Woodland Plumbing and HVA Offering Free Classes to Prevent Home Damages
Trevor Phipps
Now that the weather is beginning to cool down, local plumbers say it is time to start thinking about taking those steps to prepare for the winter.
According to the State Farm website, the company paid out more than $800 million for over 32,000 claims involving frozen pipes and water damage in Colorado alone.
The majority of the cases tend to happen during the fall when the temperatures first begin to drop. To help reduce the number of insurance claims and property damage incidents this season, plumbers Caleb Lopez and Mark Keesling from Woodland Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning look forward to holding free classes at the library in Woodland Park all through the fall season to help local residents with damage prevention methods.
Lopez has already taught basic plumbing 101 classes at the library and during the fall he plans to focus more on freeze prevention. His first class where he will give tips on how to prevent frozen pipes will take place this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Woodland Park Public Library with the next occurring on September 28 at 10:30 a.m.
“Overall, the purpose of the class is to be informative and helpful. The first part of the class will be focused on just general tips and tricks of living in this environment,” Lopez said. “Just common things that if you are not aware of, you should be aware of like how to properly insulate the home and things like that.”
Lopez said that the second portion of the class will focus on what to do in case the power goes out during a snowstorm that strikes in the wintertime. He mentioned the incident last spring during which mainly local residents, mainly in the Cripple Creek area, lost power for multiple days and were having issues keeping their home heated.
“The second part will be more about if you do lose power,” Lopez said. “Do you have backup power? Do you have an alternate heat source? Do you have a way to keep your lines from freezing? We could lose power out here for two or three days at a time in below-zero temperatures.”
The plumber said that the last part of the class will be focused on a total winterization and freeze prevention process specifically for seasonal residents. He will discuss ways to properly protect a home for residents who leave their homes unoccupied during the winter months.
Keesling, who owns Woodland Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning and has been a plumber for more than two decades, believes it is vitally important to help educate his fellow residents. He said that damage is often caused by residents not doing minor things during the winter like disconnecting their garden hoses from the outside water sprocket.
He said that during the big snowstorm last spring, his company received dozens of calls from people whose furnaces and water heaters weren’t working because the exhaust vents on their roofs were covered with snow. He said that many residents’ equipment stopped working, and they didn’t know why. But since a number of key roadways were closed, they couldn’t respond to every call they received.
“I like the idea of people being a little bit better informed on some of these things,” Keesling said. “I think about my own grandmother in these situations who might not know how to shut her own water off or do some of these little things. We want the community to be informed about small things they can do to protect themselves.”
Keesling is a long-time resident with big roots in the area.
He grew up in Teller County, graduated from Woodland Park High School and still has several family members living in the area. He started plumbing in Breckenridge just after graduating high school, but he eventually chose to return to Woodland Park to raise his own family. Along with 23 years of experience in plumbing, he has also been working on heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) for the last 15 years.
“I wanted to start a business in this area particularly not just because I have deep ties to the community,” Keesling said. “I have always had a passion and a heart for helping people in our area, in our own community. I don’t like some of the price gouging that goes on in the community. I like the idea of providing better service to our community.”
Keesling and Lopez are available for any plumbing needs and they can be reached at (719) 642-8449 or woodland.phac@gmail.com.
