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What can be done to prevent the pipes from freezing? Absolutely nothing, except to encourage homeowners to keep their Units warm (which we do by the hand-distributed Winter Newsletter). Unless, of course, we want to spend the thousands and thousands of dollars it would take to redesign minor and major structural portions of our buildings, which is fairly unlikely to happen any time in the near future.

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Besides having a 2 year degree in Business, and a 2 year degree in Engineering, I also worked for 7 years in the maintenance department at a structural steel company, so as a matter fact, I do know what I am talking about (smile). But if any owner has any doubts, print out all of the photographs, take them to the nearest HomeDepot of McLendon’s, and find someone there that is trusted. Ask them if what I am writing is true or not.

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I know that I went over these facts when I was on the old Kenthill Board in 2003 and 2004. Although I explained the above facts to them, owners insisted that installing the hose bib protectors did prevent freezing, and, “Were better than nothing.” [I pretty sure I have gone over the above facts with the new Board when the new Board took over in 2005 (and probably since then, in 2006 and 2007)].

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If it is for example, 27 degrees outdoors, and there is any gap between the gasket and the wood siding of the building itself of any kind, it will also necessarily be 27 degrees on the inside of the hose bib protector. There is no escaping that fact. Hoses bib protectors are not magical devices, intended to ward off evil spirits of severe cold. The seal between that black soft neoprene and the building itself must be there, with absolutely no leakage, in order for the hose bib protector to capture the (somewhat reduced) warmth from the exterior wall of the building (at that point, probably 40 degrees at the most), and prevent the water inside the hose bib and the water pipe that it is attached to it from freezing.

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With few exceptions, a good seal between the black soft neoprene gasket of the hose bib protector and the sides of nearly any Kenthill building is difficult if not impossible to attain (view all the photographs).

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The attached photographs show the typical hose bibs on the sides of most of the Kenthill Townhomes buildings.

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Hose bib protectors consist of an attaching device (the new style has an elastic rubber band), a black soft neoprene foam gasket, and a white oval Styrofoam core).