It is a common knowledge that winters in Toronto are very cold, top it up with closeness to the lake and you have perfect conditions for basement flooding. This is the last thing you want to deal with during the cold season. Decrease of temperature and icing of the water in soil can cause cracks and leaks letting the moisture to your basement. As a result you could have mildew, mold and damage to the staff you store in the basement.
If your home is not ready for winter, cold temperatures can harm your plumbing system and lead to costly damage caused by burst pipes. So you should take certain measures to protect your plumbing system from winter weather and avoid costly burst pipes issues. Learn how you can prepare your home and your plumbing for winter and prevent plumbing damage from freezing.
It’s the first step that you should take. Inspect all your pipes and check them for possible leaks. In winter months, even the smallest leak can cause serious problems. If the temperature drops, the water in your pipes can freeze and swell and lead to bursting pipe around the leaky section and spread to surrounding pipes which can be expensive and time-consuming to fix. If you notice any signs of leaks, you should have all leaks repaired early because that can save you unnecessary work in the future.
Water pipes in your crawl area, garage, basement or attic are more vulnerable to freezing when the temperature drops. Insulation is the first thing you should do to prevent leaks, cracks and burst pipes in these unheated areas and it will be wise to protect pipes in closets or under sinks as well. Wrap all exposed pipes using heat tape, insulation foam or insulation sleeves and do not leave any gaps.
Turn off outdoor faucets and taps and drain water from them. A good idea is to turn off the water supply to them. Disconnect and drain water hoses and store them indoors in winter.
Give your water heater a tune up. You should drain and maintain your water heater to get rid of sediments at the bottom of the tank but as it’s hard to do it yourself, you should call a qualified professional for this task. He will do a professional check and repair to keep you from making an emergency call to a plumber in winter.
Leave cabinets doors open under sinks in your bathroom, kitchen or basement to allow warm air to circulate and insulate the pipes to prevent them from freezing.
Make sure your heating system is in good order and do not turn off your furnace even if you are going away for winter holidays. You should keep the thermostat set at least to 55 degrees to avoid thousands of dollars in water in water damage from a burst pipe.
It’s vital to invest your time and take care of your plumbing system before the winter sets in so you don’t have to worry about frozen pipes or deal with any plumbing emergency in winter when you need your pipes the most. If you want to get a professional plumbing system inspection, contact our team of certified plumbing experts at Tornado Plumbing. We will gladly help you prepare your plumbing for winter. We also provide emergency plumbing services 24/7 and offer competitive rates.
On average a property owner will need to replace sewer lines once in a lifetime. Pipes are not supposed to serve forever and the older the sewer pipes are the more likely homeowners are going to have problems with them. Although modern PCV pipes are supposed to have a lifespan of over 100 years, temperature drops may cause sewer pipes cracks. Cracked sewer pipes are not just a costly repair —they can result in extensive and pricey damage to your property and lead to serious health risks. It’s important that drain line repair and sewer line replacement tasks should always be performed by certified, professional plumbers
A homeowner from North York contacted Tornado Plumbing team because he had persistent drain issues. The house was built in the late 1980s and he had a clay sewer line. This material can only last for 50 or 60 years and the homeowner was recommended to replace clay pipes because these problems would only get worse over time.
Tornado Plumbing team are fully trained in the use of state-of-the-art equipment and technologies to replace damaged sewer lines. We use new trenchless methods that lead to less damage to driveways and yards than commonly used traditional repair and replacement methods. Besides, these methods are more cost-effective.
In this case, we used the minimally invasive pipe burst method which eliminates the need for digging long and deep trenches and is now widely used in place of traditional sewer line replacement. The entire sewer line replacement was done in a day. We made small holes to access the places at the beginning and at the end of the damaged clay pipe. After that, we pulled a new plastic pipe through the existing clay pipe which burst the old damaged pipe into small pieces while simultaneously laying new pipe.
The old clay pipe was seamlessly replaced with a new plastic pipe and we had the drains running quickly again.
Burst pipes in the water system are the most common plumbing problems for property owners and being a serious source of potential damage to your property, they can become an extremely expensive disaster. If you own a home, a single burst pipe can become a beginning of an endless financial horror story, possibly leading to 
tens of thousands in water damages, creating ideal conditions for growth of toxic mold, and having a negative impact on your home’s value. For business owners, a burst pipe can lead to a flooding that can cause severe damage to sensitive electronic equipment and machinery, resulting in a major economic loss. A burst pipe repair is a serious job that requires urgent professional attention to minimize potential damage and prevent further costs and it should be performed by experienced licensed and certified plumbers.
Fixing pipe bursts is one of the 24/7 emergency plumbing services provided by Tornado Plumbing for residents of Toronto and GTA. We use the most recent plumbing technologies and high-quality materials to ensure that a burst pipe repair is done quickly and efficiently.
A business owner from Toronto Downtown contacted Tornado Plumbing team for emergency plumbing services and reported that a pipe burst in his office because of damage and he was afraid that the water could spread quickly across floors and down walls and cause serious damage to the neighboring offices as well.
We arrived at the office immediately and found the source of the issue. We identified the exact location of the damage. It was plastic piping and the crack was in between joints, that’s why we had to replace the damaged section. We used a hacksaw to remove the damaged part of the pipe and created joints to cross the two undamaged sections. We placed the new pipe section and fixed it with plastic pipe sealant. In this way, we fixed the burst pipe and got the plumbing system working again. Tornado Plumbing team got the job done quickly and properly and saved the customer both time and money.
