re: Let's talk about freezing pipes and hose bibb protection down here in the south...

I discovered that our house has valves to turn off each exterior spigot from somewhere inside the house.
I do have a basement and that is where most of those shutoff valves are placed. It was an excellent effort of the plumber that built our house ( we're the second owner)
Perhaps your house has the same shutoff valves, so it may be worth checking, especially those with basements

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I discovered that our house has valves to turn off each exterior spigot from somewhere inside the house.

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just be sure to also open the exterior valve as well to let as much water drain as possible.

u prolly know that though.

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do it now because I know if I don't and something happens to burst I'll be hearing "I told you so" from my wife for the rest of my life.

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this.

I ordered some cool arse neoprene covers for my bibs. Ordered in 6 packs and needed 7. Gave rest to my neighbor. Now I can’t find em. I’m an idiot

I just bought a house in BTR and haven't moved in yet. Given the ARTIC BLAST that we are about to experience, I am trying to decide whether or not to drip water in a few faucets all night (and during the day while it's below freezing)....OR....should I just shut off the main water to the house and not turn it back on until we are above freezing? Is there any potential for issues if I simply shut the water off at the main?

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should I just shut off the main water to the house and not turn it back on until we are above freezing?

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The pipes would still freeze and burst with the water turned off unless you flushed all the water out.

As soon as you turned the water back on you’d still end up with water everywhere.

How do you know if you’ve flushed all the water out or not?

I did a test run yesterday and as soon as I shut off the main, the water inside the house stopped immediately, they didn’t continue to flush out.

So the consensus would be to leave the water on and just drip for three days?

The issue is that every house is different depending on how and where the water pipes were ran.

For example a one story house with pex ran through the attic is easy to drain…just turn the water off and open the faucets and let gravity do its thing.

Now if you have a a house with copper ran through the slab the above method obviously work bc the lowest point in your system is in the slab.

Also note that water expands about 9% when it freezes so you don’t have to get it all out. If you get half of it out (in any given area) that is more than enough to prevent the pipes from bursting.

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My tankless water heater is my biggest concern also. People we bought from mounted it on the outside of house and the copper line busted last year even though it was wrapped. I may just drain it and turn it off for the two nights of hard freeze. Talked to a plumber today and he recommended that I do this. He thinks the copper inside will freeze and break due to how low of temps we are expecting. Im also just thinking of running water constantly and running hot load in washing machine and dishwasher overnight

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I thought I read mine was rated up to -13degrees. That may be off, but I recall it being freeze proof. I'll look that up. My 2 tankless are on the outside of my house, and each of the inlet and outlet underneath the heater have an enclosure to make look nicer. What I do is remove the box, wrap what I can in foam, and stuff the box with insulation. I got a roll from HD. I think it was $17. I tape it so it doesn't fall or collapse in the box when I put the box back on. I also run the dishwasher at 3 or 4am depending on the hourly forecast.

Whenever the big freeze in BR happened a few year ago, my neighbors had just purchased a new tankless and placed it outside of their home. They went out of town and thought they would be fine. I wake up the morning of the freeze and it is gushing water out since the lines froze. I don't think they took any preventative measures to make sure that didn't happen. I would be cautious and take preventative measures if you had tankless.

"Freeze proof" sounds kinda sus. It will absolutely freeze before it gets below 0.