All you Northerners, I have a question.........

[hemi68charger]

Ok, we're about to get our 1st hard freeze here in Houston in over 14+ years. I was curious, living up there North of the Mason-Dixon line, how do you all performe preventative measures for freezes. I mean, you all have water plumbing like us down here, water facets outside like us down here, water softener systems like us down here, shrubs like us down here......... I've got the Styrofoam covers on all my facets, the water lines in the attic are insulated, it's your typical house. With temps below 25 for hours as the forecast seems to show, covering plants seems a little useless... What about those exterior walls on the house with plumbing, ie. the laundry room area for the washing machine........ I know the ground will insulate the sprinkler system, so I'm not worried about that.......... Maybe the media's make a mountain out of a mole hill?

Do I need to drip/flow the water in the sink to keep, I'm assuming the philosphy here is continual circulation, the water moving and not able to freeze?

Troy

[Charger-Bodie]

Troy,


Is your house on a basement? Most all houses around here have basements,and from what im told they artent as common further south like Texas.

Its been far below freezing (around 0 degrees)for the past week here and the only outside water faucet I have ,has just like you said, one of thse foam covers.

The only water pipes Ive ever seen in an attic around here are for sprinkler systems,Is that what yours ar for? Or is it just again cause of the different local that they just do things here or there?

[moparguy01]

every winter I shut off the water to the outside spigots, then drain the line and leave the spigots opened fully. yes its a major pain in the butt, but not near as bad as frozen pipes. As far as water pipes in exterior walls, well keep the house up to a reasonable temperature and they'll take care of themselves. It was in the -10s over the past few weeks and my pipes didn't blow up. And i've lived through times one in particular when it got down to -55 degrees, and thats without the wind chill, and they were still fine. But I didn't really experience that weather. Somehow I ended up sick and didn't go to work.

[hemi68charger]

Ah... we have no basements down here.... All plumbing in Southern Homes for the most part weave their way in the attic. I guess with basements, you have mother Earth for insulation and the house above........

[hemi68charger]

every winter I shut off the water to the outside spigots, then drain the line and leave the spigots opened fully....

We don't have that luxury, the exterior water spigots are tied into the home supply......

[ITSA426]

If you are worried about water lines freezing you can lave them run at a trickle.  It wouldn't last all winter but it will keep them open for a day or two.  If it starts to freeze just open the spigot a little further.  Some plants will survive if covered overnight.  There's probably enough warmth retained in the insulated walls and pipe covering for some protection.  Enough for a few days I would guess.  Just keep a close eye on things. 

[PocketThunder]

every winter I shut off the water to the outside spigots, then drain the line and leave the spigots opened fully....

We don't have that luxury, the exterior water spigots are tied into the home supply......

Just inside the house where the spigot goes outside there should be a valve with a bleeder cap.  You turn off the valve and open the cap let the water out of the pipe.  Maybe you dont have that in the deep south though.  

[stripedelete]

As Mopar Guy said,  the pipes in the walls should be o.k. as long you keep the heat on.   If you have any exposed pipes in areas without heat a 100 watt light bulb on your shop lamp is your best friend.   If your laundry room is in the garage put one inside your washer.   If you have a bathroom in the garage a cap full of antifreeze in the tank and bowl is cheap insurance.

[RECHRGD]

You should be fine with what you've got.  25* is really not that cold.  Your heat from the house should be enough to keep the pipes from freezing.  One trick we use up here in northeastern wa. is to open the cabinet doors under the kitchen and bathroom sinks if they are on an outside wall.  Most modern homes are required to be built to handle the climate of the region their in.  However, if Houston has never seen these cold temperatures before and you do freeze up, you should sue Al Gore.   Bob

[RD]

However, if Houston has never seen these cold temperatures before and you do freeze up, you should sue Al Gore.   Bob

bwahahahhahahahah!!!

you should be fine, it may get down that cold, but as long as the sun is out you shouldnt have too big of worries.  the 100 watt bulb technique does work well.  if your sink is facing the outside wall of your kitchen (as most are), you may want to put a shop light underneath the pipes if you do not want to run the water.

personally, i think you will be fine.  may want to look at insulating your lines in the spring or summer (insulation works just as well to keep things cold as they do to keeping things warm).  could increase the efficiency of your water heater and lower some electricity or gas bills for ya over the long run.

[Todd Wilson]

25 shouldnt be a problem. Hope your house has some insulation. Most outside water valves should be fine in the freeze. The valve is actually inside the pipe a ways. I have always heard to take the garden hose off also. You could cover some of your plants up by your house with old blankets and stuff. The cold probably wont hurt them a lot but a frost could. Keep the frost off. Theres probably enough heat in the ground and around your house to keep them warm enough.


Todd

[GPULLER]

Water lines do freeze up here once and a while.  Remember when I was young on cold winters with little to no snow the water line from our well to the house would freeze.   When there was plenty of snow it was never a problem the snow insulated the ground.  We just left a faucet trickle when the weather turned cold.

About 4 years ago we lost power at our house.  After calling the electric company we found it was just our house.  Of course it was in the middle of winter, cold and at night.  I took my wife and year old son to the in-laws.
The electric company came to check it out.  They traced the problem to a fault in the underground main line coming to my yard.  It just happened to be in the middle of the drive way.  They dug a 8' x 10" foot hole in the driveway to get to the power line.  Frost had driven down real deep because the lack of snow, they dug down 8 feet before they got through the frost!

[BrianShaughnessy]

Don't really worry about anything freezing up till the forecast is below zero... like 20 or more below zero.   That may or may not happen in any given year.   The kitchen sink faucet will tell me if anything is wrong.

Take the hoses off and drain the faucet when I bring the snowblower out and get it cranked up for the season.

Homes have to be built to a code that they will maintain 70 degrees inside when it's zero outside.   That's probably an outdated spec. by now.  I have friends with much older homes that get frozen pipes occassionally around zero. 

[HeavyFuel]

Don't really worry about anything freezing up till the forecast is below zero... like 20 or more below zero.   That may or may not happen in any given year.   The kitchen sink faucet will tell me if anything is wrong.

Take the hoses off and drain the faucet when I bring the snowblower out and get it cranked up for the season.

Homes have to be built to a code that they will maintain 70 degrees inside when it's zero outside.   That's probably an outdated spec. by now.  I have friends with much older homes that get frozen pipes occassionally around zero. 

A nice brisk -33 degrees F. in North Dakota this morning.   We are not the ones to give out advice to you about preping for cold weather, since our dwellings, vehicles and bodies are built for the cold.

Generally, our homes don't have pipes in areas that get cold enough to freeze, like attics.  We do have some pipes that run in outside walls for a short distance, but we have good insulation in the walls, and I have never had a pipe freeze, although it does happen in some older homes.

The outside spiggets for the water hoses have been off for a couple months.   They have the actual valve set back far enough into the house to stay safe.  I little of the water might freeze, but not solid enough to break the pipe.  Southern homes probably don't have the valves set back, but your home will "leak" enough heat to keep them safe.
The big thing with the spiggets is to get the hoses unhooked.  Water in the hose could sit against the valve, freeze, and crack the pipe. 

If your lawn sprinkler system has above ground valves (manifold), they could freeze and crack.  Again, we have had those blown out for months., but southern homes probably never blow them out.  The pipes in the ground will be fine, its only the stuff that is exposed that is in danger.  It doesn't take much to freeze a manifold if it is above ground, a few hours at 25 deg could do it.

Obviously we don't have many any outdoor plants that can't handle the cold, since it gets sub-zero every winter.  A few plants, like roses, do better it they are not exposed to the weather all winter, though, so they sometimes get covered.  If we don't get a good cover of snow, sometimes we get a "winter kill" in parts of our lawn; dead spots that don't grow in the spring. 

[1969chargerrtse]

I kill the water to the spickets when remember, otherwise I don't really do anything and it'll be around 5 tonight in CT.

[69 OUR/TEA]

So much for the idea of moving south to get away from the cold  .

[Charger RT]

it was 34 at 3pm here in my part of florida this afternoon. roomers of flurries just north of here. it did rain all day and was just plain miserable. All the plumbing to my house sits either under the house or runs up the exterior walls. Nothing in the walls either. The only plumbing inside is the short run to the sink or tub right through the wall. We had pipes freeze when we lived up north and it was colder then this but none of the pipes were outside like this. The other problem is the houses do not have heaters as you know up north. I do have a heat pump and it works great most of the time but as it gets colder outside its efficiency drops fast. it hasn't shut off since this afternoon and has been going into defrost every 30 minutes for the last few hours. its also supposed to drop to 24 tonight
Tim

[wayfast1500]

Last year we had a huge ice storm, the whole area lost power for days or sometimes weeks.  The temps were around 10 degrees or so in my town, and I did not have power for 4 days and I did not have any pipes freeze.  Just so you can kind of have a idea what they can take as long as you run them every hour or so.