Winterize Your Outdoor Plumbing System

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Winterize Your Outdoor Plumbing System
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While El Nino is certainly extending the heat of
summer throughout the country, its best to
prepare early for cooler weather up ahead. For
your home, now is the perfect time to winterize
your outdoor plumbing system so you can free
yourself from the hassle of tinkering with or
repairing the system when its already freezing
out there, just to get a steady supply of water
both in and out of your home.
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Its best to start off by inspecting all outdoor
water faucets and pipes and making sure theyre
all drained properly. Close the shut-off valves
of all your outdoor water faucets and drain the
lines completely, and then leave them open until
the arrival of spring. You may also need to use
an insulated faucet cover for further protection
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And speaking of protection, aside from an
insulated faucet cover, you may also need to use
spray foam insulation to prevent these plumbing
components from freezing. When pipes freeze, they
become highly prone to damage if a pipe bursts,
youll waste a lot of waterand if it bursts in
the exterior wall of your home, the damages can
set you back by thousands of dollars. And thats
not just damage to your wall and plumbing other
structural components may get ruined as well.
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As for irrigation pipes in the ground, drain them
all as well and shut off the water supply to all
of them. Meanwhile, do insulate your septic
system, too, to prevent the septic tank and the
pipes from your home leading to it from freezing
and causing wastewater to back up to your home.
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There are still so many other things that need to
be done in making sure that your septic system
will not cause you any trouble in the winter. You
may find some of these tasks too difficult and
time-consuming to take care of yourself.
Therefore, in completely winterizing your
plumbing system, do what you can do on your own,
but leave all the other complex responsibilities
you do not want done twice to us, the
professionals.
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Also, make certain that you do so before the
chilly season hits for your conveniencethe last
thing you want when youre celebrating the
holidays at home is to be plagued with plumbing
issues that prevent your home from being the
clean and cozy sanctuary from the cold that its
supposed to be.
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And more importantly, preventive measures or
maintenance efforts are definitely so much
friendlier to the budget than repair and
replacements