Greetings SJB-OLA,
As the temps begin to drop, I hope you are all safely home and ready for the Artic Blast.
We will be closing the SJB-OLA parish office tomorrow so that the employees will not have to drive in on slick roads. Hopefully we will reopen Wednesday, January 17th.
Mark Matte a parishioner and local plumber asked me to share this with you.
Please check on elderly neighbors and those less fortunate during the freeze.
I will be keeping all of you in prayer.
Fr Lamar
If this coming freeze is anything like the one that hit Baton Rouge in 1989, plumbers will be overwhelmed, and many families will not find a plumber for a couple weeks. These are lessons learned from that nightmare:
- Turn the heat up in your house in when it gets below freezing, especially when it is in the 20’s or lower, or low 30’s with a strong wind chill. You can decrease the heat in your bedroom by adjusting the vent there, so you can still sleep comfortably with the heat turned up.
- Open a 1 foot gap in your attic stairway to let the heat into your attic. Back then, even the pipes insulated in attics and in walls froze and busted. Many homeowners didn’t realize it until their pipes unfroze and flooded their homes.
- It is important that you know how to cut your water off and you don’t leave your home unattended if your pipes freeze.
- Don’t use a blow dryer to unfreeze your pipes without it being plugged to a ground fault electrical cord or receptacle, and don’t use it at all if you find the pipe has a crack or break.
- To any wannabe plumbers, don’t use a solder torch outside close to any opening in the brick like the tiny gap beside an outside faucet pipe going into the brick wall, that’s an easy way for a fire to start in the wall.
- Inside your home, open the cabinet doors to any kitchen sink or lavatory on an outside wall to allow heat in, many pipes back then busted in the wall, despite having insulation.
- If your house is off the ground, cut a 3 fit wide place plastic sheet and wrap it all around the bottom opening of your house.
- If you have an outside washer or HWH, place a work lamp light high up away from all of the plumbing just to provide some heat in the room, and it is important that the electrical cord or receptacle for the lamp light has a ground fault breaker.
- Insulation to outside faucets and water line to the house may not be enough, install extra insulation or plastic bags, anything that can provide more cover from the wind and hard freeze.
- Don’t run a steady stream on your faucets to prevent freezing, it decreases the water pressure for firemen and others, just have one of them drip every couple seconds.
- Providing insulation and more heat to inside plumbing and extra wrapping outside are the key points.
Sincerely, Mark with Mattes Plumbing.