Weather up north6/13/2023 We kept having 100- and 500- year floods all the time. The flooding had occurred over and over again. I think the flooding was different, and I was largely involved in that. MD: I think it'd be a blip, because you're trying to prepare for something that happens every 30 years. Do you think we’ll see changes like that in Houston because of this extreme weather too? Or will this be more like a blip on the radar? And again, of course, the big question is, how low do you prepare for? Do you prepare for something that happened 31 years ago? Or … what do you do?Īfter Hurricane Harvey we saw changes to building code in Houston. But when they happen, then we get all these problems going on, as we can see with water pressure, and then enter the power plants and everything else. These things just don't happen very often. It's all focused more on keeping your house cool, not keeping it warm. They care about the insulation factor keeping the cold out. Up North they don't care about that number. Down here they're really, really big on solar heat gain coefficient, or how much sun gets into your house, because that heats up your home. There's an international residential building code that has an energy component, which most builders in the United States are following. What about keeping heat in the home? How do Texas homes compare on that front? It's a little bit warmer underneath the house than it is directly outside, but still it's going to be colder. The piping goes in and it's usually underneath the house. In these old neighborhoods, the homes are built on blocks. A lot of old homes-and again they don't do this up North as much-are built above ground, like in The Heights, Acres Homes, Garden Oaks. The homes that seem to have pipes breaking are the old homes. Now up North, people put in insulated garage doors because when it's below zero, having a garage door helps get your car started. Because we have attached garages a lot of times (in single stories for sure), you have your water coming into your home and across your garage to get into the warm parts of your house. But the problem is that the line behind there, it's in the wall. I went around town and saw a lot of people wrapping those hose bibs with extra insulation, which is great because that is a weak point. Even if they're inside of insulation-because your house is insulated or it's wrapped with the insulation-the water is not moving and water that is not moving has a greater chance of freezing. A lot of people will wrap insulation around it, but the problem is that those are vertical lines and (if you’re not dripping water) the water isn't moving at all. It's where the water goes out of your house. The second one is hose bibs, and that's where I see most of the breaks. Valves are made to turn and twist, which means they're not as strong as the rigid pipe. So you'll see cracks at 90-degrees turns, and it can also do it at the valve. Freezing water likes to break at weak points. You're going to find most of these breaks are in three locations: First is where the water's coming into the house from the outside, so when the pipe rises out of the ground. What parts of the home are most prone to pipe breaks or bursts? Also, it enters there because you need a water shutoff, and most people don't like seeing a water shutoff valve in their master bedroom or family room or kitchen. It's normally the closest part of the home to the street where the water meter is. goes in through the attached garage, which is normally in the front of the home. In Texas most people have attached garages. They try to avoid the exterior walls a bit, but that still happens. The pipe goes in underground, goes into the basement, and circulates throughout the house. A lot of times they’re either heated or semi-heated. My wife's from Iowa, and everyone out there has a basement. How are Houston homes built differently from homes built for this type of weather up North? We are not set to be at zero degree temperatures or 10 degrees for a long period of time. That's is kind of our homes are built here. And some of that heat is going into your walls, which keeps warmer. Power helps immensely because it keeps your house warm. In some areas north of here, in Conroe and such, it got a lot colder. When you get down to 10 degrees, 5 degrees, now you're in uncharted areas. Most all the homes in Houston that are newly built, in 15 to 20 degrees weather-they will definitely hold on. So, how are Houston homes suited for extremely cold weather? We turned to Mike Dishberger, CEO and co-owner of Sandcastle Homes and former president of the Greater Houston Builders Association, for answers. Dishberger explains how basements, history, and, yes, even Texans’ beloved garages played a role in the “unprecedented” disaster.
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