How to Prepare Your Pipes Before a Texas Freeze

Texas houses are built to shed heat. Most sit on a slab with no basement, so supply lines a northern builder would bury below the frost line run overhead through an unconditioned attic or inside an exterior wall, uninsulated, because hard freezes here are rare. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety states the trade-off plainly: southern regions are more susceptible to plumbing issues during extreme cold, while northern regions are more vulnerable to snow loads and ice dams. The Texas Department of Insurance tells Texans to wrap exposed pipes and start in the attic, where many Texas homeowners saw pipes freeze.

TDI's reporting on the February 2021 winter weather event counted 500,196 insurance claims and about 10.3 billion dollars in expected payouts as of July 31, 2021, covering damage from freezing and the water damage that followed, along with ice, snow, wind, and power outages. Almost every step below happens before the front arrives.

Do this part now, not the night before

Outdoor faucets and hose bibs

A connected garden hose holds water against the faucet and the pipe behind it. The City of Frisco says to disconnect and drain all garden hoses, then cover outdoor faucets and hose bibs with insulated covers or wraps; Austin Water accepts a foam cover or a towel. Older houses need a second look: IBHS notes that homes built before 2010 typically do not have frost-proof outdoor faucets, and says to shut the indoor valve feeding those faucets or cover them from outside.

Exposed pipe in attics, garages, and exterior walls

Walk the attic, garage, water heater closet, and any crawl space, and wrap every water line you can reach, hot as well as cold. San Antonio Water System says foam or fiberglass insulation sleeves go a long way on exposed pipe, and names garages, water heater closets, and crawl spaces as the places to wrap. Then close the paths cold air uses: IBHS says to seal penetrations where plumbing and wiring pass through an exterior wall, and to temporarily cover ventilated crawl spaces. TDI adds the one Texans forget: turn off the water to a clothes washer in an unheated garage.

For a run that has frozen before, electric heat cable is the next step, and it carries its own fire risk. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says to apply heat tape directly on the pipe and never on top of the insulation covering it, to put the three-prong plug in a grounded outlet protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter, and to inspect the tape in the fall, replacing it if the covering is cracked or you find bare wire or charring. CPSC also urges replacing any uncertified heat tape more than three years old with one certified to the UL, CSA, or FMRC standard.

Irrigation and the backflow preventer

Turn the irrigation system off at the controller and shut its supply valve. Frisco warns that sprinklers running in freezing weather ice over streets and sidewalks and can burst the system's own pipes; TDI says to drain and turn off your lawn sprinkler system. The backflow preventer is the easy one to walk past, since it sits out in the open air rather than in a wall. SAWS says to insulate above-ground backflow devices and to cover in-ground valve boxes or pack them with rags.

Pool equipment

Pool pumps, filters, and their thin exposed plumbing sit outdoors year-round here. Frisco advises winterizing the pool or confirming that its freeze protection system is working, and keeping the water level adequate.

Find the shutoff valve and turn it

TDI tells homeowners to identify water shutoff valves indoors and out, and to test the valve to make sure it is not stuck and that you can shut it off in an emergency, calling a plumber to replace it if you cannot. Austin Water suggests keeping a meter key with your freeze supplies. Our guide to finding the shutoff valve in a Texas home covers the usual spots.

What to do with the water heater

Many Texas water heaters sit in a garage or attic rather than conditioned space. Austin Water says to follow the manufacturer's recommendations for tank and tankless units alike, and the exposed lines at the top of a tank belong in the same wrap as everything else. For a tankless unit with exterior piping, Frisco says to insulate that piping, or during an extended freeze turn the heater off at the control panel and leave a little hot water running.

Do not drain a tank as a freeze measure unless the manufacturer tells you to. If you do, A. O. Smith's draining steps start by killing the heat, which also cuts the scald risk: the breaker at the panel on an electric unit, or the thermostat dial turned to OFF on a gas unit. The cold water supply closes next, then a garden hose goes on the drain valve. Bring the heat back only in the order your manual gives, after the tank has refilled.

The night the front arrives

1. Drip the right faucets. TDI says to run water through your indoor faucets, hot and cold, before you sleep, or let them drip, following any local limits on water use. Start with the fixtures fed by attic runs, exterior walls, and the far end of the longest line; in extreme cold, IBHS says to let all faucets drip. Frisco puts a workable trickle at about five drips per minute.
2. Open cabinet doors under kitchen and bathroom sinks so room heat reaches the pipes, especially where the sink sits against an outside wall. Move cleaners out of reach of children and pets first.
3. Open interior doors to rooms without their own heat. SAWS singles out rooms on the north side of the house.
4. Hold the thermostat steady. The Red Cross says to keep it at the same temperature day and night and to give up the lower overnight setting; IBHS puts the floor at 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Keep the garage door closed. Austin Water lists it as a freeze step, and a Texas garage often holds water lines, the water heater, or the washer.

If you are leaving town

TDI's rule for an empty house is short: if you leave your house before a freeze, turn off the water at the shutoff valve and leave your heat on. Frisco's leaving-town list fills in the rest: keep the house heated rather than switching the thermostat off, leave interior cabinet doors open, and shut the irrigation system down. Austin Water asks for more from an empty house, 65 degrees or higher, with the water off at the meter. If a neighbor can walk through once a day, ask.

There is a coverage reason as well as a plumbing one. TDI states that home and renters policies might not pay for damages caused by frozen pipes if you did not take steps to protect your pipes, such as keeping the heater on in your house. Our guide to what a Texas policy covers after a burst pipe has the rest.

If a pipe freezes anyway

No water at one faucet while the rest of the house works usually means a frozen section. The American Red Cross says to leave that faucet open, because water moving through the pipe helps melt the ice, and to warm the pipe with an electric heating pad, a hair dryer, or towels soaked in hot water. It is explicit about what not to use: no blowtorch, kerosene or propane heater, charcoal stove, or any other open-flame device. Keep the cord and the appliance clear of standing water. If you cannot locate the frozen section, reach it, or thaw it, the Red Cross says to call a licensed plumber. Our guides on thawing a frozen pipe safely and the first 30 minutes after one bursts cover the rest.