Preventing frozen pipes from damaging your home this winter

From your outside hose hookup to your furnace filter, there are small but important steps homeowners need to take to make sure their home is winter-ready to protect it from the freeze taw cycle.

Pete the Plumber gets a lot of calls for frozen pipes that have burst — causing headaches for homeowners.

“The number one most import thing: everybody in your house should know where the water shut off is,” Pete explained.

“So, if there’s water spewing out from a frozen pipe, turn that off, it will stop.”

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On top of checking your hot water tank, your furnace and its filter, Pete says some of the worst freezing can happen around your rim joists.

“You can make sure you have lots of insulation in there because when that wind is really blowing and really cold, that is above the ground, and the rim joists have a lot of places to leak.”

Kitchen and bathroom sinks that sit on an outside wall may also need special attention.

“Those are perfect traps for freezing water lines. If you know you have a history of that, or if you think it’s coming, it’s getting cold, just open the cupboard doors and let the air in.”

And if you’ve had freezing pipes in the past, Pete says a trick is to leave a trickle of water running.

“Moving rivers are harder to freeze than stagnant ponds,” he says.

And lastly, remember to take care of outdoor pipes and hoses.

“Make sure the outside lawn services, hose bibs, whatever you call them, are turned off on the inside and then go outside and open them up and drain them.”