Fast warm-up in the weather leads to plumbing emergencies
After days of arctic temperatures, a sudden surge of warmth Tuesday spelled trouble for home and business owners all over New England.
Most home and business owners took the precautions for the freezing winter season by insulating pipes so prevent freezing. However not all pipes can be protected and some inevitably froze during the brutally cold winter the North East faced this year. Pipes that froze during the brutal cold snap burst as the ice began to melt.
We get many questions from our customers and the one question that keeps coming up is: Does weather affect my plumbing? Does hot weather cause leaks in your home? The answer is yes it can if we go through a long period without rain the ground can dry out and cause it to settle and if this happens under your system, it can cause your water main to crack and leak. It can also cause your sewer main to settle and break or make a dip in your sewer line better known as a belly. Hot weather and UV rays can also damage exposed plumbing pipes. Any plumbing exposed should be covered with insulation, it doesn’t only protect your pipe from cold it also shields it from UV rays that can damage pipe.
People think when it rains it affects drains and causes backups or hot weather causes plumbing leaks. Some of these theories are true such as rain. When there is a high amount of rain and you are on a septic system the ground gets saturated and your septic cannot leach properly into your drain field. If you have a full house of people this can cause a back up because the amount of water being used cannot be dispersed into the drain field and that’s because it is saturated. But if you are on city sewer this has no effect on your drain line and it should drain freely in the rain.
Another problem with weather and plumbing is lightening – if you have copper pipe and your electric is grounded to your plumbing in the event of a lightening strike. We have seen pinhole leaks form lightening storms. These are the main ways how weather can affect your plumbing.
