Keeping Your Bathroom and Kitchen Faucets From Freezing This Winter

In this new year of 2010, we have had some pretty crazy weather across the country.  Here in the southeast we have gotten more than our fair share of freezing rain and that white stuff on the ground which I have seen before, but it has been a while.  I'm not exactly sure what you call it ,but it looks real pretty.  In the month of January, the southeast had a cold front hovering over it, pushing cold air from the north down here to us in the south, that would just not go away.  Hopefully not to many peoples pipes froze during the cold winter month.  Today, I want to go over a few ways that you can keep your kitchen faucet and bathroom  faucets from freezing over.

Before the winter freeze hits your town, wrapping some kind of insulation around exposed pipes in unheated areas is always a good idea.  Pretty much anything can be used like rags, newspaper, trash bags, or even foam.  Putting the foam or some rags around your water meter keeps the cold from getting to your water since it is probably the only pipe directly exposed to the elements.  Drain and store water hoses indoors or in the garage.  If you have a swimming pool, you can keep your pump motor running, but that will use a lot of electricity so you might want to keep that off, but you need to make sure it is nice and warm outside before turning it back on or it could get quite expensive.

The best advice I can give you about keeping your pipes from freezing while you are out of town is to turn off the water at the shut-off valve under the sink while leaving your faucets running.  This will drain the pipes and you can keep your mind at ease knowing it is very unlikely your pipes burst.