Extreme Cold: Protect Your Pipes

Before winter hits

• Disconnect garden hoses from outside spigots. A connected hose traps water and splits the pipe inside the wall.
• Find your main water shut-off now, not mid-crisis — usually in the basement on the street side, near the water meter.
• Feel a cold draft blowing on pipes under a sink or in the basement? Submit a work order — sealing a gap is cheap insurance.

On the truly cold nights (around 20°F and below)

• Drip the cold water at faucets located on exterior walls — a pencil-lead-thin stream. Moving water doesn't freeze easily.
• Open the cabinet doors under kitchen and bathroom sinks so room heat reaches the pipes.
• Keep interior doors open so warm air circulates through the whole unit.
• Never set the thermostat below 55°F — even overnight, even on vacation, even to save money. The savings are not worth a flooded unit.
• Going away for more than a couple days in winter? Tell the office — we'd rather check on a unit than discover a freeze a week later.

If a pipe freezes (faucet stops flowing)

1. Leave the faucet open — flow relieves pressure as it thaws.
2. Warm the pipe gently with a hair dryer or warm towels, starting at the faucet end. Never use an open flame.
3. No luck within 30 minutes, or you can see a bulge or crack? Shut off the main and call the office.

If a pipe bursts

Main shut-off first, then call us — that's a pick-up-the-phone emergency, day or night. Our water leak guide covers the first ten minutes step by step.

Heat out? Space heater rules

No heat in winter is an emergency — call the office, don't just file a form. If you're using a space heater while you wait: hard level floor, three feet from anything that burns, plugged straight into the wall (never an extension cord), and never running unattended or while you sleep. And never, ever use the oven to heat the unit.