Frozen pipes? Frozen credit?

You can do something about the pipes By Tim Lessard Special to PRIME January. Coldest month of the year in the Pioneer Valley. Average temperature, 27 degrees. Brrr. A harsh winter month. Harsh economic times, too. Average Dow, 8200 points. Brrr. Let's save you some money, then, if not in the market, at least in your home by getting prepared, Boy Scout like, for the cold. The watery truth Eighty percent of all household financial losses and insurance claims are due to plumbing emergencies. Chief among them, frozen pipes. Remember, it only takes 31 degrees for a pipe to freeze. What can you do about frozen pipes so you can save yourself the expense and the nuisance of finding your basement in four inches of water some frigid January morning? You don't want to spend your two most precious commodities money and time on frozen pipes and floods. You're probably using them both to stop the hemorrhage in your portfolio these days. If your basement does flood, of course, there are two problems to take care of. First, and most obvious, is to vacuum up the water. Second, but less obvious, is the need to dry out everything absolutely everything so your home is protected from any future growth of toxic black mold. Black mold Like a bad sub-prime loan eating its toxic way across the financial landscape, this dark fungus perpetuates itself behind the walls, under the rugs, and around the damp spots of your home and sets up a potential health hazard for your family. A 1999 Mayo Clinic study found that nearly all chronic sinus infections are the result of mold. Neither plant nor animal, mold is a fungus that requires food, warmth and moisture especially moisture to perpetuate itself. It doesn't even need a mate. It's mono-sexual, and it proliferates itself as quickly as 24 to 48 hours after the flooding. You don't want mold in your home any more than you do stock from General Motors. Pipe preparation 101 To prepare yourself for frozen pipes and flooding beforehand, take two minutes to find out where the major shut off valves for your water supply are. If you have city water, the shut off valve for your entire house is inside between your feed pipe and your water meter. If you have a well, it's between your feed pipe and your water tank. If you have a flood, shut these valves and that will at least stop the flooding immediately. When a pipe freezes, by the way, it does not burst at the point of the ice. It bursts somewhere between the ice and the end of the pipe. The pressure of the water in that section builds up from the ice expanding laterally and pushing against it until the pipe splits. When you let a faucet drip overnight which you should do you're not therefore stopping the water in your pipes from freezing. It still might freeze below 31 degrees, but you're preventing the pressure from building up in your pipes because of the ice. If the worst happens Once the flood water has been vacuumed up, consider hiring a restoration service to thoroughly dry out your basement or the flooded area of your home so that no mold will grow. Although insurance will usually cover that service at the time of the flood, you may get resistance from your insurance company if you submit a claim for mold removal even if it is due to the flood three months down the road. Tim Lessard is a Master Plumber and the president of Lessard Home Solutions of Springfield. Visit his web site at www.lessardhomesolutions.com or call him at 413.736.0066. Tim can also be heard on John Walter's Home Improvement Show on WMAS AM the second Saturday of of every month at 11:00am.