The Southern Freeze Prep Checklist: Every Weak Point, One Plan

# The Southern Freeze Prep Checklist: Every Weak Point, One Plan

Search for a freeze prep checklist and you get advice written for Montana. Drain the sprinkler system with an air compressor, shut off the outdoor water for five months, close the pool in October. None of it fits a house in Houston, Baton Rouge, or the Florida panhandle, because Southern homes are built differently: the water heater hangs on an outside wall, the pool runs all year, the backflow preventer stands bare in the yard, and the outdoor kitchen has live plumbing in the island.

This is the checklist for that house. It was written by a pool builder whose own pipes froze his first Gulf Coast winter, and it covers the seven places Southern homes actually fail.

First, the trigger: when to work this list

Start when a Freeze Warning is issued for your area, or when the forecast shows 28 degrees or below for four or more hours. Do not wait for dark. Every step is faster in daylight.

And yes, this applies to you. The most common question on every Southern forum is some version of "do I even need to winterize in Houston." Five of the last six winters brought a major freeze event to the South: Uri in 2021, Elliott in 2022, back to back Arctic outbreaks in 2024, the first recorded Gulf Coast blizzard in 2025, record cold to South Florida in 2026. The homes have not changed. The weather has.

The seven weak points, in order

1. The outdoor tankless water heater. The exposed pipes below the unit are the most commonly frozen lines in the South. Wrap every inch of bare pipe. Keep the unit powered, its built in freeze protection only works with electricity. Never cover the unit itself, it needs to vent.

2. Garden hoses. A connected hose traps water in the pipe behind the wall, where it freezes and splits the line you cannot see. Disconnect every hose, drain it by walking it out straight, and leave them off until spring.

3. Outdoor faucets. Cover every spigot. Walk the whole house and count them, most homes have three to five and almost everyone forgets one. No covers tonight? A thick sock and a plastic bag sealed to the wall traps the dead air that does the work.

4. Exposed pipes and the backflow preventer. Any pipe you can see outside can freeze, and the brass backflow assembly near your meter bursts first. Wrap the runs, cover the assembly. Full detail in our backflow freeze protection guide.

5. The pool equipment pad. The rule that saves more equipment than any product: moving water does not freeze in your pipes. Run the pump, and every feature pump, all night, through the whole event. Do not shut the system off to be safe unless you also pull the drain plugs, still water is what cracks housings. Our pool pump freeze guide covers speeds, features, and the power outage drill.

6. The outdoor kitchen. Sink line, ice maker line, fridge feed. Close the supply, open the faucet to drain, disconnect the ice maker line. The grill does not care about cold. The water lines do.

7. The outdoor shower and irrigation. Close the shower supply and open both taps to drain the riser. Set the irrigation controller to off, not rain delay, and close its supply valve.

Inside the house

Open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls. Set drips at the right faucets, our dripping guide covers which ones and how much, and why dripping alone is not a plan. Find your main shut off before you need it and confirm it turns.

Leaving town during the window?

Prep before you leave. Freezes do not check your calendar, and the most expensive version of this story is the one where nobody was home. Leave the heat on, leave the drips running, and make sure whoever checks the house knows where the shut off is.

The morning after

Leave everything in place until temps hold above freezing for a few hours. No water at a faucet means frozen, maybe not burst: keep it open, warm the pipe gently, never with a flame. Water where it should not be means shut the main first, then call.

Get the printable version

The full Freeze Prep Pack is free: this checklist as a printable PDF, the complete guide with a ten minute property walkaround, the sourced damage math, and the freeze record for your metro. No strings. Get the free Freeze Prep Pack