Burst pipe: what to do

A frozen pipe in an older Irving house almost always starts at one of four spots: the attic, an exterior wall, the garage, or an outdoor hose bib. Walking those four spots before a hard freeze catches most of the risk in one pass.

The attic runs

Texas homes route a fair amount of plumbing through the attic, since deep freezes are rare enough here that builders don’t bury every line the way colder-climate builders do. That leaves attic supply lines with little more than open air between them and outside temperatures during a real cold snap. Before a freeze warning, check for any exposed pipe up there and wrap it with foam pipe insulation, the kind sold by the roll at any hardware store. It only takes a few minutes per run.

The exterior-wall lines

A supply line routed through an exterior wall, often behind a kitchen or bathroom sink, shares that wall with the outside air. If the pipe isn’t reachable to wrap directly, opening the cabinet doors under that sink during a hard freeze lets warmer house air reach the wall cavity instead of leaving it sealed off. It’s a small step, but it makes a real difference on the coldest nights.

The garage

A garage rarely gets the same insulation as the rest of the house, and any plumbing run through it, a washing machine hookup, a utility sink, sometimes a water heater, sits closer to outdoor temperatures as a result. Keeping the garage door shut during a freeze holds in whatever warmth the space has. A cheap foam sleeve on any exposed line in there is worth the few dollars it costs.

The hose bibs

Outdoor spigots are the most exposed point in the whole system, sitting right on the outside of the house with no insulation around them at all. Disconnect any garden hose still attached before a freeze; a hose left connected traps water in the bib and makes a split more likely. An insulated faucet cover, sold for a few dollars at most hardware stores, adds another layer of protection on a bib that sees regular use in winter.

A thin, steady trickle from a faucet fed by a line you’re worried about works against a hard freeze taking hold, since water that keeps moving resists freezing solid better than water sitting still in the pipe.

If a pipe already split

Finding the main shutoff and turning it off completely comes before anything else once a line has failed. That single move is what actually slows things down while the rest gets sorted out. A cracked pipe doesn’t always announce itself while everything’s still frozen solid. Water usually needs the ice inside the pipe to start thawing before it can move through a crack and show itself, so a burst from an overnight freeze sometimes doesn’t turn up until the next day, once temperatures climb back above freezing.

Once the water’s off and the split is confirmed, burst pipe cleanup chronicles what happens from there, including the same first moves that the what-to-do guide lists out for any kind of water damage, not just a freeze.

The whole list fits into one afternoon

Checking the attic, the exterior walls, the garage, and every hose bib doesn’t take a full weekend. It takes about as long as a single afternoon, most of it spent walking the house rather than climbing anything. Doing it before the first hard freeze warning of the season beats doing it once the pipes are already frozen.