Winter Has a Way of Finding the Problems You Didn’t Know You Had
Most plumbing problems are inconvenient.
They get a whole lot more inconvenient when it’s freezing outside.
Cold weather can make repairs harder to access, harder to diagnose, and harder to deal with quickly. Add holiday gatherings, a house full of people, and everything else going on that time of year, and the last thing anyone wants is a plumbing emergency.
That’s why fall is a good time to get ahead of what you can.
And preparing your plumbing for winter isn’t just about frozen pipes.
At Overflow Plumbing, we also start thinking about sewer lines, tree roots, kitchen drains, outdoor faucets, shutoff valves, and the parts of your plumbing system most exposed to the cold.
You can’t guarantee that nothing will go wrong this winter.
But there are plenty of things you can do now to make it less likely.
Some Fall Plumbing Problems Start Underground
Here’s one homeowners don’t always expect.
Tree roots in your sewer line can become a problem during seasonal changes, particularly when you’re dealing with older clay piping that’s already cracked, separated, or compromised.
We’ve seen how predictable it can become.
Some customers with recurring root problems have called us for essentially the same sewer issue at almost the same time of year.
Once tree roots find their way into a sewer line, removing them can get things flowing again.
Removing the roots can solve the immediate problem.
But if they keep coming back, there’s usually another question worth asking:
How are they getting into the line?
Recurring backups or repeated root intrusion may be a sign that part of the sewer system has been compromised and deserves a closer look.
That doesn’t automatically mean the entire sewer line needs to be replaced.
It means you need to understand the condition of the one you have.
Then the Holidays Arrive
Around the same time, another part of the house starts getting a workout.
The kitchen.
More cooking means more dishes, more cleanup, and more material making its way toward the drain.
That’s one reason stopped-up kitchen sinks are among the residential calls we commonly see during the winter months.
A lot of homeowners are surprised when they’re told fats, oils, and grease, commonly called FOG, are contributing to a blockage.
“But I don’t put grease down my drain.”
We hear it all the time.
But you don’t have to dump cooking grease directly into the drain for buildup to occur. Everyday cooking and dishwashing can introduce small amounts of fats, oils, food residue, and proteins into the plumbing.
Over time, that adds up.
Then you host Thanksgiving dinner, cook for a house full of people, and run considerably more through the kitchen sink than usual.
A drain that was already struggling may finally stop altogether.
If the kitchen sink has been slow or repeatedly backing up, fall is a much better time to find out why than halfway through a holiday meal.
Take the Hose Off the Hose Bib
Of all the fall plumbing advice we could give you, this may be the easiest:
Disconnect your garden hose.
That’s it.
It takes a few seconds, and forgetting to do it can create an entirely avoidable problem.
A connected hose can prevent water from properly draining away from the outdoor faucet. When temperatures fall, that trapped water can freeze.
If the faucet has a dedicated interior shutoff, use it as appropriate and drain the exterior portion of the line. Outdoor irrigation systems should also be winterized at the end of the growing season, along with seasonal pumps and other water equipment that won’t be used through winter.
What About a Frost-Free Hose Bib?
Take the hose off that one too.
The “frost-free” part of a frost-free hose bib depends on water being able to drain out after the faucet is shut off.
Leave a hose connected, and that water may have nowhere to go.
Now you’ve taken a fixture designed to protect against freezing and created an opportunity for water to freeze inside it anyway.
Find the Pipes Winter Is Most Likely to Reach
If you want to prevent frozen pipes, start by walking through the house and thinking about where the cold can get in.
Plumbing along exterior walls deserves particular attention.
Think about where your home gets cold first.
Maybe it’s the basement. The crawl space. The garage. Or a cabinet beneath a sink located against an outside wall.
Those are the areas where plumbing may be more exposed when temperatures drop.
One of the simplest ways to winterize pipes in these areas is to make sure exposed lines are properly insulated and those spaces aren’t getting dangerously cold. During a hard freeze, open cabinets beneath sinks to let warmer indoor air reach the plumbing and allow faucets to drip when needed.
PEX Isn’t Freeze-Proof
PEX is common in modern plumbing systems, and there’s a misconception that because it’s more flexible than copper, homeowners don’t have to worry about it freezing.
That’s not the case.
PEX can still freeze. It can expand considerably, and the pipe or its fittings can still fail.
No matter what your water lines are made from, frozen pipe prevention still matters.
Here’s the Fall Plumbing Check People Forget
Go find your main water shutoff.
Do you know where it is?
More importantly, do you know how to use it?
Now check the smaller shutoff valves serving toilets and sinks.
Those valves can sit untouched for years. Then a toilet starts leaking, a supply line fails, or another problem occurs and suddenly you’re depending on a valve you haven’t operated since you moved into the house.
We recommend cycling those fixture stops periodically to make sure they still operate.
Because if something does go wrong this winter, your first priority may not be figuring out how to repair it.
It may simply be stopping the water.
The faster you can do that, the more control you have over what happens next.
You Don’t Have to Be a Plumber to Notice a Problem
While you’re checking the basement, crawl space, or utility room, look around.
You aren’t trying to perform a plumbing inspection.
You’re looking for things that don’t seem right.
Is an exposed pipe uninsulated?
Do you see evidence that something has leaked before?
Are there unusual deposits or deterioration around older plumbing?
You might see green, blotchy corrosion on older copper that looks like “metallic moss.”
You don’t need to know exactly what caused it.
That’s what a plumber is for.
But noticing it now gives you the opportunity to ask about it before that questionable area becomes your next leak.
What to Do if Your Pipes Freeze
You turn on the faucet.
Nothing comes out.
Or maybe you get only a trickle.
That’s one of the clearest signs that you may be dealing with a frozen pipe.
If there’s still some flow and you can safely identify the frozen section, gentle warming with a hair dryer may be appropriate.
If there’s no flow, shut the water off first and call a plumber.
Here’s why.
The frozen section may already be damaged.
Ice can temporarily keep water from escaping through a split or failed fitting. Once you thaw the frozen pipe, that same spot can begin leaking.
That’s why aggressively heating a frozen pipe isn’t the answer.
Never use an open flame.
And if you don’t know what you’re dealing with, don’t gamble with it.
Shut the water off first.
Your Fall Plumbing Maintenance Checklist
Before winter arrives in Louisville:
- Disconnect garden hoses.
- Winterize outdoor faucets and irrigation systems.
- Drain seasonal outdoor pumps and plumbing equipment as appropriate.
- Check pipes along exterior walls and in unconditioned spaces.
- Insulate vulnerable exposed pipes.
- Make sure areas containing plumbing have adequate heat.
- Find your main water shutoff and make sure you can operate it.
- Test individual shutoffs at sinks and toilets.
- Check water and sump pump alarms, if applicable.
- Watch for corrosion, old leak marks, and other visible warning signs.
- Take a slow kitchen drain seriously before heavier holiday use makes it worse.
You don’t need to make your plumbing perfect before winter.
You just don’t want to head into freezing weather already knowing there’s a problem and hoping it holds.
Not Sure? Ask.
One thing we tell customers all the time is that you don’t need to know what the answer is before you call us.
That’s our job.
If you’re not sure whether your home is ready for winter, Overflow Plumbing can take a look at the system, check its overall condition, look at water pressure and shutoffs, point out areas that deserve attention, and explain what we’re seeing.
We’ll also show you what you can watch for yourself.
Because the goal isn’t for you to call a plumber every time you’re unsure about something.
The goal is for you to understand your home well enough to know when something is wrong and what you can do about it.
And if there’s one thing we want every homeowner to know before winter, it’s this:
Know where your water shutoff is.
If something goes wrong, shut the water down first.
Then you can figure out what comes next without making the decision in a panic.