Preparing Outdoor Taps For Winter

Avoid Incurring Costly Winter Repairs

There’s a chill in the air, and the temperature has started to drastically drop during the nights. This is when we know winter is right around the corner. Frozen faucets are not only an extremely frustrating mess to deal with, but also very costly and inconvenient.

If frozen pipes strike fear in your heart, you’ll want to continue reading so you can winterize your exterior faucets!

Disconnect from your faucets

To begin, you will need to start with the basics:
disconnect everything from your faucets.

When you have removed your hose from the faucet, ensure it is completely empty. Any water left behind will tarnish the material. The water could freeze inside as the temperature drops with the weather change.
Since you are storing away your hose, this is a great time to store away all of your related gardening items and do a backyard cleanup!

Turn off drain water & valves

Homes built in colder weather regions, are likely designed to have an internal shut off valve for each exterior faucet.
If your home has one on, you’ll want to follow the steps ahead to ensure you’ve taken all the necessary precautions.

1. Shut off your interior valve.
2. Ensure there is a bucket under each drain cap and open the drain cap to release the water.
3. Go to the exterior of your home and turn on all faucets. This is to make them run dry.
4. Once you have completed all the steps above, you can turn off your exterior faucet, and close the drain pipe inside the house.

All of these steps will ensure that all faucets are drained of excess water.

If your home does not have an internal shut off valve, then you’ll want to make sure that the exterior faucet has no dripping water. Even a slow drip can add up to nearly 3,000 gallons of wasted water each year.

Insulate & Protect

You’ll want to ensure all your faucets and hose bibs are safely insulated to protect them from the cold weather. Covering these prior to temperature drops will prevent any water inside faucets or pipes from freezing over.

Below, you will find an example of a faucet cover that could be used to protect your outdoor faucets. It is great during below freezing temperatures that Canada tends to bring along with all its glory in the upcoming months.

Implementing these steps and precautions will make the transition from the cold winter days to the warmer days easy. Our family at Butler Plumbing Heating & Gasfitting wants to ensure your home and family are taken care of throughout the cold days that are approaching us. We provide services for all your plumbing and heating needs! Contact us for more information or visit our blog for other related topics!