Feb 9, 2021
How to Prevent Frozen Pipes in the Winter
Occasionally, even Texas has bouts of cold weather. When it gets cold enough to freeze, you might start to worry about your home’s plumbing system. And for a good reason. Frozen water in your pipes will expand, causing a significant amount of pressure on the system. If the freeze is hard enough, there’s a good chance that a pipe will burst or crack, spilling an uncontrolled flow of water into your house. Imagine trying to deal with that nightmare on a cold winter’s night!
Although Texas homeowners are generally aware of the potential for ice to wreak havoc on their homes, they may not always understand how to mitigate the risks when cold weather strikes. If that’s the situation you are in, a little knowledge and preparation will go a long way in helping you prevent your home’s pipes from freezing.
Protect Your Pipes
If freezing temperatures are forecast, you can do a few things around the house to minimize the impact on your plumbing system. Here’s what you can do:
- Open your kitchen and bathroom vanity cabinets that have pipes inside. This will allow warm air provided by your HVAC system to better circulate these pipes, helping to protect them from possible freezing.
- If you have piping that runs through an unprotected or unheated area (such as an attic or garage), it is more vulnerable to freezing. You can deter potential ice damage by running a small amount of water from a faucet supplied by the susceptible piping. A pencil-thin trickle of water is adequate. Make sure to run both the hot and the cold, since both supply lines are subject to freeze. This will provide pressure relief if ice does build up. Avoid turning off the faucet while temperatures are low, even if the stream stops running.
- Disconnect any garden hoses from your outside spigots. You should also purchase and install an insulated hose bibb cover to protect the bibb from direct cold exposure.
- After a Texas freeze occurs, be sure to inspect your pipes for any possible damage.
Build It Right
Over the decades, we’ve always built homes using the best plumbing pipe and fittings available in its day: galvanized, CPVC, and copper. In more recent years, we’ve upgraded to using grade A cross-linked polyethylene piping, commonly called “PEX” for short.
Grade A PEX is by far the best piping product we’ve found. It’s flexible and malleable, making installation much easier because of the reduced need for joints and connections. PEX is also highly resilient and durable under stress. When exposed to freezing conditions, it strongly resists cracking or bursting caused by pressure buildup and radial expansion of pipe walls. No other pipe product can perform in this way. Tough yet tender stuff.
Materials aside, another way that Tilson prevents ice damage is found in our methods of construction. When we install a new home’s plumbing system, all water pipes within 3 feet of an exterior wall are wrapped in pipe insulation. It’s simple and effective, bringing our customers peace of mind when the bitter cold bites.
Committed to Quality
We’ve been building homes in Texas for almost 90 years now. If there’s anything we’ve learned along the way, it’s this: while the exterior and interior finishes are important, true quality in a home always begins behind the walls. To learn more, watch our Craftsmanship video all about the Tilson way to plumb a home right.
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