The slight warm up today is thawing frozen pipes and exposing leaks in some homes. NBC 5’s Vince Sims has more from experts on what you should be looking out for.
Many North Texans are facing similar problems.
“Our pipe burst under the house,” homeowner Ben Pocta said. “They were frozen for a little bit.”
Plumbers expect to be busy when things start to thaw after a deep freeze.
“We expect more calls as the temperature starts to warm up a little bit,” Plumber with Elite Plumbing Professionals said. “If your pipes are frozen and once that water starts thawing out in there that’s when you will be able to identify leaks or a leak.”
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To find that leak you may hear it before you see it.
“Like a spraying noise,” Pocta said. “I ran outside and got under the crawl space under the house and saw there was a trail of water coming under my pier and beam through the dirt.
That’s exactly what plumbers say you may hear first before seeing water.
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“One of the first things that you're going to hear is a noise in the wall like water pouring or hissing,” master plumber with Milestone David Butler said. “If you hear anything like that you want to make sure and get to the shutoff valve as quickly as possible. Of course, that's one of the most important things I’ve harped on these last few days is to know how to shut your water off.”
“We fortunately were able to get water shut off pretty quickly before too much flooding happened,” Pocta said.
Experts are advising even though things warmed up Wednesday you should still practice your safety precautions.
“Don't stop dripping your faucets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Butler said. “Let them keep dripping at night. Don't turn your heat way down. Let's keep warm because things that might not have frozen are going to be more susceptible to freezing. Come this weekend since everything's been cold for so long.”
