When the weather outside starts to get cold, it is easy to hunker down inside and forget about what is going on in the back or side yards of your home. During the spring or summer time, you might spend a lot of time in your yard. Playing in the sprinklers, watering the garden or the lawn, and spending time in the warm sun. However, once the temperature drops it is in our nature to want to spend more time indoors and keep warm. For this reason, the fall is the perfect time to get your yard ready for winter weather. A major step is to disconnect and store all of your outside hoses.
During the summer time, garden hoses are a great tool for keeping you and your family cool, and for helping to grow beautiful things in the garden. However, if not properly disconnected and stored for winter, garden hoses can cause major damage to your plumbing system.
Your plumbing system is a complex configuration of pipes, valves, and connections that all work together to provide you with water and other functions. While, from the perspective of the homeowner, it may appear that each section of your plumbing works independently from others, this is not true at all. In fact, each section of your plumbing system relies on all of the other sections to be in top working order.
When a garden hose is left connected to the outside spigot during the cold winter weather, the water that has collected inside of the hose can freeze, as water freezes and turns to ice it expands. While this is not usually a problem for something like a water hose, because of the flexible material it is made from, it is a problem for your plumbing system as a whole. When the water hose is left connected to the spigot and then becomes blocked with frozen water, it allows pressure to build up in all of the water lines of your home, both inside and outside. When this happens, it can easily lead to a leak or rupture in your pipes, leaving your home and belongings vulnerable to significant water damage.
Make sure to prepare your home for winter, by using the fall season as a reminder to tidy up your back and side yards and disconnect the outside hoses. If you have any further questions about getting your home’s plumbing ready for winter, contact Mr. Rooter of Shasta County, we are locally owned and operated. We live in the same neighborhoods we service and as always we are happy to answer any questions that you might have!