If you live in a place where winters are harsh, you have encountered a broken pipe at least once in your life. Once a pipe freezes over and buses, it will break open and cause major damage problems and flood your home. In order to prevent that from happening, you will need to understand why it happens in the first place.
Because Of Freezing Cold Temperatures
Freezing cold temperatures can cause bad treaty issues then come in contact with your water supply pipes located in your home. If you don’t know, cold temperatures will cause things to shrink. So because ice has more volume than water does, and when it freezes inside of a pipe, it will expand and increase the pressure in that pipe. That pressure that has built up inside the pipe will need to get out somehow so it will burst out of the pipe. Sometimes it will be at the weakest joint in the pipe but that isn’t always the cause it can also burst wherever on the pipe. The easiest way to prevent that from happening is by simply turning on your faucets and creating a slow and steady stream of water so the pressure slowly escapes. Then the water will be moving through the pipes constantly and prevent the pressure from building up and water from freezing over. But the best way to prevent that from happening, you will want to insulate an exposed water supply pipe with something called foam pipe sleeves and by not letting the temperature in your home drop below 55 degrees Fahrenheit if possible. If a pipe does burst, you will need to call plumbing repair services as fast as possible so you have as little damage done to your home.
Because Of the Movement of the Water
Another thing that can make your pipes burst because of the cold simply by water moving inside the pipes. When your pipes are not secured, they will move inside your walls when you turn your water on and off. You have probably heard pipes clanging when you turned your water on and off, and that is called a water hammer. So on top of that, when your pipes freeze over the ice will expand and it will push the water up toward the closed faucet. That will cause a large amount of water pressure to build up in between the faucet and the ice blockage. That will cause your pipe to burst because the pressure has nowhere to escape from. Therefore, that is not a home repair you should put off.
Your Pipes Were Corroded
Once pipes are installed in your home there are meant to last a long time and most of them will provide you with decades of service. But that by any means doesn’t mean that they will last forever and that they don’t have a breaking point. Corrosion will happen because there is a pH imbalance in the water, and that will overtime fully corrode the pipes. So when you combine the corroded pipes with the pressure that has nowhere to escape, the pipe will break wherever there is the most corrosion and where the pipe is the weakest. To avoid that from happening, you should do yearly check-ups on the pipes to make sure that they aren’t corroded.
Because of The System Design and Installation
The most common locations where your pipes will freeze are the water supply pipes that are outside, the swimming pool supply as well as the fire protection lines. Everything that isn’t in heated interior areas like attics, garages, basements sink cabinets are all prone to freezing. That is because pipes that go along your exterior walls often have little or no insulations. Sometimes there are unfilled spaces in the insulations or building wraps that aren’t properly installed that will lead up to pipes freezing over and bursting.
Because of the Water Molecule Expansion
Most people don’t even think about how interesting of a liquid water is. When it is its liquid form waters molecules are constantly moving not leaving much space in between them. When the temperature falls below freezing water molecules will drastically change. The molecules will start restricting movement and having a much defined structure because their bonds are becoming stronger. Once the molecules stop moving constantly they will start developing crystalline structures, which when are positioned into a hexagon formation the molecules will need more space between one another. And for your pipes that means that they will burst under the pressure.
To avoid any of these from happening you’ll want to keep your thermostat set to the same temperature during the whole day. Most people turned down the heat when they go to sleep and that is when the temperature outside drops the most and when your pipes will freeze off. The pipes that are located in unheated areas like your basement, attic or outside of the building insulation are the most prone to freezing over.
Author bio:
Ayla Anderson is an avid reader and an enthusiastic blogger who writes articles on home improvement, business, Family and beauty. She is also an MBA student who spends much of her time giving advice to newly small businesses on how to grow their businesses. You can follow me on Twitter
