Post-Freeze Checklist: Control the Damage Before it Controls You

Texas’s annual freeze is over. The power grid held up…this time. Everything ‘looks’ fine. You’ll be seeing mosquitos again in a week or two, ha!

But in and around your property, hanging over your fence line, thousands of dollars in damage is waiting to reveal itself—usually at the worst possible moment.

Texas freeze events cause an average of $800 million in property damage annually, and 60% of it isn’t discovered until weeks later when pipes burst, wells fail, or trees collapse.

Here’s your 48-hour damage control checklist.

Your Well – Check Within 24 Hours

□ Run water for 10 minutes and watch for pressure drops – Frozen well lines create air pockets. Pressure fluctuations mean cracked pipes between your well and house.

Repair now: $1000. Ignore it and face a flooded crawlspace: $5,000-$10,000

□ Inspect pressure tank for bulging and leaking – Frozen pressure tanks lose their air charge. Press the valve stem—if water sprays out instead of air, your tank is waterlogged.

Replacement: $500. A failed tank burns out your pump: $5,000

□ Check well house for standing water or frost damage – Water in your well house means frozen pipes already burst.

Even small leaks waste 200+ gallons daily and cost $60-$150/month in electricity running your pump constantly.

□ Listen for pump cycling every 2-5 minutes when no water is running – Short cycling means a leak somewhere in your system. Your pump is destroying itself trying to maintain pressure.

Your pump lifespan is then measured in months instead of years.

Your Septic – Check Within 48 Hours

□ Flush toilets and run sinks—confirm normal drainage speed – Slow drains after a freeze mean frozen effluent lines or a cracked distribution box.

Sewage backup inside your home: $5,000 in cleanup and repairs.

□ Inspect visible septic components for frost heave damage – Ground freezing and thawing shifts tanks, cracks risers, and separates pipe joints.

A shifted tank connection means sewage leaking into your soil: starting at $5,000 to excavate and repair.

□ Check for wet spots, unusual odors, or extra-green grass patches in drain field area – Frozen drain field pipes crack during thaw.

Sewage surfacing in your yard means drain field failure: $8,000-$20,000 to replace. Catching it early might save the system with spot repairs: $1,500-$2,500.

□ For aerobic systems: verify control panel lights are functioning normally – Frozen aerobic units often have damaged air pumps or spray heads. A non-functioning aerobic system is a code violation and health hazard.

Your Fencing – Check Within 72 Hours

□ Walk your fence line looking for leaning posts, especially in saturated soil – Freeze-thaw cycles turn clay soil into oatmeal. Posts lose their set and lean.

One damaged section fails: $200-$300 repair. Entire fence collapses and livestock escape: Thousands. Not to mention liability if animals cause accidents.

□ Inspect for popped staples, stretched wire, or broken welds on metal fencing – Metal contracts in freezing temps, expands in thaw. Barbed wire pulls staples out. Welded pipe fencing cracks at joints.

Pay a few hundred for small fixes now. Full fence replacement after spring storms finishes what frost started: Up to $20 per linear foot.

□ Check gate hinges and latches— Frozen hinges crack internally. They seem fine until they snap under normal use. Check your hardware gang!

Trees and Limbs (Check Immediately)

□ Look up: identify cracked limbs still hanging, bent branches, split trunks – Widow-makers. Ice-damaged limbs don’t fall during the freeze—they fall days or weeks later when you’re underneath them or when wind picks up.

One branch through your roof: $5,000. If it falls through that new F-350: totaled.

Professional assessment: $300. Listen to your wife, they have a sixth sense for this stuff.

□ Check for split bark, cracks in major limbs, and leaning trees – These are ticking time bombs. Insurance companies deny claims for “pre-existing damage you should have noticed.” Document everything with photos NOW—before the next event.

The 48-Hour Rule

You have about 48 hours while contractors are still reasonably available and before the demand for specialty services peaks, and the price doubles.

Damage discovered now is damage you can control. Damage discovered in three weeks when your drain field collapses or your well runs dry is damage that controls you.

Document Everything

Take photos. Make notes. Date everything. Insurance claims for freeze damage have a 30-60 day reporting window in most Texas policies. Miss it, and you’re self-funding repairs.

After the 2021 Texas freeze, over $10 billion in property damage was claimed. Roughly $3 billion was denied due to delayed discovery and reporting.

We likely missed an item or two. You can always text us or email with feedback. Stay safe Texas!

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