HOUSTON – Houston may have avoided icy roads, but freezing temperatures are still causing problems for homeowners especially those living in older homes with aging plumbing.
As another cold night settles in, plumbers say pipes can still crack or burst even if temperatures don’t dip into the teens.
KPRC 2 reporter Re’Chelle Turner caught up with a homeowner in Tomball dealing with pipe damage and spoke with a plumber about how residents can protect their homes before temperatures fall back below freezing.
A routine prep turned into a major problem
“That water leak is pretty bad,” John Cantu said.
It wasn’t the call homeowner Terry Rodgers wanted to make, but she had no choice after water started gushing from a broken pipe outside her home.
Rodgers says the issue started when she was trying to prepare her house for the cold.
“I went to turn off and disconnect the hose from the spicket and I guess the house being 42 years old or so brittle snapped so water was just gushing out in the backyard,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers says the water quickly made its way inside her home into both her bedroom and bathroom.
Ironically, she says she was already taking precautions when the damage happened.
“Well, just the water, I always turn the water off because if something happens, like this, a couple of years ago, it did burst in the garage. Thank God it was in the garage. And I just can’t do anything,” she said.
Plumber John Cantù with John Moore Services says calls like this are common during cold snaps especially in older homes.
“So, this happened right before the freeze. It was cold weathers, but she tried, you know, getting that hose bib off and kind of broke it. But with it being an older home, you start witnessing a little bit more damages and freezes and also broken pipe because of the older homes. It gets more brittle,” Cantu said.
Cantu says pipes along exterior walls are especially at risk, and even small temperature drops can cause older, brittle plumbing to fail.
When asked what homeowners can do to prevent similar damage, Cantù says preparation is key.
“Best thing to do to prevent something like that would be, I would say, insulating the pipes, putting sticks of insulation on, also insulating the attic,” he said.
He also recommends dripping faucets when temperatures stay below freezing for several hours and checking exposed pipes before cold weather arrives.
While waiting for repairs, Rodgers is improvising to get through the disruption.
She’s using a recycling bin filled with water to flush toilets until her water service is restored.
Despite the inconvenience, Rodgers says she’s focused on getting back to normal.
“She’s going to have to go back to school so she’s having to get back into the swing of things and get a routine again,” she said.
Cantu says don’t let your guard down just yet more freezing temperatures are headed our way tonight.
I asked him why pipes often burst after a freeze, during the thaw. The ice can seal the crack or hole, and when it melts the water gushes out.
“Unlike PEX pipe, PEX pipe is meant to expand. CPVC, copper, galvanized, I mean, it’s not meant to expand at all. So when it gets so cold, the pipes freeze, it’s when they unfreeze and shrink, that causes something, either a pinhole leak or a split pipe, and that’s why we see that happen now. That’s why it’s important to insulate the pipes, blown-in insulation, stuff like that, but when a home is a certain age, there’s only so much you can do at that point,” he said.