A Winter Storm Lesson Every Homeowner Should Know

As a military wife, I’ve learned to be resourceful out of necessity. You get used to thinking problems through before picking up the phone to call for help, because sometimes help is expensive, unavailable, or hours away. You adapt, you troubleshoot, and you do the best you can with what you have.

During the recent winter storm, that mindset was put to the test. We lost power for over 24 hours, and the temperature inside our house dropped quickly. We were careful to keep what we could warm enough to prevent anything from freezing. Still, after waking up to a cold, powerless house, we walked into our downstairs bathroom and found water leaking from the ceiling.

That’s never a good moment.

We immediately headed upstairs and discovered water all over the laundry room floor. First priority was stopping the damage. I shut off the water supply to the washing machine, even though there was no visible leaking around the supply lines, and started cleaning up while trying to figure out where the water was coming from. After some investigating, I realized the utility sink was actually the source. I shut that off, and just like that, the leaking downstairs stopped.

Once the power came back on, the room we had sectioned off with the fireplace was only 51 degrees. The rest of the house was even colder. As things slowly warmed up, I went back upstairs and turned the utility sink faucet back on. It was still leaking, so I assumed we’d need to replace the faucet over the weekend.

We had gone through a lot of towels during cleanup, so I needed to do laundry. I turned the water back on to the washing machine hookups and suddenly water started spraying everywhere.

That was not what had been leaking before.

I shut everything off immediately and assumed those fixtures had failed too. But then I paused and asked myself an important question: why would all three fail at the same time? The laundry room never actually reached freezing temperatures. The shutoff valves worked. Nothing appeared cracked or broken.

Something didn’t add up.

That’s when it clicked. Copper pipes shrink when they get cold. And when they get really cold, they can shrink enough to loosen fittings.

Instead of waiting until the weekend, I grabbed some tools and tightened every copper connection and fixture in the laundry room. I reconnected the washing machine, turned the water back on, and… no leaks. (I did accidentally swap the hot and cold at first, but we fixed that.) I did the same with the utility sink. No dripping. No leaking.

I watched everything closely for the next couple of hours and kept checking the ceiling downstairs.

Nothing leaked.

The takeaway for homeowners is this: after extreme temperature changes, especially during winter storms, copper pipes and fittings can contract and loosen. When temperatures rise again, those loosened connections can leak even though nothing is actually broken. Sometimes, simply tightening them is enough to solve the problem. In hindsight, if I had waited until the house fully warmed up, the leaks may not have happened at all. Either way, it’s something we’ll be watching closely going forward.

Unfortunately, we still need to repair part of the ceiling in our downstairs bathroom, which will be this weekend’s project. But it could have been much worse.

This may be something some homeowners already know, but it was a lesson I learned the hard way. Going forward, checking and tightening copper fittings will be part of our winter prep and something we pay attention to after major temperature swings.

If this helps even one homeowner avoid water damage, costly repairs, or a stressful morning after a storm, then it’s worth sharing.

Leslea