Southern Colorado plumbers share tips to prevent pipes bursting in your home

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - In frigid weather you'd hate to see your water go out from frozen pipes, but a local heating and plumbing company is busy with calls. Big Cat Plumbing shared photos with KRDO13 that show icicles dripping down from frozen pipes.

Many of the recommendations may be common sense for people who live in Colorado but Big Cat shared some good reminders. They say there are common mistakes people make that lead to costly damage when it comes to frozen pipes.

They say one way to stop your house from flooding in the case of broken pipes is by stopping the water. 

"Our number one priority is to make sure we get the water turned off, stop the flooding, and then fix what broke with that," shared co-owner of Big Cat Plumbing, Greg Copas.

The company says you can prevent flooding and freezing by running water to keep the pipes warm. They also shared that the number one culprit they find is frozen garden hoses.

"The main thing we run into frozen pipes with is often a frozen hose because people forget to unhook their hoses," said Copas.

Now Big Cat Plumbing is gearing up for the warming trend on the way. 

"That's a time where usually we see the frozen pipes start to rear their ugly head. So we want to make sure homeowners know where to shut the water off so that they can prevent damage from those frozen lines," explained Copas.

In the meantime, they’ve been working around the clock to restore heat to families in southern Colorado. 

"Over the weekend and into this week, about 40 calls for no heat, came through. Just, people struggling with the heaters not working like it should," said Copas.

HVAC experts also recommend that you change out your furnace filter regularly to prevent the furnace from overheating and shutting down during extreme cold.