LESLIE: Norma in Indiana, welcome to The Money Pit. What can we do for you?
NORMA: I’m wanting to know if I could put my washer and dryer in the garage. Well, I know I could do it but how do I keep it from freezing? My garage is insulated but it’s not heated.
TOM: Well, you know, that’s not so uncommon. You could put it in the garage and in the very, very cold months you’d have to be concerned about those pipes. Now, if the pipes are in the wall between the house and the garage and not in an exterior wall, so it’s heated on one side, then it would be less likely.
If I was going to put it in the garage, Norma, I’ll tell you what I absolutely would do and that is I would have a shut-off valve on there – a single lever shut-off valve on the washer supply – so that you could, with one throw of the lever, very easily turn the water off to the washer. And this way, if it did get so cold out there that it froze, then you would not have to worry about water leaking out other than what was in the hose itself, going from the wall to the washing machine.
NORMA: All I would need is a shut-off valve for extremely cold weather then?
LESLIE: Well, I would turn it off any time after I use it.
TOM: Yeah, exactly. I would turn it off all the time.
NORMA: (overlapping voices) Yes.
LESLIE: You know, just in case.
TOM: Yeah, because if those hoses ever burst, and they do burst, you’ll flood that whole garage out. Norma, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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