As temperatures drop and unexpected cold weather sweeps through the South, Eric G offers essential tips to protect your home from frozen pipes. Many homeowners in warmer climates may not be prepared for the challenges that come with freezing temperatures, but Eric is here to help. He emphasizes the importance of keeping water flowing in your pipes and maintaining a warm environment inside your home to prevent freezing. Additionally, he provides practical advice on how to insulate vulnerable areas, such as crawl spaces and attics, while also warning against the dangers of using unvented heaters. With these tips, homeowners can safeguard their plumbing and ensure their homes remain safe and functional during the cold snap.

Eric G. kicks off this midweek show with a warm welcome to listeners, particularly those in the southern regions who may be experiencing rare winter weather. With a focus on preventing and dealing with frozen pipes, he provides actionable advice tailored to homeowners who might be unaccustomed to such frigid conditions. Eric emphasizes the importance of ensuring that all water is flowing smoothly throughout the house, particularly in areas where pipes may not be adequately insulated. He suggests keeping the home heated to a comfortable level, ideally around 75 degrees, to help mitigate the risk of freezing pipes.

He further discusses the importance of addressing crawl spaces, which can be particularly vulnerable during cold snaps. Eric advises listeners to close crawl space vents and insulate any exposed pipes, ensuring that warmth is preserved within these critical areas of the home. He also touches on the need to keep water flowing slightly from faucets during freezing temperatures to prevent stagnation and freezing.

As the episode progresses, Eric also delves into the dangers of using space heaters in enclosed areas, cautioning against the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning and fire hazards. He provides tips on how to safely manage heat in attics and other less accessible areas while also discussing the potential problems that can arise from improperly thawing frozen pipes. With practical solutions and a friendly tone, Eric guides homeowners through this winter challenge, reinforcing the need for preparedness and awareness as the weather fluctuates.

Takeaways:

• When dealing with freezing temperatures, keep your house warm to prevent pipe freezing.
• Ensure all outdoor hoses are disconnected before the temperatures drop to freezing.
• Close crawl space vents and seal them to retain heat and prevent freezing.
• Let faucets drip slightly overnight to keep water moving and prevent frozen pipes.
• Check and maintain your plumbing insulation, especially in vulnerable areas like crawl spaces.
• If pipes freeze, turn off the water and heat the area to thaw them safely.

Links referenced in this episode:

• monumentgrills.com
• aroundthehouseonline.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Monument Grills

To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.

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We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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When it comes to remodeling or renovating your home, there is a lot to know and we have got you covered.

This is around the house.

Welcome to the round the house show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining today.

Happy midweek.

This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument grills.

If you're trying to get that barbecue for the big game, now's the time to do it.

Check it out@monument grills.com 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's 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 going to 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 for just $4 a month, you can sit here and get all of our shows commercial free.

And then you have access to the back catalog as well.

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You get the show two days early.

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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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Nowhere to go?

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