One Iowa Business Received 800 Service Calls During Cold Streak

I think it'd be pretty safe to assume every single Iowan is happy to have that terrible winter storm behind us. It brought a lot of snow, road closures, and some truly cold weather. During the winter months, I feel like there are two groups of people.

The first group is people who hate the cold but don't mind the snow. The second group is people who don't mind the cold but hate the snow. I would find myself in the second group. I really don't like the snow.

I hate shoveling, it's no fun to drive when snow is covering the roadways, and snow just makes a big mess. You track it in your house and when it starts to melt, everywhere you go it's constantly wet. It shouldn't but snow annoys me.

I've always thought that when it's really cold, you can just put more clothes on or even better, don't go outside when you don't have to. While we can normally dress for freezing temperatures, being abnormally cold outside can wreak havoc on the pipes at your home. One eastern Iowa business received about 800 calls because of frozen pipes.

If 32 degrees is the freezing point, does that mean your pipes can freeze anytime it's below that? According to American Family Insurance, "temperatures only need to drop to about 20° F for a few hours to put exposed pipes at risk."  It really doesn't take much for the pipes in your house to be at risk, does it? 20 degrees is nothing. That's the perfect temperature to go sledding or ice skating. You can hang out outside for hours at 20 degrees.

During Iowa's most recent cold streak, Master Plumbing Heating and Cooling, located in Cedar Rapids, were kept pretty dang busy. With some evenings of -11 degree temperatures, it's no surprise they received so many service calls.

John Clymer is a service technician with Master Plumbing, and he spoke with KCRG about what to do if you have a pipe burst in your home.

If you do have a pipe burst, make sure to turn your water off right away and then call your insurance. Every situation is different but repairs usually take around an hour.

He also mentioned the best ways to avoid frozen pipes are to get a winterization inspection done in the fall, drip your pipes, and open cupboards to let heat in when you know it's going to be colder than normal.

800 calls! How on earth could they get to all of these calls? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Master Plumbing Heating and Cooling isn't complaining and are glad to have that much business coming in but when I heard that number, the first thing I thought was, how could they possibly get to all of those service calls?

I know I wouldn't want to be on an 800-person waiting list for a problem I needed to be solved sooner rather than later. Get your pipes insulated as soon as you can.