How to Prevent Frozen Pipes During a Georgia Cold Snap

Why do Georgia pipes freeze when the winters are mild?

Because most houses here were never built with hard freezes in mind. In colder states, supply lines are kept inside heated space as a matter of course. Around Atlanta it is common to find copper or plastic lines hanging under a vented crawl space, running through an unheated garage, or tucked into a north-facing exterior wall. On a typical winter night that is fine. When a cold snap brings several hours well below freezing, sometimes with wind pushing air through foundation vents, those exposed runs are the ones that fail.

The damage usually is not where the ice forms. As water freezes it expands, and pressure builds in the short stretch of pipe between the ice plug and a closed faucet. That stretch splits. Since the crack can stay sealed by ice, many homeowners first learn about it when temperatures rise in the afternoon and water starts running out of a ceiling or across the crawl space floor.

Which parts of a metro Atlanta home are most at risk?

Every house is different, but a short list covers most freeze calls:

• Crawl spaces. Many older in-town houses and plenty of suburban ranches sit over a crawl space with lines strapped to the joists. Look for bare pipe near vents, around the access door, and where the main line comes through the foundation wall, which the Red Cross names as a common freeze point.
• Exterior walls. Kitchen sinks and bathroom vanities on outside walls, especially in rooms built over a crawl space or garage.
• Garages and bonus rooms. Laundry hookups, utility sinks and water heaters in unheated garages, plus lines feeding a bonus room over the garage.
• Attics. Gwinnett County Water Resources lists attics alongside unheated basements and crawl spaces as places where exposed pipe should be wrapped.
• Outdoor spigots and irrigation. Hose connections, backflow assemblies and other parts that sit at ground level.

The age of the house matters too. Census survey data puts the median year built for housing in the City of Atlanta at 1989, with about 43 percent of units older than 1980. In Decatur more than half the homes predate 1980. Older houses are more likely to have bare crawl space piping and gaps around old penetrations, so a pre-winter plumbing checkup is a reasonable expense if you have never looked under the floor.

What should you do before the first hard freeze?

Fall is the time for the jobs that need a ladder, a flashlight or a trip to the hardware store. Work through them once and most of the cold-night routine becomes simple.

1. Find and test the main shutoff. Gwinnett's guidance lists where it tends to be: where the line enters the house, near the front hose connection, in the basement near the water heater, in the garage or in a utility closet. Open and close it once so you know it moves.
2. Deal with the hoses. UGA Extension in Forsyth County says to detach garden hoses, close the valve feeding each outdoor faucet and drain the pipe. If your spigot has no inside valve, that is a good reason to ask about replacing an outdoor spigot with a frost-resistant one.
3. Cover spigots. Gwinnett recommends a fitted plastic or foam cover, or cardboard wrapped and taped, once temperatures dip below 32 degrees.
4. Wrap exposed pipe. Foam sleeves on both hot and cold lines in crawl spaces, garages and attics. The Red Cross also mentions UL-listed heat tape or heat cable for exposed runs.
5. Shut down irrigation. UGA's irrigation specialist notes that only the top 2 inches of soil freeze in most of Georgia, so buried sprinkler pipe is usually safe, but backflow valves and other parts at ground level are not. Drain the system and wrap what sits above ground. If your home is on a backflow testing program, a backflow device check is a good moment to ask how the assembly should be protected.
6. Close up drafts. A crawl space door that does not latch or a broken vent screen lets wind blow straight across the pipes.

If you are on a private well, UGA also points to the small pipe that feeds the pump's pressure switch. A plastic one can freeze and burst, which can stop the pump or leave it running. A well pump service call can sort that out before winter.

What is the routine for a cold night?

When the forecast calls for a hard freeze, these steps come from Gwinnett County, the Red Cross, UGA Extension and Georgia's insurance commissioner. They overlap more than they disagree.

Turn the drips off once the freeze passes. A slow drip on a few nights uses very little water compared with a split line running under the house for an afternoon.

How do you thaw a frozen pipe safely?

A faucet that gives only a trickle on a cold morning is the classic sign. Leave that faucet open so melting water has somewhere to go, then warm the pipe starting from the faucet end. The Red Cross lists a hair dryer, an electric heating pad, a space heater kept clear of anything flammable, or towels soaked in hot water. Keep going until full pressure returns, then check the other faucets, since one frozen line often has company.

Never use a torch, a kerosene or propane heater, a charcoal stove or any open flame. If you cannot find the frozen section or cannot reach it, call a plumber. Stay near the main shutoff while the line warms: if water starts spraying, close the valve and move on to the steps for a pipe that has just burst. A cracked section usually needs a split pipe repair rather than more thawing.

Who pays when a frozen line breaks?

For most metro Atlanta homeowners, the dividing line is the water meter. Atlanta Watershed Management, Cobb County Water System, DeKalb County Watershed Management, Gwinnett County Water Resources, Fulton County Public Works and the Clayton County Water Authority all describe the same split: the utility handles the line from the main to the meter, and the owner is responsible for everything from the meter to the house. Gwinnett says plainly that repairs on the customer's side of the meter are the customer's job and to call a plumber.

That means a frozen hose bibb, a split crawl space line or a cracked yard pipe between the meter and the foundation is a private repair, and a leak on that buried stretch calls for a yard water line repair. If water is gushing from the meter box or the street, call the utility. In Atlanta that is ATL 311 at 404-546-0311, which also takes after-hours water emergencies; Cobb County lists 770-419-6201 for emergencies only; Clayton County Water Authority uses 770-960-5200 after hours.

When should you fix the problem for good?

If the same run freezes most winters, foam alone is not working. Options include rerouting the line inside heated space, adding properly rated heat cable, fitting a frost-proof sillcock with an inside shutoff, or replacing a section that has been patched more than once. A house with several old, failing runs may be better served by a whole-house repipe. Crawl space moisture often goes hand in hand with exposed pipes, and the guide to crawl space water problems covers that side. Homeowners in Cobb, Gwinnett and the southern suburbs can find coverage on the list of towns we connect callers in, for example a Marietta pipe break.