While just about everyone is aware that freezing weather can break plumbing pipes, many homeowners don’t know that dry, hot weather is equally damaging to our Garland plumbing pipes.
Over the last couple of decades, it’s been quite noticeable that landscapes here in the Dallas and Garland areas have been suffering from dry weather and low rainfall which robs our lawns and landscape foliage of water, making the ground around our homes dry up and crack like miniature earthquakes, which in turn is a major cause of plumbing leaks near and around our home’s foundations.
While a lot of us keep trying to water the lawns just enough to ensure our grass doesn’t completely die off, it’s not easy because quite a bit of watering is required to keep it alive. With water conservation efforts going on in many locations, we don’t have the luxury of keeping lush lawns like we used to even a few short decades ago.
For many years now, homeowners in our area of the country could look at their home’s foundations and see where the lawn and soil are drying up and pulling away from the concrete foundation, with myriads of tiny cracks in the dirt that travel all around the yard.
When the heat scorches our ground like this, buried water pipes have an increase in water pressure which adds strain to pipeline walls, making older pipes more susceptible to bursting.*
Many water main breaks and problems have been reported all across the country from coast to coast, triggered by summer’s high-temperature records. This not only causes problems with water resources by wasting millions of gallons of water, but it also shuts off water to countless consumers when they need it the most.
While the home’s water pipes are affected the least because of the materials the pipes are made of, water main lines that are older consist of concrete which is more vulnerable to breaking from dry ground. Many areas of the country have begun campaigns to replace the old pipe, reroute to alternative water sources, and/or combine utilities with other systems like local natural gas providers.
In the coming decades, hotter summers cause levels of water in reservoirs, lakes, and oceans to fluctuate. Due to climate change, these fluctuations damages to water and sewer systems.
Around a home’s foundation, the ground needs to be kept from cracking and drying out. Otherwise, the foundation will dry and the soil around pulls away, exposing your plumbing pipes. The additional pressure this causes on the pipes causes breaking and splitting.
How Can I Keep My Pipes From Damages Caused By Dry Hot Weather?
Keeping the soil around the foundation correctly moisturized is about the only way homeowners can ensure that at least this area of the plumbing system is protected from drying out.
So watering your lawn is good, but watering it mainly around your foundation is more important than other areas if you were to have to choose. And with conservation efforts going on nationwide, it’s often a matter of having to choose how much, where, and how often we water our landscapes.
When your pipes break, especially underground or under your home’s foundation, it can be a big problem. You’ll need plumbing specialists like ours here at Hedrick’s Service Now who can offer you advanced methods of locating and repairing your underground and under foundation leaky plumbing pipes.
Plumbing specialists with the right technology help you to save money and keep your lawn from having to be destroyed by digging up trenches and breaking up your foundation to repair the pipes. Video Camera Leak detection and Trenchless Pipe Repair are the two advanced services we offer that can make your pipe repairs cost effective.