Cold weather can cause pipes and heating systems to fail—even in Metro Vancouver.
Last January’s plunging temperatures took many homeowners in the Lower Mainland by surprise as they rushed to protect areas of their home and garden that would normally survive a mild West Coast winter.
Unfortunately, the freezing temperatures played havoc with exposed pipes that hadn’t been properly shut off and drained, or heat traced and insulated. And many heating systems that had just been limping along, couldn’t ramp up to provide enough heat to homeowners in the cold weather.
Our team worked day and night over that period to provide temporary fixes to plumbing systems (all we can do until the system thaws), and restore heat to homes. But in many cases, the damage was done. Once the weather warmed up, pipes that had been ruptured by frozen water thawed and began to leak. The bottom line? A little preparation at this time of year can save you a lot of discomfort and money down the road.
Severe weather events are here to stay. Prepare now, to avoid trouble later.
Since severe weather events are becoming the norm, it pays to prepare your home for winter as though atmospheric rivers, snow, and freezing temperatures are here to stay for a least a couple of days and weeks each winter. The hour or so you take to prepare in the fall, is time well spent compared to the damage and cost of ruptured pipes and backed up storm drains, or the discomfort of a furnace or boiler that won’t heat your home during the first cold spell.
Service your heating systems, so you stay warm when the weather turns cold.
One of the best arguments for getting your furnace or boiler serviced annually, is that it maintains your warranty. If your system breaks down, the manufacturer will ask for those service records and if they don’t exist, they can decline or prorate your warranty. That’s why annual servicing isn’t just a good idea, it’s essential to ensure that you’re covered for repairs or a replacement system.
The other reason, of course, is to ensure you have heat the minute you need it. If you’re like us, you wait until the last possible moment to admit that summer is over, and it’s chilly in your house by the time you turn on the heat. That’s a bad time to discover your system isn’t working. And if your system has barely been coping, really cold weather will expose the problems with your equipment.
Just like your car, boilers and furnaces need to be lubed, oiled, and visually checked on a regular basis, so that any failing parts are replaced and your system’s efficiency is maintained. Watch one of our technicians at work to see what’s involved in a typical boiler servicing.
August and September are great months to get your system serviced, before plumbing and heating experts get busy. Replace your furnace filter at the same time, so that your system isn’t working overtime to draw air through a clogged filter, and your indoor air quality is maintained.
If you still need convincing, FortisBC is offering rebates to offset the cost of having your tankless water heater, gas furnace or boiler, and fireplace serviced. You could get up to $150 in rebates! Learn more at FortisBC or give PJB a call to schedule your service.
Your heat pump needs an annual service too!
If you have a dual fuel heating system, your electric heat pump will be serviced along with your high-efficiency gas furnace. Annual heat pump maintenance is not just about cleaning dirt and debris from the outdoor unit and changing the indoor unit air filter—although those are important tasks. One of the most important, and more difficult, tasks is to determine and interpret key performance indicators (KPIs).
KPIs expose hidden issues that will shorten a system’s life expectancy or cause it to fail, void warranties, increase operating costs and system noise, and reduce capacity—impacting your comfort. When PJB performs an annual service, we check all of these items. Make sure this is being done every time your equipment is serviced.
Shut off and drain outside water taps. Disconnect hoses–even on frost-free hose bibs.
Your outside taps, or hose bibs, stay “wet” up to within an inch of where you connect your garden hose, and are at risk of freezing when temperatures drop. When water freezes it expands, and that can rupture your hose bib on your home’s interior and cause flooding. Towards the end of October, make sure that you disconnect your hoses from your hose bibs, and shut off the water supply to the bibs and drain them. We walk you through the shut-off steps in our FAQ section.
It’s important to remove the hoses from your frost-free bibs as well—every spring we get calls from homeowners who have left garden hoses with sprayer heads on them, attached to their frost-free bibs. The sprayers prevent the bibs from draining, and when the outside taps are turned back on, they discover that the line has frozen and split, and is leaking into the house.
If you don’t have a shut-off valve, you can cover your outside faucet with a faucet insulation kit to prevent it from freezing, or we can install a shut-off for you.
You should also winterize your underground sprinkler systems and any pipes in unheated areas of your home, such as your garage or crawl space. Drain your sprinkler system, and insulate any exposed pipes by installing foam insulation, heat tape, or thermostat-controlled heat cables. If those water sources aren’t needed during the winter, you can also opt to drain those pipes.
Clean your drains and gutters
Once the leaves start to fall, homeowners need to clean their gutters, pop the lids on their drains, catch basins, and sumps and clean them out to ensure that water doesn’t back up during a heavy rainfall. If you need help with this task, or your drainage system seems to be working slowly, our team can check and clean your system, using our vacuum truck.
Get winter-ready with PJB
PJB Mechanical can help you get winter-ready with a heating system tune-up, water shut-off valve installation, or drain inspection and cleaning. If your heating system won’t make it through another winter, we also install dual fuel heating systems (check out the $10,000 FortisBC rebate!), and high-efficiency furnaces and boilers.
For nearly three decades, our family-owned company has provided heating, cooling, plumbing and gas fitting services to homeowners, commercial property owners, and property managers in Delta, Richmond, Vancouver, and Surrey. We offer:
- Certified, bonded, and insured technicians
- Friendly, reliable service
- Seniors’ discounts
- Emergency on-call service 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Please call us at 604-940-2268, or contact us online to book an appointment.