Protect Your Pipes During the Holidays and Winter Months

A visit with family over the holidays can turn into a big headache if, upon your return, you find your pipes have burst, leaking water throughout your home. While no homeowner is safe from the risk of frozen pipes during the coldest winter days, mobile homes can be even more vulnerable to this risk due to several factors. 

Mobile homes sit above ground and do not have a basement where pipes can be insulated from the cold. Depending upon its foundation type, a home that sits above ground can face a higher risk of pipes freezing. Newer homes, such as many of the ones that reside on a property managed by Harmony Communities, tend to fare better due to frost-resistant foundations. 

However, during very cold temperatures, nobody is immune to frozen pipes. And as damage from burst pipes can cost you a great deal of time and money, it is important that mobile homeowners and tiny homeowners take special precautions as well as understand what to do in the event that their pipes freeze.

Steps to Prevent Freezing:

• Robust and intact skirting around the bottom of your mobile home is one of your best defenses against frozen pipes. Unless your home has a foundation, you will have skirting around the bottom. Checking your skirting thoroughly before very cold weather hits, or before you go on a winter trip, is imperative. Unfortunately, skirting can often be compromised by lawn maintenance issues, shrub overgrowth, kids’ soccer balls, digging pets, and/or varmints looking for shelter. Any opening in skirting allows cold air to flow under your home and greatly increases the risk that your pipes will freeze. If your skirting is broken or worn, it might be time to replace it. Certain types of skirting are better than others; some is made with built-in insulation, which can make protecting your home from the cold even easier. Consider investing in high-quality skirting; it will be worth it in the long run. 
• It is important that underlayments are intact. Underlayments are plastic vapor barriers that fit snugly under your home, keeping moisture and pests out as well as the climate-controlled air inside. Torn underlayments can let moisture and cold airflow in. In addition, your underlayments should enclose insulation that also maintains warmth below your home in the winter months. If your underlayment is worn, your insulation might be as well. Ensuring your underlayment and insulation are in good working order will help to ensure that your home is ready for the winter months. 
• Consider water pipe insulation. Insulation sleeves for your pipes can be purchased at any hardware store. Placing sleeves around any pipes that could be exposed to the elements will help prevent freezing. Make certain the insulation fits as snugly as possible to prevent any wind from passing through to the pipe.
• A freezing level warning light can make for a good investment; this will tell you when temperatures are dropping to the level that might freeze pipes. Or simply watch the weather forecast; you especially should be concerned when temperatures are expected to drop into the teens or lower. If a particularly cold spell is on the way, you can leave one of your faucets on enough to drip. This will relieve pressure on the line; flowing water is much less susceptible to freezing. To ensure you are not wasting money on water, consider this only on the coldest nights of the year, and you can always place a container below the drip and use what you collect to water plants, make tea, etc. 

What to Do if a Pipe Freezes

If your pipe has already burst, unfortunately, there is not much you can do except to call a plumber. Your Harmony Communities office manager should have recommendations for reliable plumbers in your area. 

If you are lucky to have caught the pipe before it has burst, the first thing you should do is to open the water tap; this will allow the pressure in the pipe to release and will reduce the likelihood of that frozen section causing the pipe to burst.

Finding a frozen pipe can be tricky. In a mobile home, it is most likely going to be under the floor. It may also be closest to any compromise in the low wall or floor of the home. In other words, you could have an undetected draft that needs fixing. Once you have access to the pipe, a cool laser pointer temperature detector can be run along the pipe and will reveal where the temperature is near or below 32 degrees, or simply using touch – your hands – should tell you when you reach the frozen spot. 

Once you have found the frozen spot, wrapping the pipe with a warm towel is one option to help it thaw. Have patience and thaw the pipe slowly. The act of thawing the water too fast can lead to a sudden rush of pressure that can burst your pipe.

Heating the space near the pipe (such as inside a cabinet) using a space heater may also be an option; warming ambient air will help to thaw the pipe. However, do not use an electric heater or other devices – such as a hairdryer – directly under or close to the pipe; leaking water can cause an electrocution hazard. You can also let the heat of your home get to the pipes by opening cabinets or crawl space doors. Again, always open the faucet before thawing. 

An Ounce of Prevention…

If it appears there could be a broken pipe, turning off the main water valve to the home – if feasible – can relieve pressure and stop a burst pipe from becoming a major flood. Then call a plumber. 

As unfortunate and costly as this situation may be, take comfort in the fact that most standard homeowner policies provide coverage for burst pipes. This means your policy may cover the repair of the pipe as well as any repairs needed to damaged walls, furniture, and rugs.

Of course, the best scenario is to prep your mobile home to reduce the risk of frozen pipes in the first place. Nobody wants to come home to a burst pipe! 

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.