With a bitter blast hitting Connecticut this week, local companies warn that the low temperatures could also bring some dangerous and expensive issues.

At Astacio in Norwalk, plumbing department manager Steve Lavalette says he expects to be busy, since there are always calls for frozen pipes when it gets cold.

Most of the time, he says they can be prevented by doing a few simple things, like running your faucets, even at just a trickle, keeping the doors to cabinets with pipes inside them open, so that hot air to get in, and most importantly, not just turning up your thermostat - but leaving it up, even when nobody is home.

While a lot of people try to save some money by turning down the heat when they are not there, Lavalette says "the heating bill for a couple degrees is a lot less expensive than a broken pipe and water pouring through your ceiling."

Outside the house, the crew at Heneghan Services in Stamford says you want to keep an eye out for your gutters getting clogged by ice.

Their CEO, Frank Heneghan, explains that "when a gutter fills with ice and it gets heavy enough to pull away, it's over a thousand pounds or more, and when it falls, it can punch through a roof, it can fall through a car."

To stop that, Heneghan says everybody should walk around and make sure the bottom of their gutters are totally clear, and if they are backed up, you can clear it out yourself.

But he says if you look towards the roof and notice some extra water building up or dripping from the gutters during the day, it could be a sign of an issue up there, and in that case, he recommends "don't be a hero, just play it safe, call a professional, you don't want to get on a ladder in this weather."

A big reason for that is the fact that ice will continue to be a threat. Bryan Damato does plowing and shoveling for his company Damato Lanscaping. He says that the sunny days and cold nights create a cycle of melting and freezing.

Based on that, he says everyone should have some sort of rock salt or calcium salt ready, and use it first thing in the morning.

"Just to be safe, I would probably do it every day for the next couple of days," he says.

For people who need help getting out of the cold, there are warming centers open around the state. To find the closest one to you, you can call 211, or look online.