How to Keep Your Pipes From Freezing This Winter (Yes, Even in Bellevue)

Plumbing · 5 min read · By Rodney Jessen · Published October 8, 2026 · Updated October 10, 2026

Most Eastside homes were built for mild, wet winters, not hard freezes. That's usually fine — but when an Arctic outflow event pushes temperatures into the teens or single digits for a few days, which happens most winters somewhere in the region, homes that weren't built with that in mind can end up with frozen or burst pipes. The good news is that preventing it is cheap and quick. Fixing a burst pipe after the fact is not.

Why this catches Eastside homeowners off guard

In places that see real winters every year, pipes are routinely run deep in insulated interior walls and water lines are buried well below the frost line. Builders here didn't need to plan around that, so it's common to find supply lines running through unheated crawl spaces, garages, exterior walls, or attics — areas that stay fine 95% of the time but aren't protected when a cold snap actually hits. Add in hose bibs, irrigation lines, and outdoor kitchens that are rarely anyone's first thought in November, and you've got a lot of exposed plumbing that just needs one hard freeze to cause a problem.

The failure mode isn't really "pipes freezing" — ice itself doesn't burst a pipe. It's the pressure that builds up between the ice blockage and a closed faucet. That pressure has to go somewhere, and it usually finds the weakest point in the pipe.

What actually helps (most of this takes under an hour)

• Disconnect garden hoses from every outdoor spigot and drain them. A hose left attached traps water in the bib itself, which is one of the most common freeze points on a house.
• If you have an in-ground irrigation system, shut off and drain it per the manufacturer's instructions, or have your irrigation company do it. This is usually a fall task anyway, but don't skip it.
• Walk your crawl space, garage, and attic and look for any exposed water pipe. Foam pipe sleeves from a hardware store are inexpensive and take minutes to install — do the ones you can reach yourself.
• Seal obvious gaps or drafts where pipes pass through exterior walls or foundation vents. Cold air moving across a pipe is worse than cold air just sitting still around it.
• Know where your main water shutoff valve is and make sure it actually turns. A shutoff valve that's corroded stuck is useless in an emergency — if yours doesn't move freely, that's worth having a plumber look at before winter, not during it.

During an actual cold snap (forecast lows in the teens or below, especially for more than a day):

• Open cabinet doors under sinks that sit against exterior walls, so household heat can reach the pipes underneath.
• Keep the thermostat at a consistent, reasonable temperature even if you're leaving town — don't turn the heat off or way down to save money during a freeze warning. This is the single most common cause of frozen-pipe claims: an empty, cold house.
• For a pipe you know is in a vulnerable spot (an exterior wall, an uninsulated crawl space run), letting the faucet it feeds drip slightly keeps water moving and relieves pressure before it can build up.

If you suspect a pipe has frozen but hasn't burst

Signs: a faucet that was working fine suddenly has no flow, or just a trickle, during or right after a cold spell.

Open the faucet so there's somewhere for water and pressure to go as the ice melts, then warm the pipe gradually — a hair dryer, a space heater kept a safe distance away, or warm (not hot) towels wrapped around the section you can access. Work from the faucet end toward the blockage.

If a pipe actually bursts

Shut off the water at the main immediately — this is why knowing its location ahead of time matters. Then shut off power to any electrical circuits in the affected area if water is anywhere near outlets, switches, or fixtures (your electrical panel, not the wet area itself, is where you do this). After that, call a licensed plumber.

The bottom line

None of this requires special tools or a service call in most cases, just a little time before the first hard freeze. If you find a pipe you can't protect, a main shutoff that won't turn, or outdoor faucets that aren't frost-free, that's worth having a plumber handle before winter rather than during a cold snap.