Got Frozen Pipes? Here's Why You Need To Call An Emergency Plumber

12 August 2016
 Categories: , Blog


A plumber can attend to many emergency situations that you may be dealing with. One of these emergencies, and one the one that you are likely to face during such winter seasons, is frozen pipes. If you find that your pipes are frozen due to the cold temperatures do not try DIY solutions or wait to see if the situation will improve. Instead, call an emergency plumber immediately. Read on to learn more.

How frozen pipes occur

To understand the predicament that is frozen pipes, you first have to understand how the phenomenon occurs. As alluded to earlier, frozen pipes occur during winter. As the temperatures outside drops, the water running through your mains system gets cooled as well. When the temperature drops to freezing levels, the water coming into your home from outside starts to freeze as well. With time, when the water inside your pipes freezes, the pipes carrying the water start to freeze as well. When this process completes, you have a case of frozen pipes on your hands.

The risks associated with frozen pipes

Frozen pipes are a hazard to your plumbing system and your home for a number of reasons:

  1. When the water freezes inside your pipes, it turns solid and stops running through your pipes even after you have turned the taps on. This cuts off your water supply.
  2. As the water freezes, it starts to expand. With time, this expansion movement can cause the already frozen and brittle pipes to burst. This is a common occurrence with frozen pipes.
  3. Bursting of frozen pipes will necessitate costly replacements, not to mention the mess caused inside your home. More importantly, bursting pipes can cause injury to people due to flying metal pieces.

What your plumber will do on arrival

Due to the above risks, it is absolutely important that you call an emergency plumber if you detect that you have frozen pipes inside your home during winter. On arrival, the plumber will:

  • Restore the condition of the pipes to normal by defrosting them using pipe heaters or other conventional methods.
  • Train you on how to keep your pipes from freezing again by either increasing the temperature of your house, cutting off mains water supply, providing more ventilation to your pipes and any other techniques.
  • Train you on how to locally defrost your pipes should they freeze again.

For more information, contact a plumber in your area.


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