Klinker's Lumber Shares a Winter Prep Checklist for Pike County Homes

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The first hard freeze has a way of finding every weak spot in a house: the outdoor spigot nobody covered, the water line running through a cold crawl space, the back door that never quite seals.

Jarrett Klinker, vice president of Klinker’s Lumber & Builder’s Supplies in Waverly, spends this stretch of the year helping Pike County families get ahead of those problems before the temperature drops. The family business, at 100 Seventh Street in Waverly, dates to 1948. After the furnace filter, Klinker said, there are a few things every family should have on hand before the first hard freeze.

Start with the spigots

First on his list are outdoor faucet covers. “These little foam covers are cheap and inexpensive and will protect your outdoor spigots from freezing throughout the winter months,” Klinker said.

The store also carries a product called the Freeze Miser, which threads onto an outdoor spigot and needs no batteries or electricity. It activates at 37 degrees and lets water slowly drip and flow so pipes do not freeze. No water is released until the temperature falls to 37 degrees, and Klinker’s keeps it in stock for $32.99.

Rounding out the list: sidewalk salt and a snow shovel, so a cleared walkway keeps guests and others from falling, and an ice scraper and snow brush for the car or truck, so nobody is clearing snow in frigid temperatures with the wrong tool.

What customers are coming in for

Inside the house, Klinker said a lot of customers right now are replacing insulation or adding to it, in attics and even in floor joists. Others are picking up weatherstripping to seal around their doors for the colder weather, and some are getting heat tape and pipe wrap early to get ahead of the first freeze.

Protecting pipes, and the mistake to avoid

For pipes in crawl spaces and unheated garages, the store carries heat tape and pipe wrap insulation to cut the chances of a freeze. The biggest mistake Klinker sees comes after one. “Heating the pipes up too fast after the freeze, heating them up with a heat gun or torch shortly after the freeze, will bust or even crack water lines,” he said. His advice is to wait as long as possible, until the water is no longer frozen.

Drafty older homes

For an older Waverly home with a draft, Klinker pointed first to the windows. A window shrink film over older windows, especially ones where a draft is easy to feel, protects against drafts, moisture and cold temperatures. The install is simple: cut the film to size, put it up with double sided tape and finish with a hair dryer. Done across the older windows in a house, it can save on the electric bill.

For doors, he said, check the weatherstripping on every exterior door, since worn stripping lets the draft in. Last is the attic: put in new, thicker insulation, or layer fresh insulation on top of what is already there.

Ready for an outage or a burst pipe

For a winter power outage, Klinker said a family has to have a backup source of heat, whether it is a propane or natural gas heater or a kerosene heater, and batteries and flashlights are a must have. The store has seen a huge spike in generators in recent years, and a generator keeping a home up and running can also help keep the water lines underneath the home from completely freezing.

If a line does bust, knowing how to turn the water off at the main shutoff can be a game changer, he said, even if snow and ice on the ground make getting to it difficult. Keeping spare plumbing fittings on hand helps too, along with short pieces of pipe left over from a previous repair job.

Klinker’s Lumber & Builder’s Supplies is at 100 Seventh Street in Waverly.

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