How to Winterize Plumbing in Utah

What should you do before freezing temperatures arrive?

Salt Lake Valley winters bring nights well below freezing, and a few cold snaps each season are usually enough to expose any weak spot in a plumbing system. Prevention is a weekend of small jobs. The goal is simple: keep water out of pipes that cannot stay warm, and keep warm air around the pipes that can.

Start with a walk through the places the heat does not reach well. Crawl spaces, garages, attics, exterior walls, the area under a kitchen sink on an outside wall, and the corner where the water line enters the house are the usual trouble spots.

1. Find your main water shutoff and make sure the handle turns. If it is stuck or leaking at the stem, that is worth fixing now rather than during a burst.
2. Check pipes in the crawl space, garage and attic for missing or crushed insulation, and wrap bare runs with pipe sleeves or foam tubing sized to fit.
3. Look for gaps where pipes pass through walls, rim joists or foundation vents, and seal them so cold air cannot blow across the pipe.
4. Open cabinet doors on exterior walls during the coldest nights so room air reaches the pipes behind them.
5. Set the thermostat no lower than the level the manufacturer or your own comfort allows, even when you are away, so the whole house stays well above freezing.
6. Test the furnace before the first cold week so you are not finding a heating problem on the same night the temperature drops.

How do you protect hose bibs and outdoor pipes?

Outdoor faucets are the most common place for a winter plumbing failure, because the water inside a hose bib can freeze and split the pipe behind the wall. The damage often stays hidden until spring, when the faucet is turned on and water sprays inside the wall.

Garden hoses left attached trap water in the spigot, which defeats the design of a frost-resistant faucet. Disconnect every hose, splitter and sprayer before the first freeze.

• Disconnect and drain hoses, then store them indoors.
• If the faucet has its own shutoff valve inside the house, close it and open the outdoor spigot to let the remaining water drain.
• Leave the outdoor spigot open after draining so any leftover water has room to expand.
• Add an insulated cover over the faucet only after it has been drained; a cover alone does not protect a full pipe.
• Drain and winterize irrigation lines and backflow assemblies according to the instructions for your system, or ask a professional to do it.
• Check pipes feeding detached garages, sheds and outdoor kitchens, since they sit far from the house heat.

What about the water heater, appliances and sump areas?

Fall is a good moment to look at equipment you only notice when it fails. Check the base of the water heater for rust or dampness, and look at supply connections for corrosion. A small drip that is tolerable in summer can become a bigger problem once a pipe is stressed by cold.

If you have a washing machine hookup in a cold garage or basement corner, close the supply valves and consider whether that room stays above freezing. A sump pit discharge line that runs outside should drain freely rather than hold water that can freeze solid.

How do you handle a vacant home or a winter trip?

A house nobody is living in is the riskiest situation, because a small failure can run for days before anyone sees it. If you are leaving for more than a few days, or you own a seasonal property, a vacation rental or a house between tenants, plan the shutdown deliberately.

Keeping the heat on and asking someone to check the house is the simplest approach for a short absence. For a longer vacancy, a full drain-down is more reliable, but it has to be done completely, and a partial drain is worse than none.

1. Decide whether the heat will stay on or the plumbing will be drained. Do not leave a vacant house half set up.
2. If the heat stays on, set the thermostat to a safe temperature, ask someone to visit on a schedule, and consider a leak sensor that alerts your phone.
3. If you are draining the system, shut off the main, open the lowest faucet and every high faucet, and flush toilets to empty the tanks and bowls.
4. Drain the water heater according to its manufacturer instructions, and turn off gas or power to it before you do.
5. Ask a plumber about traps, dishwashers, ice makers and washing machines, which hold water that a simple drain-down misses.
6. Keep a record of what you shut off so you can restart in the right order.

What if a pipe freezes anyway?

Even a careful household can have a pipe freeze during an extreme cold snap. Prevention lowers the odds; it does not remove them. If water stops flowing or only a trickle comes out during freezing weather, work through the signs and safe thawing steps in our guide on how to tell if pipes are frozen, and keep the main shutoff location in mind so you can stop a leak quickly.

For a burst pipe, shut off the water at the main first and then call. Rocket lists emergency hours as 24/7 at (385) 722-7638.