Before the First Freeze

Oct 31, 2026 · preparedness

The first freeze never sends a warning letter. It just shows up one morning. Frost on the truck, grass stiff under your boots, and a hose froze solid because nobody took it off the faucet.

And it finds the same weak spots every year. Not big, fancy problems either. Just the little jobs everybody meant to get to.

So get to them now, while the weather is still kind. Start with the hoses. Unhook every garden hose, drain the water out of it, roll it up, and put it where you can find it come spring. A hose left hooked up holds water right against the faucet, and that water can freeze and bust a pipe inside the wall. That is a whole lot of trouble caused by five minutes of not getting around to it.

Cover the outside faucets while you’re at it. Those foam covers cost almost nothing and they go on in about a minute. If your house has a shutoff valve for the outside faucets, shut it off and drain what water is left in the line.

Then look at your pipes, the ones you can see. The pipes in a crawl space, up in an attic, or along an outside wall feel the cold first. Foam pipe covers are cheap and easy. You cut them to fit and slip them on. No special tools, no plumber needed for that part.

Check the well house too, if you’ve got one. Look for gaps where cold air gets in, check the insulation, and make sure whatever heat you count on out there still works. At our house the well matters a lot, and freeze night is the wrong night to learn something quit working back in July.

Test your heat before you need it. Turn it on, let it run a while, and change the filter if it needs it. If something is wrong, you want to find out on a mild afternoon when the repair folks aren’t already covered up with calls. Same goes for a fireplace or a wood stove. Check it now, not on the coldest night of the year.

Then, when a hard freeze does come, there are two little things that help a lot. Open the cabinet doors under sinks that sit on outside walls, so the warm air in the house can get to those pipes. And let a faucet drip slow, just a steady drip, so the water keeps moving. Moving water is a lot harder to freeze than water sitting still.

None of this costs much, and none of it takes long. That’s kind of the point. Proverbs 24:27 says to get your work done outside and get it ready in the field, and then build your house. In plain words, do the outside jobs in their season, before the season turns.

A busted pipe is not just a repair bill. It’s water where water ought not be, floors tore up, and a mess that lasts for weeks. A calm Saturday with a foam cover and a rolled up hose can keep all of that from ever starting.

Do it before the first freeze, y’all. You’ll be glad you did when that first cold morning comes and all you’ve got to do is pour coffee and look at the frost from inside a warm house.