Picture this if you will. It is late at night during the holiday break. It is bitterly cold outside and there is patchy snow on the ground. You are tucked into the covers of your bed, all nice and toasty warm after being cold all day from playing in the snow. Given those circumstances, which would you rather have – a frozen popsicle or Sacramento frozen pipes? This seems like a simple question, right? Is it really? Yes, it really is. No hidden secret here. Frozen water lines in the home are horrible to deal with and yet they must be dealt with. 
So how do you prevent yourself from needing to get out of the warm bed on a cold night to deal with frozen or even burst water lines? There are some things that you can do to help your odds, though there are never any guarantees. Fortunately, we rarely get the freezing temperatures and wind chill required to freeze pipes in Sacramento. But when that weather does arrive, our pipes aren’t exactly prepared for it around here. Prevention is extra important in the south and here in California.
First, take the time to make sure your insulation in the attic is sufficient. Check this around September or October, before it becomes real cold. This gives you a chance to do something about it if more is needed because of the settling over years.
Second, anything that is in serious question, such as the lines that run above the garage or beneath pier and beam homes or trailers, use heat tape on these pipes to make sure that they do not freeze up.
Third, on extremely cold nights turn on all indoor water taps that are along outside walls and let them drizzle out through the night. Moving water is tougher to freeze and thus this will help prevent it from freezing in the pipes. Open the cabinet doors on vanities and kitchen sinks to allow warm air to circulate.
These small, simple tips will help to give you the best chance of making it through another winter with no frozen pipes in Sacramento. Of course, you will want to make sure that you employ these tips every winter. Checking each year and making any improvements that are needed each fall will give you the best chance to avoid any trouble in winter.
Of course, if you are building a new home you may want to think through this potential issue and make sure that there are resources available where you need them. For example, running heat tape on pipes would require plugs. It is much nicer if there is already a plug handy nearby. This is the kind of thing you can think through when building a new home.
