Master plumber offers advice to Do-it-Yourselfers experiencing frozen pipes

By On Mar 15, 2021

SAN ANTONIO – James Hurtado says that despite the foam insulation protecting his pipes, there have been issues with his house standing on raised beams after the Texas wintry weather.

“Before I could even look under the house, all you could hear was the water gushing out,” he said.

With the help of a friend and YouTube tutorials, Hurtado crawled under the muddy, cold house and fixed the problem, only to find another break in the shower.

“Even after I fixed that, there was another leak,” he said.

Hurtado called it finished until the weather got better over the weekend.

He says the hardware store was full of home improvement workers fixing their own problems when it was difficult for professionals to travel in wintry weather.

“It was just a madhouse. You see people in a row, people who like to be crazy about food and all. It was like that in the plumbing department. “

Master plumber Brad Harrell at Harrell Commercial Plumbing says you’ll be in luck finding the parts you need right now. He said the stores were carefully selected.

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“It will be like this for at least a week,” he said.

Harrell encourages people to try the simple work at home when they can, but keeps them from soldering unless they know what they are doing.

“The homeowner can try to glue it if they have PVC, something that will break. You can try that when you have glue and primer, ”he said.

Harrell also offered an easy solution that DIY enthusiasts can do with consumables they may be able to find, like a 2-inch hub with no hub and some hose clamps. (See the video above for more information.)

“This is a plaster that works on both copper and PVC. Galvanize any pipe that could be damaged by freezing,” said Harrell.

Harrell says plumbers will be pretty busy for a few days and many will work through the weekend. He asks customers to call multiple experts and put themselves on their waiting list.

The master plumber says even people who took precautions found themselves with frozen pipes.

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SAWS will open locations for the distribution of water in large quantities on Friday

Harrell said if you have a leak now turn off your main water meter. And even those who now run out of water should turn off the meter to avoid damage.

“When SAWS is bringing the water to you, you don’t want the water to go to the system immediately and it could shock the system, break pipes and cause problems,” he says.

Here is a video from SAWS of how to turn off the meter with a crescent wrench.