-30 coming! (Houston, Hope: houses, crawl space, buy)

[msta999]

Hi all,
this will be my first real cold spell here (Houston), what kind of precautions should I take.....put an electric heater in the crawl space? leave the water faucets running just a little......for you who have been living with this type of weather, what have you done to keep things from freezing up?


Thanks.

[Frostnip]

My place is built correctly, so I just keep the house a little warmer than I usually would, so the heat permeates the structure. And plug in the truck. At my last place I had to run a space heater in the bathroom or the toilet would freeze, which was, you know, less than ideal. Interior Alaska construction techniques!

Your individual house might have a few surprise quirks you'll discover the hard way, so you'll know what to look out for next time

[AKStafford]

Originally Posted by Frostnip

My place is built correctly

And that's the key... How well the house was built.
Keep the vehicles plugged in or keep them in the garage.

[mitgreb]

Buy a ticket to Hawaii!

[msta999]

Turning the heat up a little sounds like a good idea, I'll try that, thanks

[msta999]

Originally Posted by AKStafford

And that's the key... How well the house was built.
Keep the vehicles plugged in or keep them in the garage.

My house was built in 98, it is a manufactured home on a full insulated foundation, I guess I will see how it does.

[AKStafford]

Originally Posted by msta999

My house was built in 98, it is a manufactured home on a full insulated foundation, I guess I will see how it does.

My furnace is in my crawl space, so it keeps it warm. Since your furnace is inside the house, a space heater in the crawl space might not be a bad idea. Just keep an eye on it.

[GnomadAK]

Leave your doors in the bathroom vanity and under the kitchen sink open to warm air.

Houses all have those quirks. Stuff freezes up that you'd never think and doesn't freeze in places you think would.

[6.7traveler]

It's -32 below up here in Delta right now.

The inner workings of my door handle completely froze solid and when I turned the knob nothing would turn. I turned it a bit more and it broke and just kept spinning around .

Luckily I had another one on an old door that I could cannibalize.

Hopefully you have a woodstove backup to keep things nice and toasty inside.

[pnwguy2]

I just checked and weather channel now saying close to -50 tomorrow night. I can't imagine...though I know y'all are hardened Alaskans! Here in Tri-Cities, WA (Mid-Columbia Basin), we complained at 5 above, but we should be up into the 40's in the next few days.