Take steps to prevent frozen pipes in your home during extreme cold

KITCHENER — The deep freeze Waterloo Region has been plunged into in recent weeks creates an increased risk of water pipes freezing and bursting inside homes.

An extreme cold warning is in effect for the region with a prolonged period of very cold wind chills dropping to as low as -40 C expected into Saturday night or even Sunday morning.

“You do run the risk of having frozen pipes within your home,” said Tammer Gaber, manager of operations with Kitchener Utilities.

If that happens, it’s the homeowner’s responsibility to deal with the problem. The city is responsible solely for water services stretching from the property line to the water main; the property owner looks after water service from the property line to the building and then inside.

The city-owned utility offers these tips to avoid frozen pipes, which can potentially burst:

Disconnect and drain all outdoor hoses.

Shut off and drain all outdoor faucets.

Insulate all exposed outside water pipes with specially designed foam pipe covers, available at building supply or home improvement stores.

Seal air leaks throughout the home and garage.

Open kitchen, bathroom and laundry cabinet doors to allow warmer air to circulate around the plumbing.

Keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines in the garage.

And, quite simply, “keep your house warm.” Prevention is the key. “Once it’s frozen solid, it’s very hard to thaw,” Gaber said.

Most water services are buried deeply to protect against frost, but some lines in older neighbourhoods are at a shallow depth by today’s standards and extreme cold or temperature fluctuations can push frost to a depth that will freeze water services.

The weather is forecast is for temperatures closer to freezing on Monday and into early next week, but those milder days won’t put pipes in the clear.

“The frost will still continue to travel downwards,” said Gaber, adding that the frost won’t start retreating until about April.

Right now, frost is reaching about three feet in this area. Major problems start appearing when it drops about twice that level. That happened three years ago, with several hundreds homes in the city suffering with frozen water services.

In extreme situations, a home will be hooked up to a neighbour’s water until the problem can be resolved in the spring.

The city sends a letter at this time of year to homes that have a history of frozen services, asking them to leave a tap dripping slowly — preferably the cold water faucet in the laundry room.

“Basically, that keeps the water running so the service outside doesn’t freeze,” Gaber said.

Despite the recent deep cold, problems with frozen pipes have been minimal so far this winter.

“Once we start to push into five or six feet, that’s when we get into a lot of frozen services,” Gaber said.