How Do You Prevent Frozen Pipes? A Texas Winter Checklist

A hard freeze is in the forecast, and the question on your mind is simple: how do you prevent frozen pipes in a house built mostly for Texas heat? You are asking at the right time. A few hours of preparation before the cold arrives does far more good than anything you can do after a line splits, and most of the work needs nothing more than a flashlight and a utility knife.

The short answer: keep heat reaching the pipes and keep water moving through them. Wrap exposed lines, close off drafts, disconnect hoses and cover outdoor faucets, open cabinet doors on exterior walls, hold the thermostat steady day and night, and let a thin drip run from faucets on the coldest walls. Find your main water shutoff before the temperature drops, so a split pipe becomes a small cleanup rather than a flooded floor.

Why Pipes Freeze and Burst in Central Texas Homes

Water expands as it turns to ice. When ice forms inside a pipe, it plugs the line, and as more water freezes, pressure builds in the stretch of pipe between the ice and the closed faucet. That trapped pressure is what splits copper, cracks PVC and pushes fittings apart on PEX. The break often shows up away from the ice itself, which is why a pipe can look fine where it froze and then leak somewhere else once it thaws.

Many Central Texas homes are designed around summer. Plumbing often runs through attics, exterior walls, garages, unheated crawl spaces and pier-and-beam foundations with little insulation, because winter cold is usually brief. When a freeze lasts more than one night or arrives with a strong north wind, those lines lose heat quickly. A power outage makes it worse, since the house cools down and any electric pipe heating stops.

So how do you prevent frozen pipes in that kind of house? Mostly by focusing on the handful of lines that sit outside the heated space, because those are the ones that freeze first.

Which Pipes in a Waco-Area Home Are Most at Risk

How do you prevent frozen pipes if you do not know where they run? You cannot, so start with a walk through the house and the yard, looking for these:

• Outdoor faucets (hose bibs) and the short length of pipe just inside the wall behind them.
• Sinks on exterior walls, especially kitchens and bathrooms on the north or west side of the house where cold wind hits.
• Attic plumbing, including lines feeding an attic water heater or supply lines running over a garage.
• Crawl space and pier-and-beam plumbing, where pipes hang under the floor with only skirting or foundation vents between them and outdoor air. If water already collects under your house, the guide to water in the crawl space covers the causes.
• Garage lines, such as laundry hookups, utility sinks and water softeners.
• Irrigation lines and backflow preventers, which sit above ground and hold water.
• Pool and spa equipment, which has its own freeze protection settings worth checking in the owner’s manual.

Slab homes keep most lines in or under the concrete, which is relatively protected, but the risers where pipes come up through exterior walls and any attic runs are still exposed. Manufactured homes often have supply lines under the floor that depend on intact skirting and working pipe heat cable.

How Do You Prevent Frozen Pipes in the Days Before a Freeze?

The most useful work happens while it is still mild outside, when stores still have supplies on the shelves and you can get under the house without frost on the ground. Work through this list a few days ahead:

1. Find and test the main shutoff. It is often near the meter at the street or where the water line enters the house, and some homes also have a valve in the garage or a utility closet. Turn it to confirm it moves, keep a meter key nearby if your shutoff needs one, and show everyone in the household where it is.
2. Disconnect garden hoses. A connected hose holds water in the faucet and keeps it from draining, which can freeze the pipe inside the wall.
3. Protect outdoor faucets. If a hose bib has an interior shutoff valve, close it, then open the outdoor faucet to drain the line and leave it open. Add an insulated faucet cover. Frost-proof sillcocks, which are built to drain themselves, still only work with the hose removed.
4. Insulate exposed pipes. Fit foam pipe sleeves sized to the pipe in the attic, crawl space and garage. Tape the seams and cover elbows, valves and short stubs, since bare fittings are common freeze points.
5. Seal drafts. Close gaps where pipes pass through exterior walls, around the rim joist and near the sill plate using caulk or expanding foam. If your home has foundation vents, cover them during the freeze if the design allows and uncover them afterward so the crawl space can breathe.
6. Drain or protect the irrigation system. Follow the system’s winterizing instructions and put an insulated cover over the backflow preventer.
7. Check your heat. Make sure the furnace or heat pump runs, replace a dirty filter, and test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms before the house is closed up tight.
8. Pick the faucets you will drip. Choose those on exterior walls and the fixture farthest from where water enters the house.

How do you prevent frozen pipes in the attic or crawl space, where there is no faucet to drip? Insulation, sealed drafts and, for long exposed runs, a properly installed heat cable do that job, which is why those steps belong in the days before the freeze rather than the night of it.

The Night of a Hard Freeze: Keeping Heat and Water Moving

How do you prevent frozen pipes once the cold actually arrives? At that point the work shifts from hardware to habits: keeping warm air near the pipes and keeping water from sitting still.

1. Hold the thermostat steady. Keep the same setting day and night instead of turning it down at bedtime.
2. Open sink cabinet doors on exterior walls so room air can reach the pipes. Move cleaning products out of reach of children and pets.
3. Let at-risk faucets drip. A slow, steady drip or very thin stream is enough. On single-handle faucets, set the handle to the middle so both hot and cold lines move. If your water utility asks residents to limit dripping to protect system pressure, follow that guidance.
4. Keep the garage door closed if water lines run through the garage.
5. Leave interior doors open so heat reaches back bedrooms and bathrooms.
6. Check the faucets in the morning. A faucet that slows to a trickle or stops may have a frozen section, which is easier to deal with before it thaws on its own.

How do you prevent frozen pipes overnight in an older house with plumbing in outside walls? The drip and the open cabinets are the two steps that matter most there.

If You Will Be Away During a Freeze

How do you prevent frozen pipes in a house that will sit empty? Often the safer route is to shut off the main valve and drain the lines, opening a faucet at the highest point of the house and one at the bottom of the system so the pipes empty. Keep the heat on at a steady setting, leave cabinet doors open and ask a neighbor to check inside. Follow your water heater manufacturer’s guidance before cutting off its supply, because many units should not run without water.

Pipe Protection Options Compared

How do you prevent frozen pipes with products alone? Usually you cannot. Most homes need a combination matched to where the lines run.

Heat cable (often called heat tape) deserves extra care. Use a product listed for pipe use and for your pipe material, since some types are not meant for plastic lines. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on overlapping and on covering it with insulation, plug it into a GFCI-protected outlet, and inspect it each fall for cracked jackets or scorch marks. If you use a space heater in a pump house or garage, keep it clear of anything that can burn, choose one with tip-over shutoff and do not leave it running unattended.

Common Mistakes That Lead to Burst Pipes

Many burst lines after a cold snap trace back to a small gap in an otherwise sensible plan. Watch for these:

• Leaving a garden hose connected, which traps water in the faucet.
• Turning the thermostat down at night or while away.
• Insulating the straight runs but leaving elbows, valves and short stubs bare.
• Keeping sink cabinets closed on exterior walls.
• Counting on a drip to protect a line in the attic or crawl space that has no faucet on it.
• Forgetting the garage laundry hookup or the irrigation backflow preventer.
• Not knowing where the main shutoff is, or finding it rusted stuck when water is already spreading.
• Thawing a pipe with an open flame, which is a fire risk and can damage the pipe.

A Worked Example

How do you prevent frozen pipes in a typical single-story pier-and-beam house? Picture one with the kitchen sink on a north wall, a hose bib on each side, a washer in the garage and supply lines under the floor. Two days before a two-night freeze, the owner tests the main shutoff, removes both hoses, closes the interior valves to the hose bibs and drains them, and adds covers. Under the house, foam sleeves go on the exposed runs and the foundation vents get covered. On the freeze nights, the thermostat stays put, the kitchen and bathroom cabinets stay open, the kitchen faucet and the far bathroom sink drip, and the garage door stays shut. Each morning the owner checks water flow at every faucet. The whole plan takes one afternoon and two nights of attention, and the vents get uncovered once temperatures recover.

What to Do If a Pipe Freezes or Bursts Anyway

Even careful preparation lowers the odds rather than removing them. Signs of frozen plumbing pipes include a faucet that will not run or only trickles, frost on an exposed pipe, or a bulge in a line.

If a Pipe Is Frozen but Not Leaking

Open the faucet the line feeds so melting water has somewhere to go, then apply gentle heat working back from the faucet: a hair dryer, warm towels or a heating pad. Never use an open flame, and never use electrical devices near standing water. The guide on how to unfreeze frozen water pipes covers the process step by step. If you cannot find or reach the frozen section, a plumber for frozen pipes is the right call.

If a Pipe Has Split

1. Protect people first. If water is near outlets, cords, appliances or the electrical panel, do not walk through it. Turn off power at the breaker only if you can reach the panel from a dry spot; otherwise call an electrician or the electric utility.
2. Stay out from under sagging ceilings. A ceiling holding water can come down without warning.
3. Shut off the main water valve.
4. Open faucets to drain the water left in the lines.
5. Take photos and video of the break and the wet areas before moving things.
6. Move valuables and mop up small amounts of water if it is safe to do so.
7. Call a plumber to repair the pipe and a restoration crew for the water damage.

Water from a broken supply line starts out relatively clean, but it can pick up dirt and debris as it runs through crawl spaces, insulation and flooring, so a crew will judge its condition on site. A local restoration crew typically extracts standing water, then maps moisture with a moisture meter, a handheld tool that reads how wet drywall, wood and subfloor are. They set air movers (high-velocity fans that push air across wet surfaces) and LGR dehumidifiers (low grain refrigerant units built to pull moisture from air even when it is already fairly dry), then check readings regularly until materials reach a dry standard. How long that takes depends on what got wet, how much area is involved and how quickly drying started. Water left in walls and under floors can lead to mold, which is why prompt structural drying and dehumidification matters. For help with extraction after a split line, see burst pipe and flood cleanup in Waco, or call the 24/7 dispatch line from any page.

Insurance Basics for Frozen Pipe Damage

Whether frozen pipe damage is covered depends on your own policy wording and the circumstances of the loss, so it is worth reading the water damage sections of your policy before winter rather than after a break. If a pipe bursts, contact your insurer or agent early and ask what they need from you. The guide does homeowners insurance cover burst pipes walks through the claim basics.

Keep a simple record:

• Photos of the break, the wet areas and damaged belongings, taken before cleanup.
• Receipts for pipe insulation, faucet covers and heat cable, which show the steps you took.
• The plumber’s invoice describing the cause and location of the break.
• The restoration contractor’s moisture readings and drying logs.

Questions worth asking the contractor include what condition the water was in, which materials need removal versus drying, and how they will document dry readings. Ask your insurer whether they need to inspect before materials are removed and what records they want for the plumbing repair and the water damage. The Waco water damage cost and insurance guide explains the factors that move the cost of a job.

Waco Water Damage connects property owners across Waco, Woodway and Hewitt and the rest of McLennan County with independent restoration contractors around the clock. Before authorizing work, verify the contractor’s license, TDLR mold remediation registration where it applies, and insurance. And how do you prevent frozen pipes next winter? Start with the same checklist a few days before the first hard freeze, while it is still mild enough to work under the house.