Since I was just sending out my monthly homeowner reminders, I thought I would post a little something about maintenance for your home. I think one of the most overlooked items that we forget to do to maintain our home is also one of the most dangerous. Every November 1rst in my market I recommend that homeowners "winterize" their outdoor hosebibs. Other markets need to do this sometimes much earlier, or even not at all. Here in the Washington D.C. area the freeze usually starts to occur around November one. Failing to properly winterize your hosebibs can easily result in frozen pipes. Basically what happens is when the temperature outside drops below freezing the residual water in the line starts to freeze from the farthest point out and leach its way back into the house. When the pressure on that line becomes too much the pipes actually split causing sometimes serious water damage, but it isnt the serious leaks that are the problem, what can also occur is a small "pinhole" leak causing slow drips inside the walls of your home or in areas that are not checked regularly. And when you apply a water supply to something like this, the end result is Mold... The sad part is that this simple item can be corrected with a little bit of maintenance. Remember "frost-free" hosebibs are not completely resistant to bursting. The most important thing to remember is to ALWAYS remove your garden hose from your hosebibs during the winter. The residual water inside the hose make it much easier to cause this problem. Here is a typical procedure for winterizing your Hosebibs.
Step 1-Remove garden hoses
Step 2- Go into the home and shut off the indoor hosebib
Step 3 -Go back outside and open the outdoor hosebib.
Step 4- After ALL of the water inside the line has drained you may close it back up. At this point many older homes may require a frost protective cover, which can be purchased at any home improvement center.
Remember that all homes have different procedures for winterizing hosebibs, this is only intended as a guide as well as a reminder to do it!
Hope this helps.
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