7 ON YOUR SIDE teams up with a master plumber to show you how to winterize your home
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — When old man winter's frosty winds blow those freezing temperatures can cause devastating effects that hit you where you live.
Now 7 ON YOUR SIDE is about to take you inside the walls of your home and into your pipes to show you what goes wrong when they freeze and burst.
Troubleshooter Horace Holmes met with Kabir Shafik, master plumber and owner of All Plumbing in Arlington, Virginia, and he demonstrated what happens when pipes freeze by filling sections of typical types of pipes that run through homes with water in the video above.
"These two pipes are in the newer homes including the copper here and this is called galvanized steel," said Shafik.
Now, Holmes always thought all you had to do to winterize your pipes so they wouldn't freeze and burst was to turn off the main water source that runs water outside. Well, he was wrong because even when you flip the shutoff valve there's water that is trapped in the pipe.
A look inside a frozen pipe shows you what happens if the water is not drained and the temperatures dip below freezing—that water turns to ice.
Tips on how to winterize your home:
- Remove garden hoses from outside faucets and then cover them
- Seal holes, cracks, leaks and close vents where water pipes could exist.
- Insulate exposed water lines that you can reach inside your home
- Keep kitchen cabinets open on especially cold days to allow warm air in to heat up pipes behind drywall or under your sink
- Turn on a space heater in a basement utility room for a few hours a day to warm things up
