As region plunges into deep freeze, cars and homes strain against the cold
Plumbers and mechanics have been busy helping people whose homes and cars are impacted by cold
Whenever a cold snap descends on the London region, plumber Grant Patterson knows he's going to be busy.
We're getting a lot of backed-up sewer drains, a lot of frozen pipes and a bunch of water heater issues," said Patterson, who owns London Plumbing.
"It's really all about preventative maintenance, and unfortunately, sometimes people don't do that."
Patterson has stepped in to help the six plumbers he has on staff because they've been busy the last few days and expect the fast pace to continue, he said.
Just last week, Patterson arrived at an empty rental property on Hamilton Road to find the ceiling collapsed and the bathtub fallen through to the floor below because the pipes had burst and soaked the floor of the bathroom.
"If your property is vacant, make sure you turn off the water in the basement and make sure to keep the heat at 19 degrees Celsius," Patterson said.
Local mechanics have also been kept busy as vehicle batteries can give out in frigid temperatures. At Ricky Ratchets on Clarke Road, they dealt with a handful of dead batteries by mid-morning, said owner Rick McMullin.
"In the aftermath of a cold snap, the five to seven days afterward, we're seeing a lot of dead batteries," he said. "Even if the car starts in the morning, there's not a lot of battery life left if it's cold."
Car batteries should be replaced every five to six years, he added. "If you can, keep your car in the garage so it's warmer."
McMullin added that other parts of the vehicle can also malfunction in the cold, from power windows to heaters.
That's what service manager Christine Maclean from Neighbourhood Auto finds, too. "January is slow for us because it's after the holidays but we've had to go out over the weekend a couple times to give people a boost," she said.
"The cold has been depleting lots of batteries so people are having to get them recharged or replaced. If it's old, it's going to be really susceptible to the cold. The newer ones are a bit more resilient."
Today's cold temperatures are expected to persist into Wednesday.
"An arctic air mass will bring bitterly cold wind chills to the area early this week," Environment Canada said in its extreme cold warning issued Monday.
Monday's temperatures were near -18 C, with a wind chill of -28. On Tuesday, the low will be -20 C, feeling more like -30 with the wind chill. The extreme cold snap is expected to warm by the weekend, with a forecasted high of -4 C on Saturday.
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