Plumber Shares Tips To Make Sure Homeowners Don’t Have A Nightmare Before Christmas With Pipe Bursts

This time of year, plumbers get tons of calls for frozen pipes, and the Sooner state is 48 hours away from a deep freeze.

"We are going to be crazy busy," Milton Mendez, owner of Mendez Plumbing Services, said.

His family-owned business has already gotten a number of calls for frozen and burst pipes this winter.  

This Christmas may be the crescendo with both silver bells and Milton's work phone ringing nonstop.

"They're panicking because you know. Just like if your car breaks down you don't know what to do, you're not a mechanic," Milton said.  

He added, "your house will get damaged, flooded. I've seen ceilings coming down because they had a water pipe in the ceiling, and it froze."

A nightmare for homeowners to deal with, Milton said, but frozen and burst pipes can be prevented so homeowners don't have a nightmare before Christmas.

"Pipes need to be insulated. It's a must. This is the water line; this is the cold, this is the hot. So, the water lines are the ones that need to be insulated," Milton explained.

Those pipes need to be insulated especially if they run along an outside wall. Pipe insulators can be bought at hardware stores.  

Milton also said people should have a constant, pencil sized stream from their faucets, and let a pencil sized stream run constantly.

"They just let one faucet drip and they think that's enough and it's not. You have to let all your faucets drip. Cold and hot side," Milton said.

On the outside of a house, the hose should be taken off of the nozzle, and the faucet should be covered to keep it from icing over.  

Older homes with crawl spaces and attics are more likely to have pipes that freeze in those spaces, and vents to those spaces need to be closed.  

Toilets are also at risk of freezing if the furnace is turned off and left off while the homeowners leave town.  

If a pipe does burst, cut off the water supply from inside if possible or outside at the water meter. To anyone who may need help from a plumber this weekend, remember, it's their holiday too.

"[It would be] nice that they would let us have dinner with our family for at least an hour and then we can go take care of your issue," Milton said.

Milton also said in his experience, a towel just doesn't cut it when it comes to pipe insulation.