Plumbers urge homeowners to check frozen pipes ahead of mid-week warmup to avoid headaches

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - With southern Coloradans experiencing nearly 4 days of sub-zero wind chill temperatures, plumbers are warning that our mid-week warm-up will likely result in burst pipes for homeowners.

Schnibble Services, a plumbing business in Colorado Springs since 2008, says that homeowners with copper piping should be diligent in testing their sinks, toilets, and showers and try to thaw pipes out if they suspect there's a blockage.

"If you're not getting water to a toilet or water to a sink,  that should be setting off alarm bells, because that restriction is probably ice and you need to get it thawed out," explained Greg Young, the owner of Schnibble Services.

Young says that copper pipes are the main culprit for burst pipes, as the metal is unable to handle the act of shrinking and then expanding again when temperatures warm up like they will on Wednesday, Jan. 17.

"[Water] could drain out of a half-inch copper line, you know, nine gallons a minute and easily just dump one out of there," said Young "It could be thousands of dollars in damages if you don't get on it right away."

What Young says homeowners need to do, is to let a sink drip to keep water moving through the pipes, but stresses that if they have a set of pipes that are already frozen this week, do not wait for it to thaw out itself.

"Try to get it thawed out, get some heat on it, open the cabinet doors up. Let that cool air get out of there," said Young. "If you have something frozen and you're concerned, don't wait, don't wait until Wednesday to get this figured out because we're all going to be slammed [that day]."

Young says any of those sinks, or bathrooms on the outer parts of one's home should be the pipes they keep a particular eye on. In addition, he stresses that homeowners know exactly where and how to turn their water off, should you have a pipe burst open.