Avoid frozen water pipes with helpful tips

Xtreme Air Services is an expert, licensed Air Conditioning Contractor and also can take care of every one of your issues concerning repair, replacement, tune-ups, and preventative maintenance. Our accredited air conditioner technicians are extremely experienced regarding all makes and also designs and can help you with all of the brand-new innovative air conditioning modern technology, and if you have older designs in your home they can offer you instructions on what you can do to aid with energy efficiency and updating your system. Our clients in the Mesquite as well as Dallas area guarantee us with over 600 5 star examines! You can check us out on our Google web page, BBB where we are ranked A+, Facebook as well as Yelp to see a number of great evaluations on our company as well as our pleasant staff! We value honesty, sincerity, and also a work well done and ensure that when our dispatchers respond to the phone and also our service technicians enter your house they treat you like part of the Xtreme Air Services household! Our goal is to make certain everything looks great and also is performing as anticipated with your system. If we discover any issues, we can deal with them as soon as possible as opposed to waiting for it to trigger you difficulty with our fully equipped vehicles. The capability of an a/c unit is to remove the heat from your residence and circulate it back to the outdoors. Just how this works is through the refrigerant taking the unwanted heat in your house via the evaporator coil, the warm takes a trip with the pipes to the outside device called the condenser coil, and after that ultimately the follower will certainly blow air over the coil and send out the heat outside where it belongs! https://xtremeairservices.com/trane/furnaces/xc80/ https://xtremeairservices.com/trane/furnaces/xb80/ https://xtremeairservices.com/mesquite-ac-repair/

As temperatures soar into the 50s this weekend, many in Somerset County and the region are still grappling with sanitation problems caused by last week’s deep cold.

Frozen pipes caused flooding at Coleman Towers Apartments, the Richland School District, Johnstown Galleria Mall, Kings Family Restaurant and hundreds of homes in the area.

And first responders were busy Tuesday night and Wednesday morning when water mains burst in Somerset and Conemaugh Township.

Many residents have been forced from their homes and businesses closed to deal with the chaos caused by the deep freeze and thaw this holiday season.

Here are some expert tips on how to protect your pipes from future plummeting temperatures during the winter months.

How to prevent your pipes from freezing

Jonathon King, vice president of insurance sales, AAA East Central, said proper prevention can keep homeowners from piling up costly repairs.

“As winter begins, homeowners and renters should be proactive in ensuring their residence is cold-weather ready,” King said. “By taking steps to ensure the inside and outside of a home is prepared for cold temperatures, high repair costs and headaches can be avoided.”

• Find out where water shut-off valves are located so the water can be turned off in an emergency.
• Allow the taps to drip a little to prevent the pipes from freezing.
• Remove hoses from outside taps.
• Repair or replace seals on windows, doors, vents and fans, plumbing, air conditioning, and power and gas lines.
• Use caulk or insulation to seal any cracks, holes, and other openings in exterior walls.
• Well-insulated basements and crawl spaces help protect the pipes. Close foundation openings and windows to basements. Wrap pipes at risk with pipe insulation.
• The air in the walls where there are pipes can be much colder than the air in the room. Therefore, set the thermostat to an appropriate temperature even when nobody is at home.
• Keep bathroom and kitchen cabinet doors open to allow warm air to circulate around the pipes.
• Close flue dampers on wood-burning fireplaces when not in use. Follow all manufacturer’s instructions for gas fireplaces, including those with a pilot light.

What to do if pipes freeze

• If you turn on your faucets and nothing comes out, leave the faucets on and call a plumber.
• Avoid using flames to thaw pipes. Never attempt to thaw a pipe with a torch or other open flame as this could create a fire hazard.
• Shut off the water supply. If your plumbing has already burst, turn off the water at the main faucet in the house. Make sure everyone in your family knows where the water shut-off valve is and how to open and close it.

insurance tips

In 2022, State Farm paid more than $181 million for nearly 9,000 frozen pipe damage claims, with average claims exceeding $20,000.

Texas was the #1 state for these losses with a claims cost of $64 million. New York followed with $17 million, Illinois with $10.8 million and Michigan with $7.2 million. Pennsylvania ranked eighth for frozen pipe-related insurance claims in 2022 with $5.7 million.

A 1/8-inch tear in a pipe can squirt more than 250 gallons of water per day and ruin floors, carpets, furniture and irreplaceable personal items.

According to State Farm, most storm damage is covered by home insurance, but there are exclusions.

Flash floods caused by a sudden rise in temperature and snowmelt during the winter months can cause significant damage and are not covered by standard household insurance, but flood insurance can be purchased separately.

“Most damage not covered by insurance is due to homeowner neglect or lack of maintenance. This can include damage caused by extreme cold because heat is not maintained indoors,” said Dave Phillips, State Farm’s public affairs specialist.

“If a roof collapses or is damaged by the weight of snow or ice from a storm, standard home insurance can cover the damage.

“Another threat to homes in the winter season is cold snaps. Water standing in pipes when the temperature drops can expand so much that it ruptures, causing serious water damage if the problem isn’t identified immediately.

“Damage from burst pipes, as well as the cost of repairs, is covered by most standard home insurance policies as long as regular maintenance is carried out and homeowners keep heat in the building.”

With the necessary precautions, making an insurance claim can sometimes be avoided. Pruning trees, shutting off water, draining pipes, and cleaning gutters can all help protect property from wintry weather hazards.

The post Avoid frozen water pipes with helpful tips first appeared on Best Plumbers News.

via Xtreme Air Service https://bestplumbersnews.com/?p=26249

from XTREME AIR SERVICES - Blog https://xtreme-air-services.weebly.com/blog/avoid-frozen-water-pipes-with-helpful-tips
via IFTTT