Vacant Units Freeze First: The Checklist Before the Next Hard Freeze
On average, Dallas-Fort Worth sees its first freeze around November 22, according to the National Weather Service. That date is a starting line. In recent winters, the multi-day freezes that split pipes came later: Uri in February 2021, and Winter Storm Fern last January.
Fern began on January 23. Karen Clark & Company estimated its privately insured losses from freeze, snow, ice and wind at $6.7 billion, with the highest losses in Texas and Tennessee.
Why vacant units are the weak spot
In an occupied apartment, someone keeps the heat on, opens a cabinet or hears a pipe start to drip. In a vacant unit, nobody does.
Look at your make-ready board right now: the unit mid-turn, the one waiting on a lease, the model, the down unit waiting on parts. Their thermostats may be off to save energy, and the water is often left on for the crew.
Picture a supply line splitting in a second-floor vacant on a Saturday night. The crew finds it Monday morning, after the water has come through the ceiling of the occupied unit below. One vacant unit has turned into three repairs and an unhappy resident.
The checklist
This week, before the first freeze
Pull the list. Every vacant, model, down and offline unit, taken from your make-ready board, not from memory.
Test the heat in each one. A heating system that hasn't run since March is better found in November than during a freeze.
Find the shutoffs. The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) tells owners and apartment residents to identify water shutoff valves indoors and out. Tag them, and make sure whoever is on call can reach them.
Wrap and shut down outdoors. Wrap exposed pipes and outdoor faucets, starting in the attic as TDI suggests, and turn off irrigation.
The day before a hard freeze
Heat on, not off. The City of Round Rock advises never setting a thermostat below 55°F when a home will be empty for a while. Apply that to every vacant unit.
Open the sink cabinets on exterior walls so warm air reaches the pipes.
Drip faucets where your water utility allows it. In any unit whose heat you couldn't fix, shut the water off at the unit valve.
Stage the response. Keys, wet vacs, and your plumbing, HVAC and water extraction numbers in one place, with names on the on-call schedule.
During and after the freeze
Walk every vacant unit daily. Look up at the ceilings, look under the sinks, listen for running water.
Check below. For every upper-floor vacant, check the unit underneath it too.
Check again after the thaw. A split pipe can stay quiet while it's frozen and start leaking when the ice melts.
Photograph before you clean up. TDI advises taking photos or video of damage before any repairs, and holding off on permanent repairs until your insurance company has seen it.
One call for the whole sequence
Freeze damage rarely needs just one trade. It's heat, then plumbing, then water extraction, then a make-ready to put the unit back on the market. That sequence slows down when every step is a different vendor with a different phone line.
360 handles all of it on one schedule. Our licensed HVAC technicians check the heat before the cold arrives and answer emergencies 24/7. Our licensed plumbers repair the break, our crews extract water 24/7, and our make-ready team returns the unit to rent-ready. Every step is photo-documented in the Customer Portal, so you can show your insurer and your owner what happened and when.
We have been through this with our clients before. Here's how 360 stood with them during Winter Storm Uri.
Book it before November 22
Pull your vacant-unit list this week and book heat checks and pipe protection before the average first freeze. Current clients can book through their account manager or the Customer Portal. New to 360? Call 1-833-360-RENO (7366), and save the number in your phone for the night you need it.
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