Tips On How To Prepare For Freezing Nights

Our Vice President of Operations, Doug Cornwell, is celebrating his 20^th year with Alure Home Improvements and has helped clients through many winter freezes. Doug offers the following thoughts on how you can best prepare your home for the frigid temperatures.

We have another night, or more, of single digit temperatures ahead of us. Most houses are not prepared for such drastic changes in temperature and accordingly are affected by the deep freeze. Night time presents the most problems. Temperatures are at their lowest, our activity is at its lowest and the combination of the two, could cause some difficult situations. Here are a few things you can do to get through the coldest of nights.

1. Let some water trickle in the faucets through the overnight. Moving water will not freeze saving frozen pipes.

2. Many of the pipes in the basement, if you have one, are in rooms that are not heated. If the rest of the basement is heated, leave any access doors open to allow those rooms to get warm as well. If the basement is not heated and you have access to a portable heater, put one in that area.

3. If you have a thermostat that has a setback feature, the ability to lower the temperature at certain scheduled times to save energy, make sure that you raise the lower temperatures above 68 to keep the heat moving during the night and again avoiding the possibility of freeze ups.

4. Open any sink cabinet doors in the kitchen or bathrooms to allow the room heat to get into the cabinets and the pipes.