With old man winter really letting us know he’s around, we need to keep in mind that frozen water pipes for plumbing and heating can happen. Cold temps and high winds are the major cause of frozen pipes in your building. Sometimes a portion of your plumbing system will freeze and create frozen pipes which can then lead to burst pipes.

Frozen plumbing can be more than a temporary inconvenience.  Frozen water pipes can cause major damage when the pipe thaws and the water starts to flow.  In addition, frozen hot water heat lines will prevent heat from reaching parts of your building further compounding the problem causing more pipes to freeze. Water damage can result when a split water pipe occurs due to expansion caused by freezing.  Thawing a pipe as soon as possible can help prevent a break in a pipe.

Quality Plumbing Services can help … once your plumbing is frozen, follow these steps:

• Turn off the water supply. You can find the valve associated with the pipe and turn it off or if that does not work, shut off the main valve.

• Remove all the items in the vicinity of the frozen or burst pipe.

• Call Quality Plumbing Services Inc. We have thaw machines to thaw frozen pipes so that the water can flow freely again. And if there is a crack or leak in the pipe, we can fix it.

What “not to do” once you have a frozen pipe:

• Ignore it. Your pipe will not thaw by ignoring it. It will either freeze more and then burst or stay frozen until the temperature outside warms well above freezing.

• Use a blowtorch. This can cause the water to heat up too fast in the pipe and cause it to expand thus breaking the pipe. There is also the danger of starting a fire causing more damage than the frozen pipe would cause.

  Call Quality Plumbing Services today at 847-259-0200 or visit our website at www.qualityplumbingchicago.com!