By MARY BAILEY The Reporter

Malinda Moore, a member of the management team at Ace Hardware in Boaz, said things like faucet covers and insulation usually sell out when the threat of winter weather is in the forecast. 

With below freezing temperatures being forecasted for next week, now is the time to take precautions with outside plumbing and pipes.

The national average cost of a burst pipe repair is between $200 - $1,000, with low end minor repairs that don’t involve a pipe replacement can be around $150.

Elden Chumley, General Manager at MUB in Albertville, says weather proofing as much as possible is always something people should think of.

“Do your preparation ahead of time as much as you can,” he said. “Stopping the wind from getting to exposed pipes by wrapping them can be hard issues to deal with but if people can take precautions and to weatherproof their plumbing, it goes a long way.”

Chumley says if you believe your pipes are frozen, you can contact MUB.

“If they know it’s frozen, there is nothing anyone can do until it thaws out. We will be glad to guide them through it but there isn’t a whole lot to do until the pipes thaw out,” he continued. “The issues are they won’t always rupture; it depends on the types of pipe and materials it is. Certainly, they can contact us, usually it’s going to be after they thaw out and they realize they have a busted pipe, or they have something that is running. That is usually when we get our calls. I would say that almost all of those calls are related to internal plumbing. But here again we will take the call and we will be glad to cut the water off for them while they make repairs they need to make and then reinstate the water when they are ready.”

Chumley says wrapping outside pipes, leaving cabinet doors open and leaving a small trickle of water on are a few of the things that can help prevent a busted water pipe.

“Some modular homes don’t have quite the barrier that a traditional built house might have. But people leave their water running; a small stream does keep the water moving. I hate for people to have to waste something if they don’t feel comfortable with that, but moving water takes longer to freeze. I’m not saying it won’t if it’s a small trickle, it will eventually will but it’s a little bit of a stream. It takes longer for a moving stream to freeze than a pipe that’s not moving at all. I’m not advocating that everyone goes out and runs their water, I’m advocating for preparation and work ahead of time,” he continued. “We just want to remind people to be safe and be cautious. Next week it’s going to be cold.”

Gary Luther, General Manager of the Boaz Water Board agrees that moving water is harder to freeze.

“Standing water is what is more than likely to freeze,” he said. “If you have anything to wrap the pipe up with. Could be towels, could be clothes, just some type of insulation on it, some type of protection from the wind is better than none at all.”

Luther said the temperatures could be above freezing but the wind chill could make all the difference in what it feels like outside.

“The temperature that water can freeze outside is 32 degrees,” he continued. “Modular homes sometimes have underpinning, and the wind gets under there and that’s obviously bad. Any type of protection you can do against the wind, a lot of times just raw temperature with the wind chill drops the temperature down a good bit. Biggest thing is to keep the water flowing.

If you have no water and you feel like your pipe is frozen then, it’s just going to have to warm up to thaw the pipe out. When that happens a lot of times, you need to call us so we can turn off the water. We get a lot of calls about turning their water off while they fix it because you are going to get billed for that water unfortunately. Preventive maintenance is always good. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, kind of thing. Just do your due diligence and be proactive.”

The National Weather Service offers these winter weatherization tips for homes:

Inspect your chimney

Caulk and weather strip doors and windows

Insulate exposed pipes

Insulate your attic

Clean out gutters

Install & test smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors (with battery backup)

Gather supplies