The bone chilling, potential pipe-bursting arctic weather, that rarely frequents Southeast Louisiana, is on its way for early next week.
Paul Lagrange, host of the "Home Improvement Show" on WWL, offers some advice on how to protect your home Tuesday and Wednesday when the mercury is expected to plunge into the 20s, and that's not including factoring in the wind chill.
He says, "Now's the time for to take action while supplies are in hardware stores and big box stores. You want to look for split pipe insulation and;those plastic insulated covers that go over the hose bibs. If you're living in a rural area and have water wells you want to look for blankets to wrap around the water tank itself."
Lagrange says the important thing is to insulate in some manner anything that could freeze and expand.
He says that as you're buying insulation, "make sure that the inside size of the insulation is matching the size of your piping."
As for the pipes in your attic, Lagrange says that if you're heating your home, they should not be impacted to a bursting point because of the warmth moving through the ceiling, unless you have an isolated pipe that could be more impacted by the freezing temperatures.
Lagrange says there are options if you can't get the insulation you may need to address any pipe concerns.
He says one of those is to, "Run your water at the faucet that is the furthest away from where the water enters your home. It's just a steady drip to keep that water moving through the plumbing piping system so that it won't freeze."
Lagrange says another option is to shut the water off to your home and open the faucets to clear them of water, but then you have to go in reverse order to resume water flow into your home.
