Winter Plumbing Tips for Pennsylvania Homeowners

We’re smack dab in the middle of winter in Pennsylvania, which means very cold weather. And this cold weather can be particularly hard on your plumbing. Winter is the most difficult time of year to keep your plumbing running smoothly, and serious problems can happen without much warning, which is why you need to be prepared to help your home’s plumbing make until spring. Continue reading to find some great winter plumbing tips for Pennsylvania homeowners.

Prevent Clogs

One of the most important things in keeping your plumbing running during the winter months is to be proactive in preventing clogs. Clogs are bad in any time of the year, but combined with the threat of frozen pipes, clogs can be disastrous for the health of your home’s plumbing system. Throughout the winter months, ideally once a week, you should treat all the drains in your home with a simple mixture of a cup of baking soda, a cup of salt and a quarter cup of cream of tartar. Pouring this mixture down your drains followed by two cups of boiling water will ensure that your pipes stay clean all winter long.

Insulate Your Pipes

The cold winter air can infiltrate your pipes through even the smallest openings, so it’s important to make sure that all of your pipes are sufficiently protected from the elements. A good winter plumbing tip is to wrap all your pipes in insulation to prevent the cold from setting in. This is particularly important in unheated areas of your home like basements and crawl spaces. You can also use space heaters to prevent pipe freezing, although you should be aware of the potential fire risk with this option. The important thing is that when you properly protect your pipes, you can be sure that your plumbing will stay in tiptop shape throughout the cold months of the year.

Don’t Abuse Your System

To ensure you keep your plumbing running without a hitch throughout the winter, it is important that you don’t overtax the system. Cold weather makes it hard enough for your plumbing to work correctly without putting your system through additional stress. There are a couple of ways, however, to take it easy on your system during this difficult time.

First, you should make sure not to dump anything heavy—like used grease from cooking—down your drain. It’s hard enough for these materials to pass through your pipes under regular circumstances, and the cold makes it even harder, which increases the likelihood of clogs forming.

Secondly, you should space out showers instead of everyone in your family taking them one after another. Spacing showers out by at least ten minutes lowers the stress on your system that comes from trying to produce enough hot water in cold weather.

How to Fix a Problem

Winter is one of the hardest times of the year for a home’s plumbing system. In addition to the ever present risk of freezing pipes, there is just the general stress your system feels with the frigid temperatures. Fortunately, there are a few simple winter plumbing tips to keep your plumbing chugging along all through the winter. But, sometimes, problems with your plumbing happen, and when they do, then ServiceWhale is here to connect your family with the right professionals to fix the problem fast. ServiceWhale’s comprehensive request wizard makes sure that you’re going to find the right plumbing services at the right prices.