especially if the homes have no insulation under their crawl spaces on their pipes, it will be very easy for those pipes to get frozen and bust.”
You can have bigger problems if the pipes that burst are carrying sewage.
“The black mold and mildew starts growing within 24 to 48 hours,” Alisker said.
If a pipe doesn’t have any walls or insulation, it can get frozen at 25 degrees, Alisker said.
Before pipes freeze, you can protect your plumbing systems.
Roto-Rooter recommends disconnecting outdoor water hoses, turning off water supply to outdoor spigots and opening the outdoor spigots to drain water from the pipes.
Place Styrofoam insulation covers on outdoor faucets and cover exposed water pipes with insulation sleeves.
If your washing machine is in a garage or otherwise unheated area, shut off the water supply that is leading into the appliance.
Indoors, leave bathroom and kitchen cabinet doors open to encourage heat to flow near plumbing systems.
Leave a trickle of hot and cold water running from sink and bathtub spouts too.
You can also wrap thermostat-controlled heat cables around the most vulnerable water supply pipes.
If your pipe is frozen, partially open indoor faucets to reduce the pressure inside. Then, you can carefully thaw the frozen section of the pipe by using a space heater or hair dryer. Do not use any device with an open flame.