Getting Your North Texas Home Ready for a Hard Freeze

Most winters in North Texas are mild, which is exactly why a hard freeze catches so many homes unprepared. Pipes here often run through attics and exterior walls, and they were never built for long stretches below freezing.

February 2021 showed what can happen. The Dallas Fed reported that nearly 4 million Texas customers lost power. A statewide survey cited by the Texas Comptroller found that about half of Texans had their water service disrupted, and almost a third had water damage at home. The Texas Department of Insurance tallied more than 500,000 insurance claims.

The good news is that a little preparation goes a long way, and most of it takes less than an hour.

Find Your Water Shutoff Now

If a pipe bursts, the fastest way to limit the damage is to shut off the water. The time to find that valve is on a calm afternoon, not at 2 a.m. with water pouring through the ceiling.

In many North Texas homes, the shutoff is in a box near the curb, often marked “WATER.” Grand Prairie’s guidance, for example, says you can open the lid with a screwdriver or a meter key from the hardware store. Use only the valve on your side of the meter. Leave the city’s side and the meter itself alone. Dallas notes that the private valve is sometimes near an outside faucet close to the house, or near the sprinkler valves.

Turn the valve by hand, and if it won’t budge, call a plumber rather than forcing it. Fort Worth suggests testing your shutoff ahead of time so you know it works.

Before the Freeze

Arlington, citing the Texas Water Development Board, warns that pipes can freeze and burst once outdoor temperatures reach 20 degrees or below. When a hard freeze is in the forecast, the city water departments in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington all recommend similar steps:

• Disconnect garden hoses and cover outdoor faucets with foam covers or wraps.
• Wrap exposed pipes outdoors and in unheated spaces like the attic and garage.
• Let faucets drip slowly, both hot and cold, on the coldest nights.
• Open cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls so warm air reaches the pipes.
• Keep the heat on, even if you’re away.
• Keep the water meter lid on so the meter doesn’t freeze.

If you’ll be gone for several days during a freeze, Dallas recommends shutting off the water at your valve and draining the outside faucets.

What Works in My Own House

I grew up in Maine, so I thought I knew cold weather. Nothing prepared me for getting a Texas house ready for a hard freeze. Northern homes are built with freeze protection that most homes here simply don’t have, so it takes a little more creativity.

If you’re building, ask whether the water lines for sinks and fixtures can run along interior walls instead of exterior ones. If yours are on exterior walls, like mine, here’s what has worked for us:

• Frost-free outdoor faucets. The valve sits back inside the wall, and the faucet drains when you turn it off, so it’s much harder to freeze. A plumber can swap them in.
• Open cabinets and dripping faucets on sinks along exterior walls, so warm air reaches the pipes.
• Heat near the vulnerable walls. We set ceramic space heaters inside, near the walls where our outdoor faucets are. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says to keep space heaters at least three feet from anything that can burn and to turn them off when you leave the room or go to sleep.
• Heat tape, used carefully. We use electric heat tape on our two outdoor faucets. It works well for us, but it’s a fire risk if it isn’t installed exactly right. The CPSC says to buy tape labeled for your pipe’s size, follow the manufacturer’s directions, never wrap it over itself unless the instructions allow it, and check it each season for cracked or charred covering. For most people, insulated faucet covers are the simpler choice.
• Shutting the water off for the hardest freezes. When temperatures are forecast to stay far below freezing for several days, we fill containers with water, shut the water off at the main, and open the faucets to drain the lines. We go several days without running water. It isn’t easy, but we think it beats dealing with a burst pipe. If you drain your lines, check your water heater’s manual first to see what it needs.

Sprinklers and Backflow Preventers

The backflow preventer is the brass fitting that sits above ground where your sprinkler system connects to the water line. Because it’s exposed, it’s one of the first things to crack in a freeze, and it can be expensive to replace.

Arlington recommends shutting the sprinkler system off for winter, closing its main shutoff valve, and insulating any exposed pipe. Fort Worth adds a step: after you turn off the backflow preventer, run the zone closest to it for a moment to relieve pressure in the line.

Dallas requires sprinkler systems to have a rain and freeze sensor that keeps the system from running below freezing. Fort Worth has required them on new systems since 2007. If yours doesn’t seem to work, check it, since a sprinkler running during a freeze can turn the sidewalk and street into a sheet of ice.

If the Power Goes Out

Without power, the heat goes too, and pipes freeze faster. A few things to plan for:

• Use a generator safely. The CDC says never to run a generator inside the house, in the garage, or in a basement, even with the doors open. Keep it at least 20 feet from doors, windows, and vents. In 2021, carbon monoxide poisoning caused 8% of the storm deaths in Texas, according to state health officials.
• Test your carbon monoxide and smoke alarms, and make sure at least one CO alarm has battery backup.
• Store some water in case service is interrupted or a boil notice is issued.

Since 2021, Texas has passed laws requiring power plants to winterize. That’s encouraging, but it doesn’t replace getting your own home ready.

Insurance and Frozen Pipes

The Texas Department of Insurance says most homeowners policies cover sudden and accidental water damage, like a pipe that bursts. That coverage comes with conditions. TDI warns that an insurer may deny a claim if you didn’t take reasonable steps to protect the home, such as keeping the heat on. Many policies also limit coverage for freeze damage when a house is unoccupied or has been vacant for a while.

Flood insurance doesn’t cover burst pipes. And whether the policy pays to repair the pipe itself, or just the water damage around it, depends on the policy.

This matters if you’re selling a vacant home or own a rental. Read your policy’s vacancy and freeze sections now, before the weather turns, and ask your agent anything that’s unclear.

Where to Check for Yourself

• Your city’s water department website has winter tips and an after-hours number for water emergencies. Save that number in your phone now.
• Your homeowners policy spells out what’s covered in a freeze and what happens if the house is vacant.
• The National Weather Service Fort Worth office posts freeze warnings for the Metroplex.

If you have questions about buying or selling in North Texas, I’m happy to help.