Before the Freeze: A Fall Plumbing Checklist for Acadiana Homes

ACADIANA, La. — South Louisiana does not get much of a winter, and that is exactly the problem. The pumpkin patches are open, festival season is winding down, and somewhere between now and January, Acadiana will get a handful of nights cold enough to burst a pipe — usually the one night nobody expected it. A Saturday afternoon spent on this checklist is cheaper than the emergency call that follows a freeze.

The 30-Minute Checklist

Disconnect and drain the garden hoses, then shut off and drain the water supply to exterior faucets. Water left in an outdoor line is the single most common cause of a freeze burst in Acadiana, and the repair is almost always more expensive than the ten minutes it takes to prevent.

Find your main water shutoff before you need it. In a burst, the difference between a mop job and a demolished living room is how fast someone can get the water off. Make sure everyone in the house knows where the valve is and which way it turns.

Give the water heater a look. Louisiana water heaters collect sediment fast, and a tank older than ten years is living on borrowed time. A rumbling tank is sediment talking — it is worth a flush before winter, when a cold shower becomes a much bigger problem.

Run the dye test on every toilet: a few drops of food coloring in the tank, wait fifteen minutes, and any color in the bowl means a worn flapper quietly running up your water bill. It is a two-dollar part.

Clean the drain stoppers before holiday guests arrive. Kitchen sinks are about to work their hardest weeks of the year, and the garbage disposal will thank you for not treating it like a trash can.

When the Freeze Actually Comes

On the rare hard-freeze nights, the routine is simple: cover exterior faucets, open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so warm air reaches the pipes, and let the farthest faucet from the water heater drip overnight. It sounds old-fashioned because it works.

When to Call a Pro

Some signs should not wait for a convenient weekend: a warm spot on the floor, a water bill that spikes without explanation, soggy ground in a dry yard, or the sound of running water when nothing is on. Those are the classic signatures of a slab leak, and catching one early is the difference between a repair and a demolition.

If the checklist turns up trouble, Parish Plumbing handles residential and commercial plumbing across Acadiana — water heaters, leak detection, drain cleaning and emergency repairs — with service details at parishplumbing.com.

Freezes here are short. The repairs are not. Thirty minutes now beats a flooded hallway in January.

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