Hose bibbs
The outside tap is the single most common freeze casualty. Water sits in the bibb, freezes, expands and splits the body, and you do not find out until spring when you turn it on and water appears inside a wall. Disconnect hoses before the first freeze. That one habit prevents most of these calls.
Garage and attic runs
Any supply line in unconditioned space is exposed. Garages here get cold enough to freeze a line against an exterior wall, and attic runs are worse because nobody notices until the ceiling stains. Pipe insulation is cheap and it works.
The line you cannot see
Water service between the meter and the house sits below frost depth if it was installed properly. If it was not, a hard freeze finds that out for you. This is one of the reasons depth matters on a new service line and why we do not cut corners on it.
What to do when it happens
Shut the water off at the main. Open a tap to relieve pressure. Do not apply an open flame to a frozen pipe, which is how houses burn down. Then call, because a frozen line and a split line need different responses and you cannot always tell which you have.
After the repair
Repairing a pipe and leaving it exposed just books the same job for next February. The insulation conversation is part of the work, not an upsell.
Questions about any of this on your own property? (940) 231-5706 reaches Norman Alambar directly, Texas Master Plumber M-44741, working Krugerville and seventy-five towns across North Texas.
Start with a phone call
Tell me what it is doing and I will tell you what it takes to fix it.