You return from vacation in the mountains or a winter holiday at the sea. You want to take a shower, turn the faucet…and nothing! The water had frozen. Also the water can freeze in a heater or a toilet. Other damages can occur when the ice breaks the tubing or a toilet bowl cracks. Nothing from these is a merry situation.
Once you know you will spend some time out of your home and it freezes outside, try to prevent damages and secure everything.
How to prevent freezing of a central heating, water pipeline and toilet?
In case of central heating it is recommended to add an anti-freeze to water in tubes. In case you leave for a longer period, it is always better to empty the heating element completely. In case of water pipeline, the best prevention is to insulate properly or to dig it 1,5 meters underground. In case of a toilet you should add salt to the tank and put 2-3 PET bottles inside.
Snow and ice have disastrous effects on roofs, gutters, chimneys and sidewalks
It is logical that if the snow lies on a roof for a long time, it does not mean anything positive- weight of the snow can break through. This is dangerous especially in case of roof with very slight declination or those completely flat. I
n this case it only helps to take a shovel and scoop the snow away from time to time. If the roof has steep declination it is necessary to prevent different kind of danger- sliding and falling of the snow which can endanger people or their property. In this case it can be secured by snow constraints.
Snow on the roof also endangers your gutters. Melting snow can freeze again in the gutter and it can easily break under the weight of the ice. If the gutter full of leaves and dirt it can be even easier to clog. Thus make sure to clean the gutters before winter. If you find out they are clogged by ice, pour hot water and add salt.
In chimney there are two kinds of danger. Its head can freeze or it can be covered by snow cap. As a result the smoke comes back in to the room. It can be easily resolved- buy a chimney roof.