Houston Home Guides: AC, Heating and Plumbing

Pick the topic closest to your question. Every guide links to the service page for that job if you’d rather have a technician look.

Winter and freezing weather

How to protect pipes from freezing in Houston: which pipes go first, a checklist for the night before a freeze, and what to do if one freezes or bursts.
How to shut off the water to your house: where the main valve and the meter box are, and the smaller shutoffs under sinks and at the water heater.

Water heaters

What temperature to set a water heater at: the 120°F guidance, scald times, and how gas, electric and tankless units are adjusted.
How to flush a water heater: why Houston’s hard water fills tanks with sediment, the steps, and when not to try it.

Air conditioning

Should you repair or replace your AC? The questions that settle it: age, refrigerant, repair history, comfort and ducts.
What size AC do you need? Why square-foot rules miss, what a load calculation looks at, and why an oversized unit feels clammy in Houston.
AC drain line cleaning: what to do when water shows up in the pan or on the ceiling.

Cost guides (no price lists, just what drives the price)

AC repair cost · AC replacement cost · Furnace repair cost · Water heater replacement cost · Repiping cost · Drain cleaning cost · Sewer line repair cost

New guides are added here as we write them. Updated November 2026.