We have some family friends, an older couple, who are “snowbirds”.  They live in Iowa most of the year but near the start of every winter, they fly to their second home in Las Vegas.  They learned a lesson about leaving water pipes unprotected in the cold winter the hard way.  They came home from Vegas only to find that one of the water pipes running outside the house had frozen in the cold Iowa winter and burst.  In doing so, it unleashed gallons and gallons of water under and into their 110 year old home!  Especially if you have never lived in a cold climate before, you might not think about water pipes freezing over but this is a very important tip for keeping your house safe from water damage.  When the temperature dips below 20 degrees, WATER PIPES CAN FREEZE AND BURST.  Disaster!   

The first preventative measure you can take is insulation.  You should insulate all the water pipes that you can access with something.  It is also helpful to expose indoor pipes to warm air as much as possible during the winter.  For example, in the kitchen, during a cold spell you can open the cabinets to expose the piping to warm air from the house. 

 Label the stop tap just in the case that you do find yourself with a burst water pipe.  That way, you will always quickly be able to turn off the water in case of an accident. 

Like my snowbird friends, if you are spending the winter someone warm, you should ask someone to check in on your house periodically and make sure that your pipes don’t freeze or burst. 

Another trick that we used to do growing up in rural Georgia (and yes, Georgia gets really, really cold in the winter) is to leave just a little bit of water running during the cold winter.  It turns out that flowing water freezes less readily than just standing water.  Therefore, just having a little trickle can protect a homeowner from bursting pipes more than pipes that just contain standing water.   

I am frequently asked on this website about insurance and water damage.  Well, the good news is, in general, you home insurance policy will most likely cover a busted pipe especially inside the home.  As I have mentioned before elsewhere on this site, the sad part is that hurricanes and floods typically are not covered.  Most of all, remember to take action to remediate water damage immediately whenever you find it.  It will save you a lot of money down the road in protecting the value of your home and will save your loved ones from the dangers of mold growth which can occur as quickly as 48 hours.