Frozen Pipes

Winter isn’t a new thing – it’s been coming around every year for a while now. Folks in New Jersey have great stories about winters past, about blizzards and snowmen and… frozen pipes.

A young father got up every couple of hours to turn the shower on briefly to make sure it didn’t freeze overnight. Somebody’s cute grandmother used to stand on a stool in her basement on freezing winter mornings, aiming the hot air from her hair dryer at a cold water pipe to keep it from freezing solid. A whole bunch of people literally never stopped complaining about having to heat the entire attic just to keep a few pipes above 32 degrees…

Our Tips:

Put down the hair dryer! Try something new – ask Air Group to take a look at ways to upgrade the problem pipe areas in your house this winter. We might recommend:

  • Replacing short sections of vulnerable pipe (in crawl spaces, etc.) with freeze-resistant piping.
  • Thoroughly insulating areas around vulnerable pipe (in outer walls or extensions, etc).
  • Installing electric heat tape or wire to protect sections of pipe in the basement or attic.
  • Installing a new thermostat so that you can remotely control the temperature in your house, zone by zone, even when you are at work or away on vacation.

Some of these frozen pipe prevention suggestions are old-fashioned common sense. Some are only recently available solutions, thanks to new technologies and tools for fighting the cold. In any case, they only work when they are applied in advance of an actual pipe freeze or rupture. Think ahead!

But if you DO have a frozen pipe this winter, call Air Group right away. We’ve been through a few winters here in New Jersey, and we’ll work hard to help your winter stories end well, no matter what.