Frozen pipes are truly one of the worst parts of the winter season. And if the calls coming into the Stewart Plumbing offices the past couple weeks are any indication, a lot of folks in the area have had to deal with them.

Not only do frozen pipes strand your home without working plumbing or access to running water, in some cases frozen pipes can burst! And when they do burst, you could find yourself facing in-home flooding, serious water damage and mold/mildew growth. Getting burst pipes fixed can be costly, so it’s always the smart move to ‘winter-proof’ them before they ever have the chance to freeze.

One cheap and fast way to fix your pipes if they do partially freeze is to simply run warm water through your pipes, even if it’s just at a slow trickle. This can do a lot in terms of preventing a full freeze of your pipes by thawing out interior and exterior ice accumulation.

If your pipes do become fully frozen, try exposing as much of them as possible. This might mean opening kitchen cupboards or a bathroom vanity and exposing those pipes to the warm air circulating inside your house. In many cases, if the freeze isn’t too bad, the house’s normal warmth may be enough to return the pipes to working order.

Stewart Plumbing trucks are stocked with some specialized tools that can be used to fix frozen pipes. One such option is a wrap that goes around the pipe itself and provides adequate insulation or indirect heat to the pipe so that it doesn’t succumb to freezing. For deeper, more severe freezes, we may need to remove sections of the pipe, especially the traps, to gain access further into your plumbing.

Don’t let winter weather get the best of you! Let Stewart Plumbing handle all your frozen pipe issues this winter!