Wintertime can bring along with it the potential for damage to your home. This holds especially true if you live in a region of California that experiences temperatures that drop below freezing. Fortunately, there are many things you can do as a homeowner to prepare your plumbing system for the upcoming winter season.
Repair Leaks
One of the best things to start with is getting any known leaks repaired. When your plumbing fixtures develop small leaks over time, it can be easy to let them go until they turn into much larger issues. Unfortunately, you don’t want to experience those larger issues during the cold winter season. Aim to repair any leakage that you notice to ensure that your home is properly prepared to take on the winter season.
Insulate Your Pipes
One of the best ways to help prevent your pipes from freezing is by adding insulation to them. There are many different types of insulation, and Styrofoam sleeves are one of the most common. These allow you to simply slide over the pipe to help maintain its temperature and prevent cold air from freezing the pipe. While insulating your cold water supply lines is necessary to help prevent freezing, you can also benefit from insulating your hot water lines. This insulation will help to better maintain the temperature of the hot water so that it experiences much less of a temperature drop on its way to your plumbing fixtures.
Service Your Water Heater
Your water heater is going to be in high demand throughout the winter season. It’s a good idea to have a plumbing professional perform service on it before the cold weather sets in. This service will include options like flushing the system and checking the pressure relief valve. You may opt for setting the thermostat a bit higher during the winter months to help ensure that the hot water coming out of your faucet is comfortable.
Just like with your piping, you should also be insulating your water heater. An uninsulated water heater can allow heat to dissipate into the cold air that surrounds it. An insulating jacket helps to retain heat inside of your water heater so it has to run less often to maintain hot water for your home.
Shut Off Water to Unheated Areas
As part of your maintenance checklist, you’ll want to ensure that you turn off the water supply to any locations that aren’t heated. These include areas like your garage and the outside of your home. For example, if you have a hose bibb outside, you’ll want to disconnect your hose. Head inside to shut off the water supply going to that bibb, and make sure to drain the water from the line. Many water shut-off valves in locations like this will have a bleeder that will let you drain the remaining water from the line so that it’s completely clear.
Use Heating Cables Where Necessary
If you have unheated areas where you still need to be able to run water during the winter months, it’s highly recommended that you invest in a heating cable. This is a cable that gets wrapped around the pipe and connects to a thermostat. When temperatures start to near 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the thermostat will kick on the heating cable and will warm up the piping to prevent it from freezing. These heat cables run on electricity and can be a great solution to help ensure that pipes don’t freeze in unheated areas.
Open Doors
If a particular cold spell is coming into your area, it can be helpful to take some extra precautions to prevent any freezing from happening. Opt for opening up cabinet and vanity doors to allow hot air to circulate around your water supply lines. These locations are particularly susceptible to freezing during cold temperatures because warm air typically doesn’t reach these areas when the doors are closed.
Test All Your Shut-Off Valves
Throughout your entire plumbing system, you will find multiple shut-off valves. The most common are the main water shut-off, valves underneath your sinks, valves by your showers, and valves leading to outdoor plumbing fixtures. Now is the perfect time to test all of your shut-off valves to ensure that they’re working correctly. To thoroughly test a valve, you’ll need to turn it to the off position, which is perpendicular to the pipe. Then, you’ll need to turn on a plumbing fixture further down that line, such as your sink, to drain the remaining water and verify that the water supply stops. You don’t want to wait until you experience a plumbing leak to find out that your shut-off valve isn’t working correctly.
Invest in Drain Cleaning Service
Over time, all the wastewater that goes through your septic system can start to accumulate clogs. If you happen to put items like grease, fats, oils, coffee grounds, eggshells, and other similar items down your drains, you’re likely to experience more clogs. Since no one likes dealing with a plumbing backup or drainage issue, it only makes sense to do some preventative maintenance on your sewer line. Before the winter season hits, have one of our plumbing professionals come and perform drain cleaning service. This will remove any buildup debris inside your sewer line and drastically reduce your risk of experiencing a clog in the near future.
Get a Plumbing Inspection
Just like you get annual service for your heating system, you should be doing the same thing for your plumbing system. Have a professional look over your entire plumbing system to identify any potential problems so that you can have them repaired before the cold winter weather sets in.
Consider Septic Tank Pumping
If you live in a rural area of California that doesn’t have access to a municipal sewage system, then you likely rely on a septic tank for disposing of your wastewater. Fall is the perfect time of year to have your septic tank pumped by a professional. Most septic tank professionals recommend having your tank pumped every two to five years to prevent an overflow of your tank.
Test Your Sump Pump
If you live in a low-lying region that is susceptible to flooding, then it’s best to invest in a sump pump to help protect the structural integrity of your home. To ensure that your sump pump is operational, it’s best to test it out before the winter season. You can easily do this by adding some water to the sump pump pit. Once the water level gets as high as the set threshold, your sump pump should kick on and start removing that excess water from your home.
Reliable Plumbing Maintenance Service
Bill Metzger Plumbing offers reliable plumbing maintenance service for the San Clemente, CA area. We can also help with all your drain, sewer, water heater, gas line, emergency repair, plumbing installation, commercial, sump pump, water treatment, and slab leak detection needs. Call our office today to book a service call with one of our knowledgeable plumbing professionals.
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