FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- Pipes freezing can potentially cause a big mess inside your home when it is this cold outside.
Dalton Clinkscales with Johnson Plumbing says if your showers or sinks are on an outside wall, they could be at risk for busting. He recommends opening up the cabinet doors to let heat from your house inside.
“If you've had issues in the past, you might let it drip at night to keep it from freezing. But it's definitely important to go outside your house and see what's on the outside wall. Any water lines on the outside wall are in danger of freezing, especially because you don't know what insulation was put there,” he said.
A big problem that people don't usually notice until the spring has to do with water hydrants that hook up to a hose or sprinkler. People often leave water hoses hooked up and when the water is turned back on, it could flood your house.
“Whenever you're outside putting your sprinklers up or whatever the water is pouring out of that hydrant into your wall and you don't even know it's pouring out until you walk back in. There is no way to know because it will still allow water out into your sprinkler but when you come back in you'll see that your floor has water everywhere,” he said.
Clinkscales said another problem the cold can cause is older hot water heaters fizzling out. He said since the water is coming through colder, it makes the heater work harder. A lot of water could come inside your house if a water heater busts.
“It can happen overnight. They don't give you a warning, it seems like it's always the worst time when it happens. If you check your water heater and say it's over 15 years old or so then we need to go ahead and give you a bid to look at it and see what it's going to take to replace it,” he said.
Clinkscales recommends that to call a plumber if your pipes do freeze because they could still bust or could already have a leak.