Colorado plumbers brace for busy days as freezing temperatures bring inevitable frozen pipes
Not everyone gets to stay inside on Colorado's coldest days of the year. In fact, for some, it means they'll be even busier.
DeShawn Anderson's Saturday started early, but given the weather, that's no surprise.
"You start preparing days in advance for times like this," said Anderson. "Every year. Yeah, just maybe just one. But we're always going to get that one every winter."
He's a master plumber with AAA Service in Golden. He's been doing this job for 11 years and knows that when the temperatures get this cold, he'll be busy.
"These temperatures just bring frozen pipes," Anderson said. "It's kind of inevitable when it gets to these temperatures. It takes a lot of, you know, insulation and, you know, high heat in order to keep our pipe stocked during this time."
Saturday morning, his day started by fixing a leak, and although it probably wasn't caused by the cold, the weather still hung like an albatross over his day affecting what he could and couldn't do.
"I'm going to solder inside. It's too cold out here," Anderson said as he preps a copper pipe for repair.
Even still, he says he doesn't mind the cold overall.
"I'm born and raised in Wisconsin, so the cold doesn't scare me too much, and neither does the snow. So, you know, besides the abnormal amount of freezes we get, it's just a normal day out in the field," said Anderson.
But if you want to do him a favor by cutting down on his workload and keeping your pipes intact, he says a few simple steps should keep the plumber away.
"Try to put a little bit of a space heater around those pipes," Anderson said. "Make sure you keep your cabinets open, and you can even keep a drip or, you know, a slight, steady, running of your faucets in order to prevent them from freezing."
