Cold weather can put your home’s pipes at risk of exploding. Worst case scenario: Pipes can fill up with so much ice that eventually they burst and then flood a home.

But there’s plenty you can do to keep your pipes safe in the winter, as a homeowner or landlord. Precautions should be ideally taken in the fall, but if you forgot, better to take steps now than none at all.

HouseLogic offers the following tips for protecting your pipes from bursting, including:

Turn on your faucets.

When temperatures have dropped into freezing, turn on your faucets both indoors and out to keep the water moving through your system. HouseLogic recommends aiming for about five drips per minute.

Open cabinet doors. 

Open any cabinet door covering the plumbing in the kitchen and bathroom. The home’s warm air can help prevent pipes from freezing.

Wrap the pipes. 

If the pipes are already near freezing, wrap them in warm towels to help loosen the ice inside. Cover them with towels and then pour boiling water on top.

Shut off the water. 

If your pipes are already frozen, turn off the main water line to the home immediately. Shut off any external water sources, such as garden hose hookups, HouseLogic recommends.This also helps after the ice inside your pipes thaws because you don’t want the water to flood your system.

Read more tips at HouseLogic.

Source: “5 Tricks to Keep Your Pipes From Exploding This Winter,” HouseLogic (December 2017)

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