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Hill Country freezes are short and infrequent, which is exactly why they do so much damage. Plumbing here is not built for extended cold, and a lake house with nobody in it can run a burst line for days before anyone knows.
The checklist below is what we tell every second-home owner who calls us in January — mostly after the fact.
Before the season starts
Insulate every exposed line: the hose bibs, anything running through an unconditioned attic or crawlspace, and the water heater lines if it sits in a garage. Disconnect and drain garden hoses; a hose left attached holds water against the bib and splits it.
Find your main shutoff and make sure it actually turns. A seized valve discovered during an emergency is a much worse problem than a seized valve discovered in October.
Before a specific freeze event
If the house will be occupied, set the thermostat no lower than the mid-50s and open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so warm air reaches the supply lines. Let a faucet at the far end of the run drip.
If the house will be empty through a hard freeze, the safer play is to shut the water off at the main and drain the system. A drained house cannot burst a line, and that is worth more than the convenience of arriving to running water.
Have someone physically check it
Remote temperature and water sensors are worth installing, but they only help if someone can act on the alert. A neighbor, a property manager, or anyone with a key who can get there within the hour is the difference between a wet ceiling and a gutted house.
Leave that person your shutoff location and a photo of the valve. Do not assume they will find it in the dark.
If a line does burst
Shut the water off at the main, kill power to the affected rooms if the panel is safely reachable, and photograph everything before moving anything. Then call — a freeze break is usually a clean-water loss, and clean water caught quickly keeps far more of the house than clean water found in April.
The thing that determines the outcome is elapsed time. Everything else on this list exists to shorten it.