How to Winterize Your Home
Each winter, many homeowners face the expense and inconvenience of frozen water pipes. To avoid inconveniences and repair costs, please follow the simple precautions below:
Inside Your Home:
• Insulate pipes or faucets in unheated areas. If you have water pipesin an unheated garage or crawl space under the house, wrap them before temperatures plummet. Hardware or building supply stores offer appropriate pipe wrapping materials.
• Seal off access doors, air vents and cracks. Repair broken basement windows. Cold winter winds whistling through overlooked openings can quickly freeze exposed water pipes. But, avoid plugging air vents that your furnace or water heater needs for safe operation.
• Know the location of your master water shutoff valve. In many homes it's where the water line comes into your house from the street. If a pipe bursts anywhere in the house – kitchen, bath, basement or crawl space – this valve turns off all water and will save your home from damage. So, find it now and paint it a bright color or hang a tag on it. Be sure everyone in the family knows where it is and what it does.
Outside Your Home:
• Shut off and drain your irrigation system. This may seem obvious, but sometimes people assume that their landscaper or lawn maintenance company has done it for them. This task only takes a few minutes and can save you hundreds of dollars in repair costs and water bills.
• Disconnect and drain outdoor hoses. Disconnecting hoses from the faucet allows water to drain from the pipe. Otherwise, the ice formed from a single, hard overnight freeze can burst either the pipe or faucet.
• There should be an insulation blanket inside the water meter box on top of the meter. If the blanket is missing, call us at 834-8080, option 2, and the blanket will be replaced; otherwise, the water meter may freeze in extremely cold weather. Please do not replace this specially designed blanket with any other insulation, as this may cause a health hazard. Another type of insulation also may not be able to withstand water and other conditions present within the meter box.
In the event of a broken pipe, TMWA's emergency answering service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 834-8090. A serviceman will be dispatched to perform an emergency shut off of your water service. There is a cost of $25 during business hours and $50 afterhours. In addition, always have your plumber's telephone number handy just in case there is a broken or frozen pipe. The main point is to be prepared before the cold weather sets in. This could save you a lot of unwanted surprises!
