Chances are, you can stop reading this article right here. If you follow the steps above, and all the plumbing in your home runs through interior walls or up through the floors, and your home is reasonably well weatherized, “the risk of frozen pipes is very low,” Abrams says.
That’s true even in chilly parts of the country, where temperatures can stay below freezing for days or weeks at a time. In a 2014 interview with The New York Times, building scientist William B. Rose noted that homes in cold climates are generally built such that the plumbing has good protection from cold temperatures. On the other hand, “Southern plumbers have been much more careless about that,” Rose said.
That difference shows in the insurance data: State Farm regularly publishes a list of the 10 states where it has covered the greatest losses from frozen pipes. In many years, warm-weather states dominate the rankings.
During the winter of 2020–2021, for example, State Farm covered a staggering $343 million in losses in Texas alone (roughly 17 times as much as the next most-affected state, chilly Illinois). Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana also made State Farm’s top 10 that winter. Texas again topped the list the following winter. And the winter after that, Georgia took the lead, while Tennessee and Texas again found their way into the top 5.
Kohlbecker says that Country Financial has observed similar claims patterns across the states where it does business, with Georgia and Alabama sitting in its top 5 for frozen-pipe claims over the past three years.
Regardless of where you live, your home is at a much higher risk for frozen pipes if any of your plumbing runs through areas with little heat and poor insulation—and therefore has more exposure to low temperatures. Common weak points include:
- Exterior walls: Kohlbecker says that this is one of the most common scenarios that lead to frozen plumbing, even in brand-new homes. “Pipes on the north side of the home are more susceptible to freezing,” he says, because they get the least sun exposure.
- Unconditioned attics, crawl spaces, or garages: “If the pipes aren’t properly insulated, extreme cold events will cause those pipes to freeze and burst,” Abrams says. It’s more common to find plumbing in these uninsulated spaces in warmer parts of the country, where homes aren’t always built with freezing temperatures in mind.
If your plumbing does run through any of those risky areas, the most permanent fix is to improve your weatherization. That means adding insulation to your home—or at least around the water lines themselves—and sealing any air gaps to reduce the pipes’ exposure to freezing temperatures.
But those steps aren’t always affordable or practical, especially if you’re facing a cold snap on short notice, so you might consider the following workarounds:
- Let your faucets drip: This practice dramatically reduces the risk of a burst, even for high-risk pipes. (Just confirm first that your utility company allows it.) Open both the hot and cold taps, or go straight up the middle on a one-handle system, just enough so that the water comes out at a trickle. Conventional wisdom says that moving water takes longer to freeze, and there’s some truth to that. But as Rose explained to The New York Times, the open faucet actually works as a relief valve for the pressure that builds up inside a pipe as the water freezes and expands.
- Open your under-sink cabinets and the dishwasher door. Doing so helps heat circulate around your pipes and drain traps. If you’re already dripping your faucets, they’re unlikely to burst. But this is an easy additional step you can take to help spare yourself the inconvenience of a frozen drain line.
- Use a space heater or heat tape for at-risk areas. Even a weak space heater can prevent nearby pipes from freezing; just be sure to follow space-heater safety advice. For vulnerable supply lines in a cold crawl space or attic, heat tape is an affordable, widely available option. (The Times actually published a how-to article on heat-tape installation back in 1980.) After you wrap it around your at-risk pipes (or hire a handyman to do that) and plug it into a standard outlet, the tape applies gentle heat across its length. Some heat tapes work with a thermostat so that they warm up only when necessary.
If your pipes have already frozen, experts recommend opening your faucets to relieve air pressure, shutting off the water main to your house to prevent uncontrolled flooding if your pipes have cracked, and warming up any frozen stretches of plumbing that you can find with a hair dryer, space heater, or heat tape.
Once the water starts flowing again, keep an eye out for leaks. Generally, insurance will cover cleanup and repairs as long as your heat was on, Kohlbecker says. Take photos and file a claim as soon as possible. Consider hiring a professional water-damage restoration company to clean and dry the affected area, especially if pipes leaked inside a wall or through the ceiling. Although insurance typically covers water damage, it usually doesn’t cover mold remediation, so preventing mold from growing in the first place is important.
Again, there’s no need to panic: As long as you take a few easy steps to prepare your plumbing for freezing temperatures, you shouldn’t have any problems with pipe bursts.
This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Maxine Builder.
