Vacant House Winter Checklist for Burst Pipe Prevention

A burst pipe in an occupied house is a bad afternoon. In an empty one it can be a bad month. Nobody hears the water, nobody sees the stain, and the supply keeps filling the break at full pressure. If a house will be empty during a Dallas winter, whether for a trip, as a second home, between tenants or on the market, this checklist is the cheapest insurance you can get.

Why empty houses are the worst case

The volume is not different. What changes is the time. A supply line that fails in an attic or exterior wall can run for hours before someone notices in a lived-in house. With nobody home, that becomes days, and the water has time to soak insulation, run through ceilings and floors and reach several rooms. Longer wet times mean more materials that need to be removed and more risk of mold, which is why EPA guidance puts the target for drying at 24 to 48 hours.

The two ways to protect the plumbing

Plumbers and insurers generally describe two approaches. Neither is wrong. What is wrong is not choosing, and leaving the water on with the heat low and nobody checking.

Option A is to shut off and drain

IBHS’s guidance for preventing interior water damage says to know the location of the main water shutoff and to turn it off when traveling. For an extended winter absence you can go one step further and drain the lines.

1. Close the main shutoff. See the guide to finding and testing it.
2. Open faucets, highest floor first, then lowest, to drain the lines. Flush toilets once. Leave faucets open.
3. Handle the water heater according to the manufacturer’s instructions for vacation or shutdown. Do not leave a tank full and hot with the supply off unless the manual says to.
4. Appliances. Close the supply valves to the washing machine, dishwasher and ice maker. Unplug what you can.
5. Outdoors. IBHS says to remove hoses attached to the house and drain and store them, and, if outdoor faucets are not frost-proof, to shut off the valves and insulate the faucets. IBHS says homes built before 2010 typically do not have frost-proof faucets.

Option B is to keep it on and heated

Sometimes you cannot shut the water off: irrigation or fire sprinklers, a pet, an occupied unit next door. In that case the job is to keep pipes warm and checked.

• Keep the thermostat set so the house never gets cold, including rooms you do not use. A furnace service before winter is cheaper than a claim.
• Open cabinet doors on exterior walls, and insulate pipes in attics, crawlspaces and along exterior walls. IBHS recommends wrapping pipes and faucets in unheated or minimally heated areas with insulation made for the purpose.
• Triple-I’s winter guidance mentions insulation or plug-in heating cable for pipes in attics and crawlspaces.
• Put a dated checking schedule in writing. During a freeze, someone should go in at least once, and again after the thaw.
• Consider a water leak sensor with an alert, a flow-based shutoff, or both. They do not stop a freeze, but they shorten the time a leak runs.

Checklist by timing

A card for whoever checks the house

If someone else will look in while you are away, give them a card, not a verbal summary. It should fit on one page and live on the kitchen counter.

• Where the main shutoff is, with a photograph, and how to close it.
• Where the breaker panel is and which breakers serve the water heater and the furnace.
• Your plumber’s number, the water utility’s emergency number and your insurer’s claim line.
• What to look at on every visit: ceilings, the water heater area, under the kitchen sink, the garage and the attic access.
• What to do if they find water: close the main, stay out of water near outlets, photograph, call you and the plumber.
• The thermostat setting, and whether the main is meant to be off or on.

The first visit after a freeze

Go in as soon as roads are safe. Look first from the doorway for visible water. Check the ceilings under the attic and the walls on the north and west sides. Listen for running water. If the main was off, leave it off until you have looked. If it was on, check the meter and run the test in the hidden leak guide.

Rentals and listings

For a rental between tenants, the same checklist applies, and the landlord should have a named person who can enter and close the main. For a house on the market, give the listing agent the location of the main, your plumber’s number and your instructions for heat settings. Showings leave doors, thermostats and lights in unpredictable states.

Heat, the water heater and the air handler while you are away

The plumbing is only part of an empty house. The equipment that heats and cools it has its own failure modes.

• Thermostat. If you leave heat on, set it so the coldest room stays well above freezing. No source cited here gives a single safe number, and houses differ, so ask your HVAC contractor what to set for yours.
• Furnace. Have it serviced before winter. A furnace that quits in a long freeze takes the plumbing with it. A smart thermostat that sends an alert when the house gets cold gives you a chance to act.
• Condensate lines. A drain line that freezes or clogs can shut equipment down or overflow a pan. Ask a technician to check it.
• Water heater. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for a vacation or off setting. Do not leave a hot, full tank with the supply closed unless the manual says it is fine.
• Power. Know what happens during an outage. A house with the water off and drained is safe in an outage. A house with the water on and no heat is not.

Insurance and documentation

The Texas Department of Insurance says many policies will pay for damage from a frozen pipe that burst, but there may be limitations. Some policies set conditions for unoccupied properties, such as keeping heat on or draining the system. Read yours, ask your agent what counts and keep a copy of the answer.

Take a dated set of photographs on the day you leave, including the water heater, the attic access and the main shutoff. If something does go wrong, the first hour guide tells you what to do, and the documentation checklist covers the claim. For the physics of why damage shows up late, read why pipes leak after the thaw.

Read about frozen and burst pipe cleanup →

This article is general information from the Dallas Flood Guard editorial team. It is not medical, legal, engineering or insurance advice. Sources are linked above. See the editorial policy for how posts are researched and corrected.