Its Never Too Late To Position Heat Tapes Around Your Pipes: February 1, 2019 One of the not so good things that can happen during an icy duration is having your water shut off due to your pipes chilling to the point of freezing. This could be momentary and your pipes might melt on its own with not too much devastation. Still though if the pipes are ice-cold for a modest stretch of time, there is a risk of them cracking, resulting in an expensive pipe restoration task. Among other things the stream of flooding that could occur damaging carpet and many types of floors and drywall. To help you and hinder ice-cold pipes in these cases we at Dye Home Improvement in Monticello and Monon stand by you installing heat tapes and cables around the pipes. Pipes that are more likely to ice up in a house trailer, a home that is on a lifted infrastructure or crawl space, in a repair shop or garage that is not warmed, on faucets that or on an outside wall or a isolated building with no regular radiator or furnace. By installing heat tapes around your pipes, it will sustain heat and protect freezing pipes during wintery conditions. Heat tapes have assorted lengths, to fit around three foot to eighteen-foot pipes. Read the labels as it will tell you how much tape will cover the length of pipe. You will want to know what type of pipe needs covered, some heat tapes only perform with certain kinds of pipe. Please read the instructions in detail, while this is fairly an easy task, you will still want to follow the information carefully. If connected wrong the tape and cables could not work correctly and pipes will still freeze. Or, if you use the incorrect type of heat tapes for the pipes it could start a fire. If you or your family are not positive which one to pick, talk to us at Dye Home Improvement. Sometimes your pipes are inside against an outside wall with hardly any insulation, they also will be apt to icy and freezing conditions, keep heat advancing through and to pipes by opening cabinet doors so heat can get through the cabinets. It is can be also recommended to keep a steady small trickle of water running through the time of the extreme cold. If the pipes have frozen before, they will again, and installing a bit of heat tape or heat cable is an special safeguard. There is also a foam insulation wrap that can go right over the pipes and can be put over the heat tapes as well. There is also spray foam insulation that can be placed in certain spaces to fill in the bitter cold air cracks. While the focal point is preventing your pipes from freezing, other areas are likely to freeze, as well, such as drains around the washer or if you have a sink in an unheated pole barns, drains around these areas could freeze too. For some areas running a trickle of water will help prevent drains from freezing. For those severe arctic days, don’t forget to checkup in on other people, and check your next-door neighbors to see how they are doing. Animals and pets can be touchy to the cold climate too. If it’s freezing cold for us, it is also briskly cold for them. If you keep water outdoors for your pets, it might also freeze. There are heated water pet bowls available or you can put heat tapes/cables around their water bowls. If you already installed heat tape last last winter…double check that they are in working order, before the artic cold sets in. If the heat tapes are not working, replace them. Heat tapes can last a great amount of time once installed but like anything, they do wear out or animals might have gotten to a bit of the tape and chewed it off. Not convinced what heat tapes are best for your home? Roam on over to your area hardware store like Dye Home Improvement in Monticello and Monon. Our employees can show you the perfect type of pipe insulations, heat tapes and other options to do some protective pipe winterization so you do not go without water when it is freezing out. Plumbing, Tools Back To Project Blog