How do you prevent household pipes from bursting/freezing?

Question

I will be going on a vacation for a week in december and temps here are below freezing already.

Answer 1

1. Keep your heat on and set the thermostat at 50-55 degrees.
2. Put foam insulation tubes around the basement pipes and pipes inside cabinets (you can get them at Lowes and Home Depot; they're very cheap and come in different diameters for different sizes of pipes).
3. Leave open your kitchen sink cabinet doors open; do the same with your bathroom sink cabinet and any other sink cabinets in the house so the heat from the room gets to the pipes.
4. Turn off the water at the meter and then open the faucets in the house to drain the pipes (there will still be some water in the pipes after the water stops running, so be sure to still do the other steps listed above). Don't forget to shut off the valve behind the toilet bowls and flush the toilets. After you've drained the pipes, don't turn your faucets completely off; leave them on 1/4 turn.
5. Don't forget to shut off valves to outside faucets and then leave the faucet valve open after it's drained.

Be sure there are no stoppers in your sink drains. You can pour a bottle of rubbing alcohol into each toilet bowl as an added precaution for the unlikely event that your house loses all heat.

Answer 2

Keep the temperature up in the house 20 degrees( dont turn it off completely, drain the water lines . Shut off the main water valve usually found closest to the water meter. Turn on every single faucet , hot and cold until no more water comes out.
Some people wrap the pipes closest to the walls with special insulation sleeves or wraps you can find in any hardware store, or places like home depot and Lowes.

Answer 3

In our apartment it's part of our lease that the internal temp of the apt has to be 55 degrees. Otherwise if the pipes burst we're responsible.

Also, you can keep each of the faucets in your house trickling just a bit. That'll keep the water running just enough to keep your pipes from freezing.

Answer 4

Some good and some not so good answers. "anw122" & airboh61" said to keep taps dripping, Niagra falls freeze sometimes, so forget that.
Turn off water at mains valve ,open all taps ( faucets) , flush toilets, and drop a tennis ball into the bowl of WC to absorb ice pressure.
As you are only going for a week it could be to your advantage to leave your heat on.
I personally have a "FROSTAT" installed which overides ALL other controls, and brings on the central heating when the temperature reaches about 40 F inside the house, the advantage is that it goes off again when the house warms up.,
Any electrician can fit one wired on its own circuit.

Answer 5

I live in Wisconsin, and always take a mid winter vacation to Florida every year. I have set up my water pipes with a valve set up so I can easily blow out my water lines. I keep an air compressor in the basement, hook it up, and my lines are cleared.

It takes me about 45 minutes to do this, but it sure is nice being able to relax while I am gone knowing I won't be coming back to burst pipes.

If you can't do this, I suggest you find someone to house watch for you.

Answer 6

Leaving a slight drip in the kitchen tap will prevent freezing and pipes bursting.

Answer 7

You can wrap your exposed pipes with heat tape and insulation. This can be found at most Home Depots or Lowes hardware stores.

Answer 8

Turn your thermostst down and have someone check your house every other day or so.. ! week is no big deal..