How to keep your pipes from freezing in a Michigan winter.

Keeping pipes from freezing in a Michigan winter comes down to three things: keep cold air off the vulnerable pipes, keep water moving on the worst nights, and get the outdoor lines disconnected and drained before the ground freezes. Do those and a January cold snap is just weather. Skip them and a single split copper line can put hundreds of gallons inside your walls before anyone notices.

We've been thawing and repairing frozen pipes around Milford since 1979, and the calls follow the thermometer. The first stretch of single digit nights each January brings a wave of them, and almost every one traces back to the same handful of weak spots. Here's where they are and what to do about them.

Which pipes freeze first

It's almost never the pipes in the middle of the house. It's the ones sitting in cold pockets your furnace doesn't reach:

• Pipes in exterior walls. The classic is a kitchen sink on an outside wall. The cavity behind the cabinet can sit 30 degrees colder than the room.
• Crawl spaces. Common in older homes around Milford and South Lyon. Vented crawl spaces run barely warmer than outside.
• Garages. Any supply line crossing a garage ceiling or wall is living outdoors as far as the cold is concerned, especially when the door's been up.
• Hose bibs. The outdoor spigot, plus the foot of pipe behind it. A garden hose left connected traps water right at the wall, and that's where it splits.

Trouble usually starts when it holds around 20 degrees or lower outside, and wind makes everything worse because it drives cold air into wall cavities and crawl space vents.

Prevention that actually works

Some of this belongs in the fall, some of it on the cold nights themselves.

• Disconnect hoses in the fall. Every October, before the first hard freeze. It's the cheapest prevention on this list and the most skipped.
• Shut off and drain outdoor lines. If your hose bibs have interior shutoff valves, close them and open the spigot outside to drain the stub. Frost free bibs help, but only if no hose is attached.
• Insulate the known cold runs. Foam pipe sleeves on anything in a crawl space, garage, or along a rim joist. It's cheap and it works. For chronic problem spots, heat cable is the next step up.
• Open the cabinet doors. On single digit nights, open the cabinets under sinks on exterior walls so room air can reach the pipes. Free, and it genuinely matters.
• Let the worst faucets drip. A pencil thin trickle from the fixtures farthest from where water enters the house keeps water moving and relieves pressure. Moving water freezes much more reluctantly than still water.
• Keep the heat at 55 or higher, always. Including overnight, including when you travel. The savings from setting it lower are gone the moment one pipe lets go.

If a pipe freezes anyway

You turn the tap and get a trickle or nothing. First, leave that faucet open; it gives melting ice somewhere to go and relieves pressure. Then find the frozen section, usually along one of the cold spots above, and warm it gently: a hair dryer, a heat lamp, towels soaked in hot water, working from the faucet back toward the frozen spot. Gentle is the whole instruction. Never use a torch or open flame, which can boil water inside the pipe and burst it, or set the house on fire trying.

If you can't find the frozen section, or it's inside a wall, that's a call. Forcing it is how a frozen pipe becomes a burst pipe.

If it bursts: the two minutes that matter

A burst pipe isn't a drip, it's the house's full water pressure emptying into a wall. Shut off the main water valve immediately. It's usually where the line enters the basement, or at the meter, and the time to find it is now, in January, not while the ceiling is raining. If the burst is on the hot side, close the cold inlet valve on top of your water heater too; our water heater page covers that valve if you've never looked at it. Then open faucets to drain the lines and call us.

Vacant and snowbird homes

The worst frozen pipe damage we've ever seen happened in empty houses, because nobody was home to hear the water running. If you winter somewhere warmer, or you've got a vacant listing in Novi or Milford, either have the house properly winterized (water off at the main, lines drained) or keep the heat at 55 plus and have someone walk through weekly. A pipe that bursts on a Tuesday in an empty house runs until somebody finds it. The same logic applies to a summer week away, which we cover in what to do with your water heater and water before a trip.

The freeze ends, the melt begins

One last winter habit worth keeping: the same snowpack that's stressing your pipes in January becomes basement water in March. Southeast Michigan's clay soil holds the melt against foundations, and sump pumps go from idle to working overtime in a week. While you're thinking about winter plumbing, give the pump a look too; our 7 signs a sump pump is failing is the place to start, and our sump pump service page covers the rest.

Quick answers

At what temperature do pipes freeze in a house?

Trouble usually starts when it holds around 20 degrees or lower outside, especially with wind. Pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces, and garages can freeze while the thermostat reads 68, because those pockets run far colder than the room.

Should I let my faucets drip in cold weather?

Yes, on the worst nights. A pencil thin trickle from the faucets farthest from where water enters the house keeps water moving and relieves pressure. Prioritize fixtures on exterior walls. The water costs far less than a burst pipe.

What do I do if a pipe bursts?

Shut off the main water valve first, then open faucets to drain pressure and call a plumber. If the burst is on the hot side, close the valve on top of the water heater too. Knowing where your main shutoff is before you need it is the whole game.

Countryside Plumbing is a licensed master plumber serving Milford, Novi, Farmington Hills, and southeast Michigan since 1979. We handle frozen and burst pipes all winter, and we leave your house clean. Free quotes at 248-705-7543.