9 Ways to Protect Your Home During Freezing Temperatures

Living in Texas typically means warm to hot weather throughout most of the year. However, during the winter months, temperatures can drop below freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit), which can impact your home if you don’t take proper precautions to keep it safe.  

Here are 9 steps you can take to help protect your home during cold weather:  

1. Cover External Water Pipes and Faucets 

Plumbing in Texas isn’t necessarily made to withstand very cold temperatures. As a result, it’s important to take simple steps to insulate any exposed water pipes to prevent them from bursting.  

One of the simplest ways is by covering your outdoor faucets with insulation, freeze caps, and covers that protect against cold weather. If you don’t have any of these on-hand, try using blankets, towels, and other covers that can’t keep your pipes warm.  

2. Disconnect Hoses from External Faucets 

Water gets trapped in garden hoses, even if you haven’t used them in a while. If temps drop low enough, this water can freeze and burst, which can wreak havoc on your plumbing.  

Before freezing weather arrives, make sure you disconnect all hoses and let them drain before insulating them

3. Open Cabinets to Encourage Warm Air Flow 

Pipes that are exposed to frigid temps can freeze if you don’t take certain precautions. Once thawed, these pipes can burst, causing extensive damage (and costly repairs).  

An easy way to keep your pipes from bursting is by opening cabinet doors beneath the sinks in your bathrooms and kitchen. This makes it easier for circulating warm air to reach your pipes and prevents them from freezing.  

4. Drip Your Faucets (if Your City Recommends it) 

Running water through your pipes can also help prevent them from freezing, particularly if the plumbing is directly exposed to the outside.  

Consider leaving your faucets running with a slight trickle or drip of water. Depending on the weather event, the city or county will let residents know if they can safely drip their faucets. In some cases, mass faucet-dripping can cause citywide water pressure issues, so stay alert regarding best practices by consulting your city or county’s website.  

5. Have Your Furnace Checked Before Winter Arrives 

Much like visiting the doctor, giving your HVAC system a checkup never hurts.  

Experienced HVAC professionals can assess your system and pinpoint any problems in its performance, including whether it’s ready to face colder temperatures. They can also fine-tune your system to make it more efficient, lower your energy consumption, and ensure it’s operating efficiently.  

6. Run Your Furnace 

Texans pride themselves on their resilience. This sometimes translates into a reluctance to turn on the heat, even when it gets cold. While this can be an admirable approach to saving energy and money, once temperatures drop below freezing, it can harm your home.  

Because Texas is hotter than many other states, homes are built to prioritize handling heat, not necessarily cold. As a result, cold temps can have a greater impact on things like your plumbing.  

Running your furnace helps circulate warm air throughout your home, keeping pipes from freezing (especially if you’ve dripped your faucets and opened cabinets to encourage airflow.

7. Prepare for Power Outages 

While not an everyday occurrence, it is possible for homes to lose power during stormy weather and stress on Texas’s electric grid. As with hurricanes, it never hurts to be prepared for power outages during extra cold weather.  

Here are a few tips to stay prepped: 

8. Turn Off Your Water if You Lose Power 

Power outages are never fun. But during freezing temps, an outage can be especially damaging.  

If you do lose power, one of the first things you should do is turn off your water supply by locating the main valve (likely in your front yard). When your power is out, and you can’t heat your home, the pipes within your home can freeze and burst once thawed.  

While a burst pipe is far from ideal, you can at least rest easy knowing that you’ve shut off the water to prevent it from entering your home.  

9. Winterize Your Sprinkler System 

One easy way to protect your home is to winterize your sprinkler system before temperatures drop. Watch this video to see a step-by-step walkthrough: