Cold Weather Plumbing Tips from Our Local Pros
Cold Weather Plumbing Tips:
1: Keep Water Moving: Leave faucets running, not just dripping. The stream should be about the size of the end of a ball point pen. Make sure to leave hot and cold both running. If you have single handle shower or tub faucets on an exterior wall, periodically run them just to keep water moving in that line. Leave cabinet doors open to allow warm air to get to water lines inside those cabinets.
2: Watch Exterior Walls: Pay close attention to any plumbing fixtures that have pipes on an exterior north and northwest wall as those tend to be the first to freeze.
3: No Water Flow? Warm the Area: If a plumbing fixture stops working and no water comes through it, put a heater near the area and try to warm the room.
4: Check Your Washing Machine Drain: Check the drain to your washing machine and make sure it's not frozen before running a load of laundry. If you can pour 2 gallons of water down that drain without it overflowing, then it's probably ok.
Note: there is a p-trap in the wall on your laundry drain that always holds water and it sometimes freezes.
5: Know Where Your Water Shut-Off Is: If you have a busted pipes that thaws and water starts to spew, you need to know where your water shut off is. Some houses have a valve in the house but most, the meter is where you shut off the water. Locating and knowing how to turn off the meter can be the difference in a small repair bill and a remodeling job. (If you already know where your meter is and how to turn it off, skip to the next section)
The meter in the little rock metro area is most often found at the property line between houses. It has a cast iron lid about 16" in diameter. Some meter boxes are concrete rectangles with a small rectangle metal access lid in the middle. In some parts of NLR the meter is in the middle of the front yard between the property lines. All meters are usually located 2'-3' from the curb in any of those locations. If you're located in the older parts of Conway, good luck because the meters are more or less in the middle of the front yard in random places it seems. Lol The shut-off valve on the meter is either on top of the pipe closest to the street, or down on the side of that same pipe. You can use a piece of metal rod or metal pipe to probe the snow to locate the meter lid or a metal detector if you have one.
6: If Water Must Be Shut Off: If you have to turn your water off, you will probably be out of water for a number of days until repairs can be made. Meanwhile, you can fill your big pots with fresh, clean snow and boil. Once this water has boiled, you can use it for drinking water and cooking, baths etc. You can merely melt the snow and use it to flush toilets. You can either dump the whole bucket of water right in the bowl to flush it or you can fill the tank. Either way will work.
7: Laundry Rooms Without Heat: If you have freezing issues in a laundry room and have no heat such as a carport laundry room, I saw someone say that they took the vent off their dryer and just ran the dryer empty to warm the room. I would caution that if it's gas, it probably would put off carbon monoxide so I would strongly advise not to do it with a gas unit, only electric dryers.
Do not do this with a gas dryer, it can produce dangerous carbon monoxide. Also, do not vent moist air into the room while drying clothes, as it causes condensation and moisture buildup.
8: Gas Stoves Are Not Heaters: Do not use these for heat if your power goes out. While tempting, these stoves do produce carbon monoxide and could be dangerous to use as heaters
