Maintenance Tip #8: Outside Water Taps

All outside water taps nees to either be insulated before winter or have the water drained out of them. If a person doesn't and the temperature drops below zero, your pipes could burst. Insulating the pipes is self explanatory but draining the water out of the pipes only may be possible with certain homes. To drain the water out of your pipes you need to have a water shut off before your tap. You turn that one off and open up the outside tap and let all the water drain out and then shut off the tap again. At my house, I have one shut off for all of my outside taps that I turn off each winter. Not all houses have these, but they sure are useful.