This story is in Spanish.
Plumbing is one of those things that you do not really think about until you are forced to think about it. This week, as snow, ice and days of below freezing temperatures hit Central Texas, many residents encountered frozen pipes and water leaks.
Jimmy Maas, KUT, spoke with Brad Casebier, CEO of Radiant Plumbing and Air Conditioning in Austin, to find out why cold weather is so difficult for our homes and what to do if there are leaks.
KUT: Brad, you’ve been doing this for a long time. You started with your father as a teenager. Have you ever seen something like this?
Brad Casebier: No, we’ve never seen anything near here. So it was – I do not know the exact number of years – but more than 30 years of plumbing experience. No, nothing is close.
Just so we all have a basic platform from where to start, why is cold weather so difficult on pipes in your home?
Oh, yes, it’s super simple. Water expands when it freezes. Therefore, float ice cubes in your glass. They take up less space, and they rise to the top. So, your pipe is not really designed to expand and then contract. Some new, modern pipes like PEX can freeze better. They will actually stretch and then they have a memory and they go back to their original size. But the buyers and the CBVCs and the buyer, galvanized pipes. It will freeze, and it will stretch the pipe.
Now you may not burst the first time, but the next time it freezes, it starts from a stretched point and it will stretch again. And so, you know, pipe might be frozen three or four times and burst the last time, or it might burst the first time.
At what temperature does it become really difficult for homes, normal homes with modern plumbing, to be affected by the cold outside?
For me personally, if it’s going to freeze 32, 30 degrees at night, I’re not dripping my stuff. Your house holds enough heat and it just freezes for a while and then it gets warm again. It’s a good practice to drip, but what I found from my business side, just to see the volume of the call, is when things really start to break, is when you do not get out of the freezing point during the day and it in the low to mid 20s fall. overnight. And then we start getting a lot of broken pipe calls.
Right. So, for those of us who may be, do you know, thaw and stumble over leaks, what is our first action other than calling you?
I think everyone in Austin who owns a home should know how to shut off the water for their home. Even if you do not have an active leak, go see how your house is going to close now. And then, when that happens, you’re prepared and you’re not trying to do it.
With our call volume, we make a lot of video calls and walkthroughs and help people through these situations. But we can not even answer the phones, there are so many. It’s so hard to get help now. So you are on your own. So you really want to know how to close your water.
The highway is usually in front of your house, along the sidewalk or street.
Yes, mostly to the left or right of your lot. And there’s a big circular cast iron lid, that’s the city meter. And your valve to turn it off should be inside a small, round box or pipe, with usually a green lid or a small lid on top. And it should be the valve that shuts off your home.
How difficult or easy is it to say that we do not have the right tool?
If it is in good condition, you do not need tools. You can pick up the lid, grab the valve, turn and then you’re closed. Over time … the lid disappears and then dirt gets into the box and it eventually gets overgrown, and the homeowner can not panic.
The city always keeps their meter box open because they check your water meter all the time. And there you will need a tool if you are going to use the closure, which will be OK in an emergency. We are not supposed to use the valve as an on-and-off route for your home. It’s the city’s property. But a pair of pliers or a half-wrench. It’s a square valve and you can get pliers or a wrench on it and turn the thing. I think this is a 90 degree closure that will completely shut off the water for your home.
How did you do that? How are the family and employees? I mean, everyone’s in the same boat.
I will be honest. It’s super stressful. I mean, we’m sad. I mean, we see call after call and read the notes and chat with these customers. And their lives are essentially being destroyed, you know, and we really can not get to them. So, yes, there is a lot to tackle. And then the CSR team is just hammered with calls. So it’s a lot. And we want it to thaw and that the roads are safer and that we can move faster to get people a resolution.