The biggest step toward preparing your home for another chilly winter in Vermont is to arrange for heating maintenance from a skilled technician. But your plumbing requires some attention as well to help avoid issues from frozen pipes. There are a few parts of your plumbing that are exposed to the outside, and if these freeze over it can mean expensive damage.
In this post, we’re going to look at what you can do to winterize the most exposed part of a home’s plumbing: the outside hose bibs.
Here’s How to Winterize Hose Bibs
This job won’t take long—but the protection it provides can prevent extremely costly plumbing repairs!
- First, detach the hose or anything else that’s connected to the outside faucet. If you leave a hose connected to the faucet over the winter, any water remaining in it will freeze right up into the pipes and cause them to break.
- Second, check for any leaks in the hose bib. Leaks will cause the bib to freeze over. You can tell there’s a leak if water continues to drip from the faucet when it’s shut off. Call a professional plumber to repair the leaks as soon as you can.
- Third, drain out the pipe to get as much water as possible removed from it. You’ll need to isolate the water line connected to the faucet first.
- Fourth, make sure the faucet is insulated against the outside cold. All you have to do is go to a home improvement or hardware store and purchase an inexpensive faucet cover. The foam of the cover will shield the faucet from the outdoor chill and prevent it from freezing. Replace an older cover if it’s been in place for a few years already.
If you require assistance with winterizing your plumbing from licensed plumbers, reach out to Red Rock Mechanical LLC. Serving Burlington, VT the and Plattsburgh, NY area for more than 23 years.
