1. Unhook all of your hoses from your hose bibs (outside faucets). If your home is fairly new, you may not need to install the styrofoam insulators on top of the hose bibs, but it is always a good idea.

2. Leave your inside faucets (hot and cold) dripping and open your cabinet doors below the faucets (especially if on an outside wall). 

3.. Tankless Water Heaters: For those of you who have  tankless water heaters, turn your hot water faucets on so that they stream about the size of a pencil (says our plumber). Tankless water heaters do not turn on until you call for hot water, which means the water to, from and in the heater is not moving. If you have the new recirculating systems that we install, the small electric heater is on (if you have electricity) and the water that is circulating all the time is from this heater. The tankless water heater sits idle unless you turn on the shower, tub, dishwasher or something. Idle water will freeze when it is exposed to freezing temps for a period of time. It is also a good idea to run your tub or something to cause the tankless heater to kick on from time to time. During the night or while you are away from home (when we are not showering etc.) is when this will probably happen. I learned this the hard way today as Dallas is in a deep freeze. If the hot water is frozen, open all of the hot water faucets and try to warm up the plumbing around the tankless water heater with a hair dryer, heater or something. This worked for me. Do not use anything with an open flame to do this!  I had a valve frozen and I was able to heat the frozen water inside with a hair dryer to free it up to run. 

4. Most importantly, if your water is frozen, call a plumber. The 2 Plumbing companies that we use are: Clay Reynolds Plumbing (for the southern area) 972-775-6688 and Riddell Plumbing (for the Dallas area) 972-682-4860 if you want to call them. You might want to turn off the water to the whole house and drain the outside faucets as this may help to keep the frozen water from expanding too much and breaking the pipes. When the water starts moving again, check for leaks as a pipe may have burst during the freeze. Turn off the main water supply immediately and open all of the outside and inside faucets asap.   

5. Know where your main water supply shut off is and show every one in your family. Also show your neighbors and friends where it is. It is most likely in a landscaping bed in front of your home. Keep the box around the shut off valve clean from mulch, dirt etc. so you can get to it quickly. You can also place a stake with a flag (or something similar) beside the box so you can find it quickly.  This will help when you are trying to find it in a hurry. We are now installing a whole house water supply shut off valve in the garage or a closet etc., so that our homeowners do not have to dig around in the flower bed to find the shut off valve box (always learning and trying to get better).