How to prevent frozen pipes in a Buffalo winter

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The short prevention checklist

1. 1. Insulate exposed pipes: Wrap foam sleeves on pipes in basements, crawl spaces, garages, and along exterior walls. Pay special attention to runs near windows, vents, and foundation gaps.
2. 2. Seal the cold air in: Close foundation vents and seal gaps where cold air blows directly onto a pipe. A draft on one exposed section is often enough to freeze it.
3. 3. Keep heat steady: Keep the house heated, even in rooms that are rarely used. Do not turn heat way down overnight during a cold snap, especially in a house with plumbing on exterior walls.
4. 4. Open cabinet doors: On very cold nights, open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so warm room air reaches those pipes.
5. 5. Let a vulnerable tap trickle: If a tap has frozen before, letting it run at a thin trickle during extreme cold can keep water moving through that run. Use this for known problem taps, not as a substitute for insulation.
6. 6. Know the shutoff before you need it: Find the main water shutoff now, while nothing is wrong. If a pipe does split, shutting the water off quickly limits the damage.

If a pipe freezes

If a tap goes dry in a cold snap

• Open the faucet that tap feeds, so water has somewhere to go as the ice thaws.
• Apply gentle heat — a hair dryer or space heater kept at a safe distance, moving it along the pipe. Never use an open flame or torch.
• Keep cabinet doors open and the room heated while you work.
• Do not use a frozen pipe and ignore it: a pipe that froze once can split, and the leak often shows up during the thaw, not during the coldest night.
• If water starts spreading, a ceiling stains, or the main will not shut off, call now — that is an active-water emergency, not a wait-and-see problem.