So, let’s talk about those frozen pipes, shall we? With the massive storm slamming the US and everyone’s pipes turning into ice cubes, it’s the perfect time to dive back into last year's golden nuggets of wisdom from Eric G. He’s got the lowdown on how to deal with those pesky frozen pipes like a pro—or at least avoid turning your home into a water park disaster zone. Seriously, who knew winter could turn our houses into frosty fortresses? From cranking up the heat to the classic “close those crawl space vents” move, Eric's got all the tips to keep your plumbing from pulling a Frozen 2 on you. So, grab your hot cocoa, and let’s revisit how to save your pipes from the grip of winter’s icy fingers! The cold snap sweeping across the US this weekend has everyone scrambling for their thermals and hot cocoa, but what happens when your pipes decide to go on a winter break? Eric G takes us on a nostalgic trip back to last year’s episode where he schooled us on the fine art of thawing out those stubborn frozen pipes. Picture it: you're cozied up with a mug of something warm, when suddenly, you realize your water is about as dry as the Sahara. Should you panic? Nah, just hit play and let Eric steer you through the frostbite fiasco. He breaks down the essentials: from cranking up the heat to keeping that water flowing (yes, we’re talking about letting it drip), Eric’s got all the tips to keep your plumbing from becoming a popsicle. He even throws in a dash of humor while reminding us that our homes were probably not built with snow in mind. Perfect for those who think a frozen pipe is just a fancy term for a new cocktail!

Takeaways:

1. Frozen pipes are a major concern during winter storms, so take precautions now.
2. Keep your house warm to prevent frozen pipes; higher temperatures make a difference.
3. Seal crawl space vents to trap heat and protect your pipes from freezing damage.
4. Disconnect outdoor hoses before a freeze; this is a must-do for homeowners everywhere.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. aroundthehouseonline.com

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Foreign.

Weather across the US this weekend and into next week.

It made sense for us to repost a midweek special from a year ago.

Take a listen on how to best deal with those frozen pipes.

Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining today.

Happy midwee.

It is Wednesday.

It is a wild one out there.

All the politicking going around the Southeast is freezing their butts off out there.

There is so much going on.

So everybody take a nice deep breath and we are halfway to the weekend where we're gonna have another two hours of around the house show this weekend.

We got a great one coming up.

We'll talk about that later in the week.

But today I wanted to give a quick education for all of our friends here basically in the rest of the country, except for the.

For the west coast here.

All of you in the north understand this.

All of you in the south.

This is new territory and we're here to help you out today.

How do you deal with pipes freezing up because your house was never built for snow in this kind of weather.

So the first thing is, is I want to make sure that I know it's cold out there, it's going to warm up later in the week, and that's good.

But really, if you've got, you know, most of the homes, it seems, are slab on grade when you get down into Florida.

So you got concrete on the dirt or stand, and that's what it is.

That's one thing.

You're probably going to be a little better off with that aspect than the houses that are on crawl spaces.

And the few that have basements might be okay as well.

But the crawl spaces is the big one.

So if you've got that little space down there underneath the house, this is where the problems arise.

So the first thing I want you to do is go around your house and make sure that all the water is flowing great.

Because when you're getting below freezing, a lot of these homes just didn't insulate those pipes correctly.

So the one thing I would do is make sure all the faucets are running good.

Make sure you're good.

And then what I would do is for the next couple days, keep the heat up in the house, Keep a little bit of heat going in there.

Maybe it's going to be 75.

Yeah, keep it nice and warm because that's going to help radiate out.

Because your prowess probably isn't that well insulated as well down in those same areas.

And see if you can help with that, See if you can keep that temperature up.

Next up, if you have any crawl space vents out there, go close those up.

If they don't close, tape some plastic over it, duct tape, whatever you got just to keep that nice and airtight.

So if you do get heat in there, it keeps it in.

And next up, if you've got a attic space up there and your pipes are in the attic space, here's the next thing I would do.

Now, this is going to be horrible for your heating bill, but it could give you enough heat to not freeze this stuff up.

Go up into your, your attic access, crack that open so you leak heat up into that space up there.

Now that could cause other problems.

So there is a risk with this.

This could cause some ice damming and things like that.

We're going to melt it on the roof surface.

It's going to come down, hit the eaves where it's cold and freeze back up again.

So just a little bit.

We just want to keep that above freezing.

We don't need to open it up.

So give it an inch.

It's probably all you need to get enough heat up there to keep that above freezing.

If your pipes are going through that attic space above your living area.

So really we're just trying to do that.

And at night, if you're getting below freezing, make sure on all the exterior walls, if you've got a bathroom or a laundry or a kitchen sink, just crank that water on just a little bit.

That way you can keep the water moving and do everything with that and keep it going.

Good.

Now I talked about this in North Carol a couple days ago on their news, but really if you've got outdoor faucets with a hose hooked up to it, disconnect that.

That should have been the first thing you did.

When you see that you're getting towards freezing, disconnect that out there, unhook that hose and then make sure.

If you've got an older house that doesn't have your traditional frost free hose bib outside, cover up those things.

You know, if you don't have any of the covers, get out there with, you know, a sweatshirt, wrap it around there until you can get some covers that'll keep that from freezing.

Now what happens if you've got a frozen pipe?

You're like, I have no water coming out of here.

Well, here's the thing.

If that's copper CPVC, it's about a 50, 50 chance that if you got a hard freeze, you've got a split pipe or a broken pipe someplace, now you're not going to find it until that ends up, you know, unthawing and opening up.

And then you're going to have some repairs to be made.

So if you think that you're like, hey, I've got broken pipes or I could have, I've got at least frozen.

If you can turn the heat up in the house to see if you can keep that a little bit better and see if you can unthaw it, that's one thing.

But if you got a hard freeze, I would make sure one, you know how to turn the water off at your house.

Second of all, it might be smart just to turn it off.

Especially where we're coming out of this in a day or two.

Depending on your weather and where you're located, this could be the place that you want to turn the water off and go, okay, I'm gonna stop the damage right now.

We'll let this warm up and I'll get a plumber out there.

Now the thing you can do too is learn how to do fixing broken pipes.

Now if it's cpvc, yeah, that, that.

I hate working with that stuff.

I'd much rather work with copper.

CPVC is that yellow PVC pipe that's rated for household use.

Problem is it's brittle, it breaks, it splits.

You could be doing a lot of work underneath there.

Now yes, you're going to cut it, prime it, glue it with the CPV cement and stuff like that.

But man, once that stuff breaks, it shatters, it's like glass.

So it's not my favorite.

I would much rather have copper to get down there.

Now if you're going to do a temp fix, those shark bite push to connect fittings work, but those are a temporary fix that'll get your water back on in the house.

But you want to go back down there and sweat with a torch and get that going.

So I've, I'll put a video up on our around the house online page so you can see how to do that.

I've done some videos with that in the past.

I'll put one up there for you so you know how to do it.

And just be careful.

You don't want that torch to light something on fire.

Now one of the biggest mistakes you can do is putting big heaters under the house.

And here's why you don't want to be in the house when you're putting heaters under the house, especially when they're propane or their diesel or whatever, if they are consuming a fuel, I don't like putting those in enclosed spaces because that can put carbon monoxide up into the house.

And that also can be a huge fire danger down below, too.

So be very, very careful.

You can create a space down there where you go down there and you make yourself sick or worse.

So it's going to consume the oxygen.

And second of all, here's the big one.

It's going to put out carbon monoxide, which is deadly.

So no heating with anything that combusts inside that's not venting it right outside, like your heating system.

So be really careful.

If you've got something that says, hey, you can use this, like some of the kerosene heaters that say it's rated for indoors, you still have to crack a window open to bring in oxygen because it is consuming oxygen and fuel in the space and it still does give off a little bit of carbon monoxide.

So crack a window, turn on a bath fan, do something like that.

So at least you're getting some fresh air in there.

That's a big one right there.

So just be very careful, guys, out there.

When you're talking about winterizing that house, when you're in the middle of a storm like this, and try to keep it as warm as you can and keep the heat up to keep things from freezing.

And then pay attention to what is going on.

Because if it happens this year, could happen next year.

So maybe this summer or this spring when the weather's a little bit better.

You've got some projects to do around there to make sure that you're prepared for the next one.

Because it's really strange you guys down there are having the winter of a lifetime.

I'm up here in the Pacific Northwest where we usually have this stuff all the time.

I haven't had really one flake of snow hit the ground and stay here.

And if anything, it's probably one of our driest January's on record.

So the whole west coast is dealing with that.

Hopefully we'll get some precipitation here soon so we can get California out of this wildfire situation and the rest of us from sliding into that same one because it has been dry.

So hopefully we can get that dialed in.

All right, everybody, if you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com and all you podcast listeners.

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All right, everybody, I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning into around the House.

Stay safe out there.

Keep your head up.

It's gonna be a great weekend coming up.

Let's enjoy it.

We'll see you Saturday.

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