Cold facts to get you through the next few days (and future blasts)

Look, what do I know? I’m just a handyman and your part-time humble correspondent. But I’d say the local news is getting this weather story all wrong.

They’ve gotten lazy, reflexively showing their high-tech golly-gee radar maps, and running old videos of empty bread, milk, and egg shelves. But as far as I’ve noticed, they haven’t yet bothered to leave the studio to notice something. Like that today’s temperature is missing a digit!

Yeah, yeah a lot of snow is a problem. But this isn’t our first rodeo. It happens a couple of times a year and we all know the drill. Go ahead and do your bread, egg, and milk thing, stay off the roads, keep your kids home from school, and avoid a heart attack by having those energetic, indestructible, and immortal kids on your block shovel your driveway.

But these kinds of temperatures don’t come around as often, so folks are not so sure what to do about them. Yet, these low temps can create a whole lot more damage to your house than a big pile of snow on your roof can.

The good news is that there are things you can do to protect your house from these insanely low temperatures. The bad news is that it’s now too late to do many of them within this cold snap. Which brings us back to the good news – Fix St Louis will be available to fix any damage and to better prepare your house for future blasts.

Pipe Bursts

This is probably the worst thing these cold temperatures can do to your house. If the water in one of your pipes freezes and bursts, water goes everywhere and damages everything.

So we at Fix St Louis have an assignment for you. Try to briefly turn on and off all the faucets on the OUTSIDE of your house, as well as INSIDE faucets that have the outdoors or an unheated garage on the flip side.

If the water is flowing OK, you’re good. But see if you can locate a nearby shut-off valve (see pics to the RIGHT) that controls it in case you need to shut-off the bursting faucet later. But, do NOT try to turn that valve now– it may have become faulty from lack of use, and if it starts dripping you’ll have a new repair you don’t want to deal with now. On the other hand, if there was a problem with the water flowing from the faucet, by all means shut it off now.

Also, if there are any faucets in your home that have frozen-up in the PAST, whether or not they actually burst, turn on a trickle in both hot and cold faucets and leave them running until temperatures are warmer. This can prevent the formation of ice.

Pipe Burst-Related Stuff You Can Do Later

While at the moment, the above is about all you can do, here’s why you might call Fix St Louis later:

– Repair the plumbing, walls, and other damage following a pipe burst.

– Convert your outside faucets to frost-free faucets that can withstand cold temperatures better.

– Better insulate faucets that were beginning to freeze-up, or have burst in the past.

Other Cold Weather Related Stuff You Can Do Later

Unlike your doctor, we can’t help if you PERSONALLY burst from cold weather, but we can make you more comfortable until the time you do:

– Replace weatherstripping around doors.

– Replace thresholds and door sweeps at the bottoms of doors to provide better seals.

– Replace old windows that don’t insulate as well as modern units.

– Adjust misaligned windows and doors that have gaps that are letting in outside air and bugs.

– Add insulation to your attic.

Oh, did I mention that Fix St Louis are the only ones who prefer small jobs to big ones? And, that because of the time of year we actually have openings for repairs NEXT WEEK? Well if I didn’t, I just did.

At Fix St Louis we’ve got the cure for this uncommon cold. Let us help you win the cold war!

Dr Steve

Fix St Louis