Halloween is tomorrow, the clocks fall back Sunday, and across a lot of the country the first hard freeze isn't far behind.
That makes this the weekend for the jobs that only matter once it's cold. The most important one takes an afternoon, a flashlight and a pair of scissors.
Below: how to sleeve the pipes that freeze first, the foam we'd use, the hair choking your vacuum, the mattress turn most beds want, two furnace pipes to keep clear, and why clay pots crack over the winter.
Reply and tell us: where's the coldest pipe in your house? We read every one.
Sleeve the Pipes That Freeze First
Image: The Home Wire
A pipe doesn't have to split wide open to soak a floor. Per Maine's emergency management agency, a crack just 1/8 inch wide can release up to 250 gallons of water a day.
The pipes that freeze first are the ones your heat doesn't reach. The American Red Cross lists them: supply pipes in garages, crawl spaces, attics and unheated basements, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and pipes along outside walls with little insulation.
Start where the water comes in. The Red Cross says frozen pipes turn up most often against exterior walls and where the water service enters the house through the foundation.
Foam pipe sleeves are the cheap fix, and the time to put them on is before the first hard freeze. Here's the afternoon:
Find the exposed pipes. Walk the garage, crawl space, attic and basement with a flashlight, and open the sink cabinets on outside walls.
Match the size. The package lists the pipe sizes it fits. Hold a sleeve against your pipe before you buy a whole run.
Press the sleeve on. Open the slit, push it over the pipe, then peel the strip and press the edges shut.
Tape the seams. Butt each new piece tight against the last and wrap the joint with duct tape.
Fit the valves. Cut a notch around each valve and bend, and leave every handle free to turn.
Do the hot lines and the cold lines both, the Red Cross says.
Foam slows how fast a pipe loses heat. In a long, hard cold snap, a pipe in an unheated space can still freeze, which is where UL-listed heat cable comes in, per the Red Cross. Keeping the garage door shut helps too.
Out of sleeves before a surprise freeze? The Red Cross says even 1/4 inch of newspaper gives real protection where cold snaps are short.
Renters, those pipes are the landlord's, so ask first. Sleeves come off cleanly, which makes it an easy yes. Scroll down for the foam we'd use.
Worth a Look
The Foam Sleeves We'd Put on Garage Pipes
For a first pass on exposed pipes, Duck Brand Foam Pipe Covers are the ones we'd point you to, at $11.00 at time of writing.
A pack holds six 12-inch sticks, so 6 feet of cover. Duck lists them for 1/2- to 3/4-inch pipe with an R-value of 3.6, pre-slit with a self-sealing edge and rated to 212 F, so they work on hot lines too.
TLDR: R-value measures how well insulation slows heat flow. The higher the number, the slower the pipe loses heat.
That's the right size for the job above: a run of garage pipe, the line along an outside wall, the pipes under a sink.
We haven't installed these ourselves. The specs come from Duck's Amazon listing.
That said, reviewers are split on the adhesive, and 1-foot sticks mean a seam every foot. Keep a roll of duct tape handy, and measure your run first, since 6 feet goes fast.
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The Hair Wrapped Around Your Vacuum's Brush
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If your vacuum leaves fluff behind on the rug, turn it over before you blame the motor. Hair, pet fur and thread wind around the spinning brush roll, and Kirby says that buildup limits suction over time and hurts how well the brush works.
Kirby's advice is to clean it about once a month, especially if tangled hair is a regular problem in your house. Here's the job:
Unplug the vacuum, or take the battery out.
Put on thick gloves.
Cut the wrapped hair with a hook blade or razor, always cutting away from yourself.
Pull the cut strands free, all the way to both ends of the roll.
Scrub off stuck dirt with a stiff bristle brush.
Spin the roll by hand to check it turns freely.
How you reach the roll depends on the model. Some pop out with a latch and some don't come out at all, so check your manual first.
It also gets easier the more often you do it, Kirby notes. A month of hair cuts free far faster than a year of it.
Renters, this one's all yours, and it takes about 10 minutes.
The Mattress Turn That Can Add a Year
Flipping a mattress over is old advice, and for most beds today it's the wrong move. Per the Sleep Foundation, most modern mattresses are one-sided: a firm support core on the bottom, the comfort layers on top.
What most beds do want is a rotation. Turn it 180 degrees so the head becomes the foot.
Your hips and shoulders press hardest, and those spots sag first. Rotating spreads that wear around, and the Sleep Foundation says a regularly rotated mattress can outlast one that isn't, potentially by a year or more.
How often, if your manual doesn't say:
Memory foam and latex: 1 to 2 times a year
Newer innerspring: 1 to 2 times a year
Older innerspring: 2 to 5 times a year
Two exceptions. Only flip a bed the maker says is double-sided, and don't rotate one with a zoned comfort system, which puts extra support where your hips go.
Rotation only stretches a mattress's life so far. Even with good care, the Sleep Foundation says most mattresses need replacing every 6 to 8 years.
Sunday's clock change makes a handy reminder. Grab a second person for the lift, and it works the same in a rental.
The Two White Pipes Your Furnace Needs Clear
Image: The Home Wire
If you have a high-efficiency gas furnace, go look at the outside wall nearest it. A condensing furnace usually has two white PVC pipes sticking out of the house, per Trane: an intake for air and an exhaust.
Lennox says those pipes need to stay free of ice, snow, bird nests and insects. A blocked pipe hurts efficiency and can cause a dangerous buildup of carbon monoxide.
Trane furnaces have a safety feature that shuts the furnace off when the flue is blocked. So if the heat quits after a heavy snow, Trane says to check that the flue is clear.
In fall, the usual culprit is leaves. Wind piles them against the house, right where those pipes sit.
This weekend's job takes five minutes:
Find both pipes on the outside wall.
Pull out leaves and nests from the openings and the ground just below them.
Set a reminder to check them after every deep snow this winter.
If you can't easily reach them, Lennox says a dealer can check them for you. And make sure your carbon monoxide alarm works.
Renters, if you spot a blockage you can't clear, tell the landlord the same day.
Why Clay Pots Crack Over the Winter
Image: The Home Wire
Terra cotta and ceramic planters soak up water. When that water freezes, it expands outward, and the outside of the pot starts to chip and flake, per University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners.
Every freeze and thaw works the damage a little deeper, like an accordion opening and closing. With enough moisture in the soil, a pot can crack clean through.
Their fix, once the plants are done:
Empty out the soil.
Clean the pots.
Empty the saucers so no water sits in them.
Slip each pot into a plastic lawn bag to keep moisture out, and mice too.
Store them in the garage or another sheltered spot.
Hoping to keep a plant alive in its pot? The Master Gardeners say only the hardiest plants in very large containers, like half-barrels, tend to make it through.
Pot too big to move? Wrapping it in plastic helps, the Master Gardeners say, but it's no guarantee.
Replacing a cracked one? Plastic and composite planters hold up better in winter, and concrete holds up best. Wood gives a little as the soil expands, so it's less likely to crack.
Balcony gardeners, this one's yours too. A closet works as well as a garage.
One quick tap
Which should we cover next?
That's Friday: pipes to sleeve, the foam for it, a vacuum brush, a mattress turn, two furnace pipes and the clay pots.
If you only do one thing this weekend, take a flashlight into the garage and look for bare pipe.
Forward this to whoever in your house owns the toolbox.
Have a good weekend.
The Home Wire
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