Protecting a Pier-and-Beam House From a North Texas Freeze

Terrell has a real old town core, and a lot of the housing around the historic district is pier-and-beam rather than slab. So are plenty of older properties across Kaufman and Hunt counties. In most respects that is an advantage — you can get under the house, see the plumbing, and repair it without breaking concrete.

In one respect it is a liability, and it is the one that shows up every few winters when a genuine hard freeze comes through. The crawlspace under a pier-and-beam house sits at close to outdoor temperature, and every supply line under there is exposed to it.

Why pipes burst where they do

Water expands when it freezes, and in a closed pipe that expansion has nowhere to go. What actually splits the pipe is usually not the ice itself but the pressure trapped between an ice plug and a closed fixture downstream. That is why bursts often appear some distance from the coldest spot.

It is also why the damage is frequently discovered on the thaw rather than during the freeze. The pipe splits while frozen and stays plugged. When it warms and the ice clears, the split starts flowing.

The crawlspace checklist

1. Insulate the supply lines properly — closed-cell foam sleeve on every run you can reach, joints taped, no gaps at elbows and valves. Gaps are where it freezes.
2. Close the crawlspace vents before a hard freeze. Wind moving through the space is what drives heat out of it, and stopping that airflow is worth more than most people expect.
3. Fix broken skirting. An open section on the north or west side lets wind straight in under the house.
4. Insulate the exposed section where the supply comes up out of the ground. That transition point is a common failure spot because it is neither buried nor inside.
5. Disconnect every garden hose. A hose left connected holds water against the bib and will split the valve body behind the wall.
6. Know where the main shutoff is, and make sure the valve actually turns. Finding out it is seized at two in the morning with water running is a bad way to find out.

What to do during the freeze

• Let a cold tap run a small steady stream at the fixture farthest from where the water enters the house. Moving water is much harder to freeze, and it relieves the pressure that actually splits pipes.
• Open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so household heat reaches the pipes.
• Keep the thermostat at a normal temperature rather than setting back overnight. The saving is trivial and the risk is not.
• If you leave the house for several days in freezing weather, shut the water off at the main and open a low fixture to drain the system down.

What not to do

Do not thaw a pipe with an open flame. It is the fastest way to turn a plumbing problem into a house fire, and in an old crawlspace with dry timber above you it is genuinely dangerous. A hair dryer or a heat gun on low, worked along the pipe from the fixture end toward the frozen section, is the correct approach — starting at the fixture end so melting water has somewhere to go.

Do not leave a space heater unattended under the house. And do not assume that because it did not freeze last time it will not freeze this time; the 2021 event put pipe on the ground in houses that had been fine for fifty winters.

If it has already burst

1. Shut the water off at the main immediately. This is the single action that determines how bad the damage gets.
2. Open faucets to drain the system and relieve pressure.
3. Turn off electricity to any area where water has reached wiring or outlets.
4. Photograph everything before anyone starts cleaning up, for the insurance claim.
5. Get somebody out. In a pier-and-beam house the repair itself is usually far more accessible than the equivalent in a slab house, which is one genuine advantage of the construction.

We are family-owned, based in Rockwall, and we cover Terrell and Kaufman County as part of our normal route including after hours. TX Master Plumber TXM11693, TX HVAC TACLB2360E. (469) 338-5533.