Winterizing your home
The season has arrived bringing the possibility for water lines to freeze up. The Evergreen Metropolitan District wants to encourage you to take the necessary precautions that will prevent this from happening and to alleviate any undue inconvenience, and costly repairs, that might arise from this phenomenon.
There are several things that you can do right away which will help prevent the water lines from freezing:
- Know the location of your inside water shut-off valve. IF there is a water pipe leak, you can quickly shut the water off. It may take up to an hour or more for a technician to arrive and assist in finding the shut-off value.
- This is generally good knowledge to have in case you ever need to install a new appliance or repair a leak.
- Disconnect all garden hoses from the outside hose bibs.
- Shut off all outside water hose bibs, if they can be isolated.
- Make sure the basement and/or crawl space is adequately heated.
- Make sure there is insolation between the outside walls and any water pipes.
- Turn on one of your faucets and keep it slowly dripping at night.
Responsibility of your pipes
The Evergreen Metro District is responsible for the maintenance and/or repair of the water service line from the water main in the street to the outside shut-off valve located at the property line or in the meter pit. The owner is responsible for the water service line from the property line to the house and all the pipes that are inside the house, including the pipes connecting the water meter.
Homeowners are also responsible for replacing the water meter if the meter is destroyed due to water line freeze-up. Cost to replace the meter is $350.00.
Frozen Lines
If you do encounter a frozen water service line, items to look for are open doors in crawl spaces, cold air blowing in on water pipes, hoses connected to the hose bibs, water lines running in or along the outside walls.
Some things you could do to rectify the situation yourself are:
- Opening doors to allow warm air inside cupboards or closets,
- Using a space heater in crawl spaces,
- Using a towel drenched in hot water to run up and down the frozen pipes.
Make sure to open your faucets while attempting to thaw your pipes otherwise the thaw process could cause damage to your pipes.
Still no water:
If none of the above solves the problem, please feel free to call the District at (303) 674-4112, option 5 and arrange to have one of our servicemen come to your house. The serviceman will attempt to locate the frozen area and thaw the frozen water service line if it is between the outside shutoff valve and the water main.
If the line is frozen between the outside shut-off valve and the house, a welder will be required for you, the homeowner, to thaw the pipes.
Nighttime Frozen Lines:
There is very little District personnel can do for no water calls due to a service line freezing at night and will respond to those calls during the following business day. However, the District personnel will respond to broken water service lines during the nighttime hours.
The District hopes that your winter will be a freeze up free one.
Click here for a full page view of the Water Line Freeze-Ups document