Plumbing winterization and spring start-up in northern Utah

Winterizing a home's plumbing means getting the water out of every pipe that can freeze, or getting heat to it. Water expands when it turns to ice, and that is what splits a pipe or a valve. What the job covers depends on whether anyone lives in the house over the winter.

• A lived-in home. The heat stays on, so the work is at the edges. Garden hoses come off. Hose bibs are shut off and drained. The irrigation supply is closed and drained. Pipes in cold spots are insulated.
• A home left empty. Winterizing a vacant home, a cabin, or a second home means closing the main water valve and draining the water lines, the water heater, and the toilets. The drain traps are protected so they do not freeze and crack.

An empty house with the heat left on sits in between. One furnace failure on a cold night can freeze it. Tell us which one you have.

Winterize outdoor plumbing in northern Utah in October, before the first hard freeze. Cities set the calendar for it:

• Lehi City says users must turn off their pressurized irrigation connections by October 15 each year (source).
• Saratoga Springs drains its system the week of October 15. It asks residents to leave their shut-off valves open so the system drains, and to close them after November 1 (source).
• American Fork recommends that residents shut off and winterize their sprinkler systems when the city's system shuts down in mid-October (source).
• Eagle Mountain recommends winterizing a sprinkler system each October, or when temperatures consistently turn colder (source).

The steps differ a little from city to city, so follow the ones your city publishes. Winterize a home that will sit empty before the heat is turned down or off, not after the first cold night.

The pipes most likely to freeze are the ones outside the heated part of the house, or just inside an outside wall.

• Hose bibs. A garden hose left attached holds water in the faucet. It freezes there and splits the body.
• The irrigation backflow assembly. It sits above ground with water inside. The City of Orem says a backflow device connected to a sprinkling system should be drained to prevent freezing in winter (source).
• Pipes in a crawl space, a garage, or an attic. No heat reaches them.
• Pipes inside an outside wall. The kitchen sink is a common one.
• Shallow buried lines. Summit County's building design criteria, effective July 1, 2026, list a frost line depth of 36 inches (source).

Cold is not the same everywhere. The 1991–2020 climate normals show a normal January low of 24.2°F at Salt Lake City International Airport (source) and 12.5°F at Heber, with an average of 4.5 January days with a low at or below 0°F (source).

A winterization visit starts with two questions. Will anyone live in the house this winter? Will the heat stay on? The answers decide the work. In general, winterizing covers some or all of these:

• Outdoor faucets. Hoses come off. Each hose bib is shut off at its inside valve, where one exists, and drained.
• Irrigation supply. The supply valve is closed, and the backflow assembly is drained so no water sits in it.
• Cold spots. Pipes in the crawl space, the garage, and outside walls are checked, and insulated where they are exposed.
• Valves. The main water valve and the shut-off valves are tested, so they close when you need them.
• An empty home. Winterizing a vacant home means closing the main valve, draining the water lines and the water heater, emptying the toilets, and protecting the drain traps with plumbing antifreeze.

We do not list one fixed scope here, because a lived-in house and an empty cabin need different work. Tell us what you have, and we will tell you what we do and what it takes.

A spring start-up turns the water back on in stages, and a spring plumbing checkup looks for what the winter broke. Pleasant Grove tells its secondary water users that a pipe found broken in spring most likely froze over the winter (source). In general, the work covers:

1. The main water valve is opened slowly, with a faucet open, so air leaves the lines and the pipes fill gently.
2. A water heater that was drained is filled completely before it is turned back on.
3. Each hose bib is run while someone watches the wall inside. A hose bib that split in a freeze often leaks only when it is turned on. If one has failed, see outdoor plumbing.
4. Exposed lines, shut-off valves, and toilets are checked for splits and drips.
5. The irrigation backflow assembly is checked for cracks. Provo City says a reduced pressure assembly and a pressure vacuum breaker require annual testing (source), so backflow testing often comes next.

We give free estimates and do not post prices. These are the things that change the cost of winterization and spring start-up work:

• Lived-in or empty. Protecting the outdoor lines of a lived-in home is a smaller job than draining a whole house.
• The size of the house. More bathrooms, fixtures, and appliances that use water mean more to drain and more to check.
• What is outside. The number of hose bibs, and whether there is an irrigation connection and a backflow assembly.
• Valves and drain points. A hose bib with no inside shut-off, or a main valve that will not close, has to be dealt with first.
• Access. Pipes in a tight crawl space or behind a finished wall take longer to reach.
• Repairs found. A split hose bib or a leaking valve found in spring is a repair on top of the checkup.

We tell you the cost before we start the work.

Before the first freeze, a homeowner can do the simple outdoor steps and find the main water valve.

1. Take every garden hose off its faucet. Drain the hoses and store them.
2. If a hose bib has a shut-off valve inside the house, close it. Then open the outside faucet and let it drain.
3. Find the main water valve. Pleasant Grove City says most houses have a valve just inside the house where the water line comes in (source). South Jordan says the main shut-off valve is usually in the basement (source).
4. Close and drain the irrigation supply the way your city tells you to.
5. Keep the heat on, even when you are away. Keep the garage door closed if water lines run through the garage.

Stop if a valve is stuck, drips when you turn it, or cannot be found. Do not force it. If a pipe is already frozen, go to frozen pipes.