With the extremely cold weather moving in this week, please follow the steps below to protect your home’s water system.
Disconnect And Drain the Garden Water Hose Connection
This will help prevent outside faucets and pipes from freezing, leaking, or breaking. Make sure to drain and store any garden hoses, too — they can freeze and split.
Protect Your Water Meter
Please make sure all water meter lids are not broken or missing, and let the utility know if a replacement lid is needed. At the onset of cold weather, it is a good idea to protect your meter from freezing by covering the meter lid with some type of insulation. Unopened bags of mulch or potting soil make good insulation. Remember that while Rogers Water Utilities (RWU) owns the water meter, the water customer is responsible for protecting it.
Know the Location of Your Property Shut-off Valve
In the event, your property experiences a water leak, knowing the location of your shut-off valve could save you money on water and damage repairs. Make sure everyone in your home knows where the main water shut-off valve is located so you can turn off the water in an emergency. When you locate the valve, mark it with an identification tag. The valve is typically located close to where the water line enters the home. This could be in the basement, crawlspace, or utility closet. (Note: This is an additional valve inside of the house. In an emergency, you can also turn off water to the property with the lock wing shut-off valve inside your meter box.)
Insulate Water Pipes in Unheated Areas
When the temperatures drop below 32 degrees, exposed water pipes can quickly become an owner’s worst nightmare. To reduce the likelihood of freezing, protect exposed pipes by wrapping them with heat tape, pre-molded foam rubber sleeves, or fiberglass insulation available at hardware stores.
If You Have Pipes That Are Vulnerable to Freezing
Open cabinet doors to expose pipes to warmer room temperatures to help keep them from freezing and/or allow a trickle of water to drip from an indoor faucet if the faucet is on an exterior wall. During extremely cold periods, this trickle should be the size of a pencil point.
Close Garage Doors Completely Since Most Water Supply Lines are in the Garage
This adds an extra layer of protection to any water lines that may be located inside the garage area.
If you have any questions about protecting your home, please contact Rogers Water Utilities at 479-621-1142.