How to Prevent Frozen Water Pipes This Winter

There is nothing more frustrating than waking up on a cold winter morning and stepping into the shower to find nothing coming from the tap because your pipes froze overnight. Not only are frozen pipes frustrating, they can cause a lot of damage to your home, and cost a lot of money to fix. With just a few simple steps, you can make sure this doesn't happen to you this winter.

First, insulate the pipes in your crawlspace or attic. There are several ways you can do this, from heat tape to insulation. Just make sure that the product you choose is specifically made for this purpose. You'll also want to use caulk or insulation to seal up any drafts or cold breezes that are blowing in from outside. Even the smallest leak can provide enough cold to freeze a pipe. You may also want to consider using a heat lamp to keep pipes warm. My mother used a heat lamp (that was formerly used to keep baby chickens warm) in our garage for several years to keep water pipes warm where they came out of the ground and into the house. Just a little bit of electricity saved us from spending lots of money on a plumber.

Next, make sure all garden hoses are disconnected, and outdoor taps are turned off. Just after we bought our new home, we forgot to disconnect a garden hose. We had an early cold snap in the fall that froze the water inside the garden hose, and just inside the faucet on the outside of our home. This led to a burst pipe, and we came home to find one of our bedrooms and my home office completely flooded with a couple of inches of water. We ended up remodeling those two rooms about two years ahead of schedule, which worked out in the end, but it was a painful experience. Don't let it happen to you.

Also, keep a tiny bit of water trickling from your faucets during the night when temperatures drop below freezing. My mother did this for years at one of our homes that didn't have a basement. Our pipes never froze during the entire time we owned that house.

With just a little bit of time, you can save yourself a huge headache this winter. Stay warm!