While Texas generally never gets nearly as cold in the winter as other parts of the country, there are still plenty of times when it's cold enough that a home's pipes could freeze. Pipes are most likely to freeze overnight when the temperature drops. This is a big concern since a frozen pipe can burst, meaning you could wake up to your home being massively flooded. That's why we recommend taking all the necessary precautions in this article to protect your pipes over the winter.

Drain All of Your Outdoor Plumbing

The pipes inside a house that have the highest chance of freezing during the winter are those that supply water to fixtures outside the house, like hose bibs or a sink in an outdoor kitchen. As such, you should always shut the water off to these fixtures before winter arrives. Outdoor plumbing fixtures usually have a valve on the water line inside the house that allows you to shut the water off for winter. If you can't locate each valve, you'll want to contact professional plumbers. They should be able to quickly find the correct valve and close it for you. If you just forget about it and leave the water turned on, you'll likely end up with that pipe freezing, bursting, and flooding your house. It's also important to contact a plumber if you can't get any of the valves to close. Shut-off valves should close easily, but older valves can be prone to getting stuck. If a valve is stuck and you use too much force when trying to close it, you can break the water line. That's why it's best to hire professional plumbers and have them replace any stuck valves. After closing all of the valves, you then need to go outside and open each fixture. This is so you can drain the water in the outside portion of the pipe. If you shut off the water from inside and don't take this additional step, the outside pipe will almost certainly freeze. This can then lead to the pipe inside freezing as well.

Upgrade Any Old Hose Bibs

An old hose bib can still cause the connected indoor pipe to freeze, even if you’ve followed all the previous precautions. The reason is that bibs are fairly short and just barely stick inside through the exterior wall. That means the water line that supplies the bib is right next to the wall where the air can still get extremely cold despite having your heat turned on. Modern frost-proof bibs are much longer, meaning the water line is located further away from the wall where the air should always stay warmer. That means there's far less chance of the water line freezing, which is why replacing any old bibs is a great investment.

Disconnect Your Hoses

One mistake many people make is leaving a hose hooked up over winter. Leaving a hose or anything like a garden timer or a splitter hooked up to a hose bib greatly increases the chances of the bib freezing and cracking. This is true even if it's a frost-proof bib and you shut the water off inside and drain it like you should. The reason is that the hose or whatever else can prevent the bib from fully draining. That means the bib can still have some water that freezes over the winter. If there's enough water, it can cause the bib to crack as a result of it expanding when it freezes. As long as the water is shut off inside, you won't immediately end up with water leaking into your house. However, a cracked bib will allow water to leak inside when you open the valve next spring.

Insulate All Exposed Pipes

Most of the pipes within a house have very little chance of freezing since they're located within insulated walls, floors, and ceilings. Any exposed pipes can potentially freeze, which is why you should make sure that all of them are fully insulated. The pipes you need to be most concerned about are the section of the main water line right where it enters the house, along with any exposed pipes along concrete foundation walls, in a crawl space, or in an attic. The other option, instead of insulating these pipes, is to wrap them with heat tape. However, you need to remember to plug the heat tape in whenever it's cold enough that your pipes could freeze since the tape requires electricity to get warm. Ensure the heat tape is UL-rated and installed according to manufacturer instructions to prevent overheating or fire hazards.

Keep Your Heating Turned Up

Another common mistake that often results in frozen pipes is turning your heating down too low when going on vacation. Setting your thermostat lower will help save money while you're away. Nonetheless, turning it too low isn't worth the risk since you could face massive water damage and a hugely expensive repair bill if a pipe freezes and breaks while you're away. The best way to avoid this is to keep your thermostat set no lower than 55 degrees. The reason you don't want to go any lower than that is that some areas of a house can still get freezing cold even when the main part of the house is fairly warm. This often includes the areas where hose bibs and outdoor fixtures connect inside since cold air can potentially seep in through the hole in the wall.

What to Do If a Pipe in Your House Freezes

It's quite easy to tell when a pipe freezes since it will result in little to no water coming out when you turn on a faucet or shower. The first thing to do if this ever happens is to immediately contact a plumbing company that offers emergency services. When dealing with a frozen pipe, the most important thing is to shut your water off to lessen the flooding that occurs if the pipe bursts. Begin by locating the main water shut-off valve in your home as part of your emergency plan! It's also important to safely thaw it out as quickly as possible to minimize the risk of bursting. If you can determine which pipe is frozen and the pipe is easily accessible, you can start thawing it out by using a hair dryer. What you should never do is try to thaw the pipe out with a blowtorch or any other type of open flame due to the risk of damaging the pipe. If you’re unsure which pipe is frozen, plumbers can use professional tools like thermal imaging to locate the issue quickly! As soon as our plumbers arrive, they'll quickly get to work on locating and then thawing the pipe out. Once the pipe is fully thawed, they'll then turn your water back on and fully inspect the pipe for any leaks. If a leak is present, they'll need to shut the water back off and drain the pipe so that they can cut out the damaged section and splice a new pipe in its place.

Our Plumbing Company

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing® is a local company offering reliable repair, installation, and maintenance services. Whether you're facing a frozen pipe, need a hose bib replacement, or require anything else, you can count on our experienced team of experts. Dealing with any type of plumbing problem? Give us a call to ensure it gets fixed quickly.