How Do I Protect My Pipes During a Texas Hard Freeze?

Texas freezes don't come often, and that's part of the problem. Houses here have pipes running through attics, garages, and outside walls. In a colder state, those pipes would be buried deep in heated space. Here they sit in air that gets as cold as the yard.

So how do I protect my pipes during a Texas hard freeze? Think of it as a countdown. Most freeze damage traces back to something that should have happened weeks earlier, not the night the forecast turned bad.

We'll walk through each stage: what to do this fall, what to do 48 hours out, and what to do the night of. Then we'll cover what to watch during the freeze, and what to do if a pipe freezes or bursts in your Fort Worth home. If a pipe has already burst, skip to the last section now.

Protect your pipes in a Texas hard freeze with these steps:

• Insulate exposed pipes, especially in the attic, garage, and along outside walls.
• Disconnect hoses and cover every outdoor faucet.
• Shut off and drain your irrigation system, and wrap the backflow preventer.
• Find and test your main shutoff valve before you need it.
• Open cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls so warm air reaches the pipes.
• Drip one faucet, the one farthest from your shutoff, if you think pipes may still freeze.

Most of this belongs to fall, not the night before. If a pipe bursts, shut off the water first, then call a plumber. Already have water coming through a ceiling? See our burst pipe repair in Fort Worth.

This is the section that matters most. Nearly everything here can be done on a warm Saturday in November, when the supplies are still on the shelf.

Your fall checklist

• Insulate pipes in unheated spaces. Attic, garage, crawl space, and under sinks on outside walls. Cover the valves and joints too.
• Pay attention to attic runs near the eaves. Cold air moves through that space, and those pipes sit right in it.
• Disconnect hoses for the season and put covers on every outdoor faucet.
• Shut off and drain the irrigation system. Then wrap the backflow preventer, that brass assembly above ground.
• Seal drafts in the garage and where pipes pass through outside walls.
• Insulate water heater lines in a garage or attic, and the outdoor piping on a tankless unit.
• Find your main shutoff valve and test it. Make sure it turns, and make sure everyone in the house knows where it is.

That last one gets skipped the most and matters the most. A valve you've never turned is the worst thing to go looking for while water is spraying.

Once a hard freeze is two days away, the list gets shorter. Here's what still makes a difference:

• Buy supplies now. Faucet covers and pipe insulation are among the first things to sell out when a freeze is coming.
• Improvise if the shelves are bare. A towel and tape around a hose bib is better than nothing.
• Cover any outdoor faucet you missed, and check that every hose is disconnected.
• Close the garage door and keep it closed. Pipes and water heaters in there depend on it.
• Fill a few containers with water. A main break or a frozen line can cut your supply for a while.

If you're leaving town, shut the water off and set the thermostat no lower than 55 degrees. A house with the water off can't flood, no matter what cracks.

Fort Worth allows residents to shut off water at the meter in an emergency. Be careful with the lid, since wires are attached to the radio transmitter inside.

Start by opening the cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls. That lets household heat reach the pipes behind them. If you keep cleaning products in those cabinets and have kids or pets, move them somewhere safe first.

Now the part most people get wrong.

Dripping, then vs. now. Then: turn on every faucet in the house and let them all run. Now: drip only if you think your pipes may still freeze. Use one cold-water faucet, the one farthest from your main shutoff. A slow drip is enough, not a running trickle.

The change came from the water utilities. When a whole city drips every faucet at once, it strains the water system that everyone depends on.

Set your thermostat no lower than 55 degrees, even overnight. And if the power goes out for more than 24 hours, stop dripping and turn off the water at the meter.

One more small thing: put a container under the faucet you're dripping. That water is still yours to use.

A few checks a day are enough. Here's what to look for:

• Faucets that still run. If one stops on a cold morning, ice may be forming in that line.
• New stains or damp spots. Check ceilings under attic runs, the garage floor, and baseboards along outside walls.
• Steady heat inside. Keep the cabinet doors open and the thermostat where you set it.

A stain that wasn't there yesterday is the one that matters. It can mean a pipe has already cracked, even if no water is pouring yet.