Tips from the City of Portland on protecting your indoor and outdoor plumbing
Indoor plumbing
- Insulate pipes in unheated areas such as a crawl space, attic, garage or basement.
- If below freezing weather is anticipated, open cupboard doors in kitchen and bathrooms -- this allows pipes to get more heat from inside your home.
- If you're planning on leaving for several days during freezing weather, put your furnace on a low setting - this may not completely prevent freezing pipes, but it can help.
- Let a slight stream of water run when temperature drops below freezing - faucets farthest from the street should be the ones left running -- use cold water to avoid gas or electric heating charges.
Outdoor plumbing
- Caulk around pipes where they enter the house.
- Close all foundation vents.
- Cut wood or Styrofoam blocks to fill vent openings, then slide them into the vents.
- Open the vents again in the spring to prevent dry rot.
- Protect outside pipes and faucets. If you have a separate shut off valve for an outside faucet, consider shutting it off and draining it for the winter.
- If you don't have a separate valve to turn off faucets, you can wrap outside faucets or hose bibs with insulation.
- Use newspaper or rags covered with plastic, fiberglass or molded foam-insulating covers (available at hardware stores) to wrap faucet.
- Disconnect all garden hoses and drain in-ground irrigation systems according to manufacturer's instructions.
