With consistent freezing temperatures comes the potential for frozen pipes. While there are ways to help prevent frozen pipes, they are not a 100 percent guarantee. Consequently, you may have to thaw pipes at some point. To ensure you thaw them properly, following a specific process is critical to your success. To help, we’ve put together a few tips to get you started:
Step One: Find the Frozen Pipe
It can feel a bit like a game of hide and seek, but in order to thaw the pipes, you have to locate the frozen ones. The easiest way to do this is to turn on each faucet in your home separately. If no water runs from the faucet, or if it’s just a slight trickle, one of the pipes feeding into that faucet is frozen.
If the frozen pipe is in an exposed area such as in your basement or under your sink, you can easily access these pipes to begin thawing them. If the frozen pipes are behind a wall, your options are more limited. (We will discuss them in a later post.)
Step Two: Open the Correlating Faucet
Once you have determined the location of the frozen pipe, you’ll need to open the faucets (both hot and cold) that feed that pipe slowly. Doing this will help to release the pressure in the pipe and allow the water to flow freely once the thawing begins.
Step Three: Determine Where to Begin Thawing the Pipe
To thaw the pipe safely, begin the thawing process close to the faucet. This way, as the ice melts, it will relieve the pressure and the water and steam can vent through the faucet. If you begin thawing closer to the blockage, the water can become stuck behind it, creating more pressure and increasing the likelihood of a burst pipe.
Now you’re ready to complete the thawing process. In the next post, we will guide you through that process.
###
Have more questions? Call us—we’d love to help! Call the professionals at Go Green Plumbing at 336-252-2999 for service 7 days a week/24 hours a day. If water runs through it – We Do It!
