The Upstate’s winter storms are ice storms more often than snowstorms, and ice is harder on a house. The storms of December 2005 and February 2014 each coated Greenville in a glaze that brought limbs down through the night and left the region dark for days. An ice storm works on a house from the top down, and the preparation is easiest to remember in that order. Here is how to get an Upstate home ready, from the treetops to the ground.
Overhead, the trees and the lines
Ice does its first damage overhead. A quarter inch of it adds hundreds of pounds to a limb, and Greenville’s oaks and pines, which survive every summer thunderstorm, shed branches under that weight onto roofs, outdoor units, and the power line running to the house. Before the storm, have limbs over the roof, the service line, or the outdoor unit trimmed. Once the storm arrives, treat any line on the ground as live and call the utility, and know that the same limbs that take your line take the neighborhood’s, which is why an ice outage here lasts days.
Next down, the roof and the gutters
Next down is the roof. Clear the gutters before the storm so melting ice drains rather than backing up under the shingles, and confirm the downspouts carry water away from the foundation, since the melt ends up in the crawl space of a house on Piedmont clay. After the storm, look at the ceilings for the staining that announces a limb-damaged roof.
At ground level, the outdoor unit
The heat pump’s outdoor unit sits in the open through the storm while heating the house. Frost on the coil is normal and clears in the defrost cycle, but a solid glaze over the cabinet or the fan grille is not, and once the freezing rain stops it is worth knocking off gently, without chipping at the coil, so the fan can turn. If the fan does not turn after the ice is cleared, or the unit runs and the house does not warm, the defrost control or the auxiliary heat strips have failed, both of which a fall tune-up tests. If the tune-up did not happen, a heat pump check before the storm is the most useful appointment on this list.
Along the walls, the pipes
Below the unit are the pipes, and an ice storm supplies the hard freeze that finds every one installed for a warmer climate. Before the storm, disconnect and drain the hoses, cover the spigots, wrap the exposed pipe in the crawl space and garage with foam sleeves, and confirm the main shutoff valve turns, because a seized valve is a hard thing to discover while water is running across a floor. On the cold nights, open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls, let a faucet fed by an exposed line drip, and hold the thermostat at 55 or above even if you leave. Our post on three lines of defense against frozen pipes covers the full routine and what to do if a pipe freezes anyway.
Under the house, the crawl space
At the bottom of the house is the space an ice storm reaches last and leaves wettest, as the melt pushes water into clay that does not drain and cold air through open foundation vents freezes the pipes and chills the ductwork. Close and seal the vents for the season. If the space takes water, test the sump pump by lifting the float, since the storm that fills the crawl space is often the storm that cuts the pump’s power, and a battery backup pump, which our sump pump team installs, keeps it running through the outage. After the storm, take a flashlight down and look for standing water and for pipe that split while frozen.
Every floor at once, the power
One thing an ice storm does reaches every floor at once: when the lines come down, the heat pump, the furnace, the water heater, and the sump pump all stop, and a house that began the night at 68 drifts toward the outdoor temperature by morning. Prepare the household first, with flashlights and battery banks charged, a few days of water, a colder refrigerator and freezer, a steady thermostat so the house starts the outage warm, and a decision about which room holds heat best, and then consider the equipment. For a home that has lost power for days more than occasionally, a standby generator that starts on its own and carries the heat through the outage is the difference between an inconvenience and a night somewhere else. If you already have one, confirm the weekly self-test is running and schedule service before the storm; a portable generator runs outdoors only, far from every window and door, never plugged into a wall outlet.
Two safety items that fit anywhere on the list
A winter storm brings out space heaters, fireplaces, and generators, and carbon monoxide is the quiet risk of all three. Before the storm, press the test button on every smoke and carbon monoxide detector, put fresh batteries in, and retire any unit past the date on its back. Gas heat, a fireplace, or an attached garage each call for a carbon monoxide detector on every level of the house, and our smoke and CO services page covers placement.
If something did not hold
Carolina Heating Service has served Greenville and the Upstate since 1981 and worked through both ice storms above and the week after Helene. If the heat did not come back, a pipe has split, or the sump pump is silent with water under the house, same-day repair service is available by phone, and members of the Carolina Comfort Club receive priority service when the storm fills the calendar. If a pipe has burst, close the main valve first, and then call; our frozen and burst pipe repair team will take it from there, with the price presented before the work.