Texas plumbing is built for heat. Pipes run through attics and unheated garages and along exterior walls because for most of the year that is where they can go without consequence. A hard freeze turns every one of those decisions into a risk, and it does it on a weekend, at night, to thousands of houses at once, when every plumber in your county is already booked.
This page is the order of operations once the cold has arrived: what to do when the water stops, what to do when it comes back through the ceiling, and what your insurer will want to know. The full list of what to do beforehand is on before the freeze: protecting a Texas house’s pipes, and this page carries only the one preparation item that is also an insurance condition.
If you do not already know where your shutoff valve is, stop here and read where the water shutoff is in a Texas house first. Everything below assumes you can turn the water off.
The Texas Department of Insurance says, in its own words, that a policy might not pay for frozen-pipe damage if you did not take steps to protect the pipes.
Here is the sentence, from TDI’s winter storm tips page, last updated 29 April 2025: “Home and renters policies might not pay for damages caused by frozen pipes if you didn’t take steps to protect your pipes, such as keeping the heater on in your house.”
Note the hedge. TDI says might not. It does not say which policies carry that condition or how any particular insurer applies it, and neither will we. What the sentence tells you is that preparation is not only about your plumbing. It is also the record of what you did.
The item on TDI’s own list that people get half right is the one for leaving town: “If you leave your house before a freeze, turn off the water at the shutoff valve and leave your heat on.” Both halves. Water off and heat off is the combination that fills a house; water on and heat off is how it fills faster.
Everything else on the prevention side, the wrapping and the draining and the drip, is on before the freeze rather than repeated here, so there is one page to check in November rather than two that half agree.
Little or no flow from a tap during a freeze usually means a pipe is frozen and has not yet burst. The next hour decides which.
New Braunfels Utilities names the symptom: “Frozen pipes often show up as little or no water flow from a faucet.”
Do two things at once.
Leave the faucet open. NBU’s instruction is explicit, and it gives melting ice somewhere to go while showing you the moment flow returns.
Turn the water off at the shutoff valve. TDI is unambiguous about this and about why: “If your pipes freeze, turn off the water at the shutoff valve. This prevents broken pipes from leaking into your house after they thaw.” Austin Water says the same for a pipe that has already gone: “Turn off the water at the shutoff valve to prevent flooding if a pipe has burst.”
This is the step people skip, and it is the expensive one. A frozen pipe is not leaking. A frozen pipe that has already split is not leaking either, yet. The flood arrives at the thaw, which is often hours later, often while everyone is asleep, and often while the house is empty because the family went somewhere with power. Shutting the water off costs you nothing if the pipe turns out to be fine.
Gentle heat, applied to a section you can see, with the tap open. Never a flame.
Austin Water: “Apply gentle heat to the frozen section using a hair dryer, electric heating pad or warm towels.” And then, without qualification: “Never use an open flame.”
New Braunfels Utilities says it more firmly and gives its reasons: “Never use open flames or blowtorches, as they can damage pipes and create serious fire hazards.” Its instruction for the rest is one sentence: “Leave the faucet open and apply gentle heat using a hair dryer, heating pad, or warm towels.”
One piece of practical advice that is ours rather than a utility’s, offered as such: work from the faucet end back toward the frozen section, so melt water has an open path out, and keep going until full pressure returns at that tap.
Know when to stop. Both utilities say the same thing about a pipe you cannot reach or cannot thaw. NBU: “If you cannot safely thaw the pipe or locate the frozen section, contact a licensed plumber for assistance.” Austin Water: “Contact a licensed plumber or your property manager for assistance.” Pipes in a wall, under a slab or in an inaccessible attic run are not a homeowner project during a freeze.
If you are calling a plumber in the middle of a statewide freeze, you are calling into the worst week of their year, and price pressure is real in both directions. Texas makes the credential easy to check. We walk the state’s own portal screen by screen in how to verify a Texas plumber’s license, and how to tell if a plumber is overcharging or scamming you covers what deception looks like from the inside.
Water off at the main, belongings off the floor, then start drying and photographing.
TDI’s own first instruction for a sudden leak is two sentences long: “If you have a sudden leak, shut your water off at the main. Move expensive items off the floor.”
The main comes first, because every minute it stays on is more water, and because what you are looking at is not the whole of it. Water tracks along joists and inside walls and appears two rooms away.
Then start drying, and do not wait to be told twice. TDI’s water damage page puts a clock on it: “Mold can start growing within a day after a leak,” and the instruction that goes with it is “remove pools of water and start drying the area to prevent more damage and mold growth.”
Document as you go rather than afterwards. Photograph the failed pipe, the water at its worst, the ceiling, the floor and anything ruined, before it is moved or dried. Keep receipts for whatever you buy to stop the damage getting worse, and keep damaged items until your insurer has seen them.
That paragraph is general on purpose. TDI’s detailed disaster-claims FAQ, which is where filing deadlines and an insurer’s response times would come from, would not serve our request on 22 September 2026. Rather than fill the gap from a law firm’s blog or an adjuster’s marketing page, we are telling you it is a gap. Call your insurer and ask what their deadline is.
A burst pipe is the textbook example of damage a Texas policy does cover. A slow leak is the textbook example of what it does not.
TDI states the general position on its water damage page: “Most homeowner and renters policies cover sudden and accidental water damage. Examples would include a burst pipe, toilet overflow, or broken washer hose.” And against that: “Policies usually won’t cover damage from gradual leaks.”
Three things follow that people get wrong every February.
Flood insurance is not the answer here. TDI: “Flood insurance doesn’t pay for damage caused by burst pipes.” Different policy, different event.
Mold gets split in two. TDI: “If mold develops on a damaged item, it would be covered.” But “most home policies don’t include mold cleanup and testing after a damaged item is removed.” That is a real gap between the damage and the remediation, and it is worth asking your agent about before you need it.
The coverage is a question, not an assumption. TDI’s advice is to “ask your agent if your home or renters policy covers sudden and accidental water damage,” which is a polite way of saying do not find out during the claim.
A slab leak raises a different version of the same question, whether water that has been seeping for months still reads as sudden. We take that up in slab leaks in Texas.
Three numbers are missing here, and we would rather name them than invent them.
There is no repair cost for a burst pipe on this page, no remediation cost, and no claim deadline, because no Texas public source we read states them. What a plumber’s time actually costs in Texas, with the sourcing we do have, is in what a plumber charges in Texas.
There is also no temperature at which this starts. No Texas public source we read publishes one, and it would depend on wind, insulation, where the pipe runs and how long the cold lasts. SAWS says only that “ice can form in plumbing exposed to frigid air” and that “over time, this can cause the pipe to burst.” If someone quotes you a precise number as though it were settled, ask where it came from.
More: everything we cover on plumbing emergencies, and where the water shutoff is in a Texas house.
Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, each published by the body that sets, measures or administers the thing it describes. We record the document’s own date and the date we read it, because published pages change without notice.
| Source | Document date | We read it |
|---|---|---|
| Texas Department of Insurance — Winter storms: Tips for preparing your house and pipes | page states Last updated 4/29/2025 | 2026-09-22 |
| Texas Department of Insurance — When are water damage and mold covered by insurance? | page dated 4/24/2025 | 2026-09-22 |
| Texas Department of Insurance — Unexpected indoor waterfall? Home or renters insurance might help (Texas Insurance Blog) | no date carried on the page | 2026-09-22 |
| Austin Water — Cold Weather Tips | undated city page; references Winter Storm Uri, February 2021 | 2026-09-22 |
| New Braunfels Utilities — Freezing Temperatures: How to Prepare Your Home | undated utility page | 2026-09-22 |
| San Antonio Water System — Be Ready (freeze preparation hub) | page last modified 21 January 2026 | 2026-09-22 |
Tell us the job once — we send it to up to 3 license-verified plumbers. Free, no spam, delete your request anytime.
Secure form. Sent over an encrypted connection to up to 3 license-verified plumbers. Never sold to data brokers, and you can have your request deleted anytime.