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Until recently, not many people knew what a Polar Vortex is, but with one bearing down on the northern U.S. and Minnesota over the next few days, everybody’s talking about it. As it brings record-breaking cold over several days, here’s what you need to know to keep your pipes from freezing and causing water damage.
Preparation is key! Cut some blocks out of foam insulation to block off foundation vents leading to crawl spaces and know where your water shutoff is located in case a pipe breaks. Another item homeowners should have on hand is a temporary patch kit (sold at home centers) to seal off burst pipes as they wait for favorable weather to make a permanent repair or to hire a plumber to sweat in a new length of pipe. Above all, find out which local plumbers are equipped and ready to handle frozen pipes. Know who to call in the event of a frozen pipe, and who to call if your home suffers water damage.
If you live in an old house built over an uninsulated crawl space, this isn’t the time to worry about your heating bill. Turning up your thermostat will increase the air temperature in the crawlspace by projecting heat energy through the floor into the space and prevent frozen pipes. Plan on insulating and air sealing the space.
Take a ride to the nearest home center and pick up a package or two of unfaced fiberglass insulation. While you’re there, get a set of heavy duty disposable coveralls, a dust mask, work gloves and a package of fresh utility knife blades. Don the protective work wear, load the fresh blades in the knife and assess your insulation needs in the attic, crawl space or other out-of-the-way place installing insulation over poorly-protected pipes. This is one scenario where neatness doesn’t count, just get the insulation where it needs to go.
Got a really big area to protect? Keep the heat in with a rough-and-ready barrier built with foam board. Faced or unfaced foam board will work, especially if this is a temporary set up. If you’ve never worked with foam board, it’s easy to cut. Mark its surface with a carpenter’s pencil or a Sharpie pen. Score to the depth of a utility knife (if need be, score it from both sides) and snap it on the line. Hold it to wood framing with 1-1/4-in or 1-5/8-in. coarse-thread drywall screws.
Install a heat trace cable to keep a cold pipe from freezing. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on the packaging for how to do this. Some heat tapes are wrapped around the pipe, others simply run along it. If you can’t find heat trace cable at your local home center, try an electrical supply house. Sometimes this cable is cut to length from a roll, in which case you may have to buy a kit (or separate parts) to convert into a working heat trace cable. In other cases, the cable is sold ready to use, with one end safely terminated and insulated and the other end with an electrical plug.
You can keep unprotected pipes above freezing by simply placing an electric heater near them. Remember, the goal is not to make the space toasty warm and comfortable. It’s to keep the water in the pipe above freezing and preventing burst pipes.
In the worst case, turn off the main water valve while the house is unoccupied or while you sleep. If a pipe freezes and breaks, the spillage is limited only to the water in the pipe.
It’s not unusual for plumbing running to a kitchen sink on an exterior wall to be extremely vulnerable because the wall is not insulated. Open the cabinet doors along that wall to project heat into the space. Place an electric heater in front of the cabinets for an extra measure of cold protection.
“24Restore came within an hour of our water damage to assess the problem and restore and reconstruct our kitchen and my office. Everyone from 24Restore was professional, kind and did an outstanding job of damage assessment and restoration.”
Your service was excellent. The young man was thorough and very dedicated to completing the job. He’s a good one. I would recommend your services to anyone who need them.
Your team has been absolutely amazing, professional, sympathetic and wonderful. They took my mess and made it manageable as I shed a few tears, which they also consoled with empathy. At a time when we have floods and tornados city wide you responded within hours. Thank, I am impressed and I have passed the word on to many.
Very good experience……everyone I dealt with through 24 Restore was very professional and very kind.
This note is a note of thanks and appreciation of the services provided…..we could even say our home looks better than before we incurred our water damage…Job well done!
I don’t often take the time to write a follow up complimentary letter. However I was very impressed with 24 Restore and felt they went above and beyond to surpass expectations with WOW service. Thank you for the great service and great job that your team did to get my house back in shape.
I have recommended them to many of my friends. They are the only service that I have ever used that always gets my stains out and that clean my carpets beautifully. I can’t say enough good thins about them
Thank you for all the work put in to get out home……It would have been an impossible task for us to have accomplished in such a short time. We appreciate all that you have done for us! We are so grateful!
Yes. I appreciated the ability to funnel all activities thru a one-stop shop proved to be very valuable in a disaster project such as ours demo, construction and finish as well as work directly with insurance company. The team has been professional and those on site have been respectful of our home and schedule.
Alex did a great job scheduling, coordinating, and keeping me informed. He made sure that everything was done in a timely manner. I always felt that my job was a priority. All the workmen did a great job and were very polite. I am pleased with the results. I would highly recommend your company!
From the time of initial contact to the time of job completion was 24 hrs. Very pleased with job outcome. Will definitely use you again. If ever in need.
Response time was awesome. We we’re bewildered by what was happening and what needed to be done. 24hr came in and took care of what needed to be done.
I thought 24 was very professional and timely work.
24Restore was very responsive and did a thorough job plus they cleaned up after themselves.
The job was exceptionally well done. You were recommended to me by Dennis Carlson, a freind and I would definatley refer 24restore to friends and family.
Very Professional!
Everyone was on top of everything and got back to me in a reasonable time. Clean up was done absolutely perfect at the end of each job.
The guys who worked here were great, polite, personable and hard workers. They did a great job! So thankful this is over!
Working with the employees at 24restore has been an easy process. They aimed to please.
Kudos to Shelli Abraham especially, she worked with the mortgage company and insurance company so I didn’t have to, I’m a caregiver for my husband with Dementia, she took the pressure off having to deal with them, thanks Shelli.
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