Leak and Freeze
About this site
Who makes it, where the facts come from, and what it is not.
Leak and Freeze explains where water starts in a house and how to catch it, from public sources: IBHS, Triple-I, the EPA, the Red Cross, the NAIC, FEMA, two university extension services and Home Assistant's own documentation. It is made by one person whose house runs the setup these pages describe, Jake Lawrence, and published by Fox River Press. It names no brand and sells nothing.
What it is
A short shelf of guides on keeping water where it belongs in a house: where leak sensors go, how pipes freeze, what to do when one bursts, automatic shutoff valves, washer hoses, sump pumps and insurance. Plus a plan builder that turns what your house has into a sensor list and the Home Assistant automations to run it.
What it is not
It is not an inspection of your house, and it is not advice from a licensed plumber, electrician or insurance agent. It names no sensor or valve brand, takes no affiliate money and sells nothing. Every threshold the site chooses for itself, like the 40 degree alert, says so.
Where the facts come from
Every claim cites a public page, listed at the foot of the page it appears on and opened on the day the page was drafted. Where a figure circulates without a primary source, like the 20 degree rule for frozen pipes, the page names who it found the figure through.
The house behind it
The editor's own house runs leak sensors through a hub that dials out to the internet and never accepts a connection in. Its documented design is where the plans here get their offline alert and their order of operations. Its public view is coarse and delayed on purpose, and nothing on this site reads from inside it.
- About 1 secondfrom a wet leak sensor to a critical alert, in the house's own drill. The rule runs where the reading arrives, not on a schedule.
- 24 hoursof silence from a sensor and the house raises a warning. A dead battery is the failure nobody notices, so it gets its own alert.
- 90 secondsof silence from the hub that relays the sensors and the house raises a warning from outside, because a dead hub cannot report itself.
- 0 open portsinto the house. The hub dials out; nothing on the internet can reach in, and the public view of the house is coarse and delayed on purpose.
- The editor's houseA coarse, delayed public view of the house these notes come from.
- CorrectionsEvery correction across Fox River Press, recorded in public.
- Editorial policyHow pages across the network are made, sourced and checked.
Sources
- IBHS: State of the Risk, Interior Water Damage (white paper, December 2024) Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, accessed October 25, 2026
- Triple-I: Facts and statistics, homeowners and renters insurance Insurance Information Institute, accessed October 25, 2026
- American Red Cross: Preventing and thawing frozen pipes American Red Cross, accessed October 25, 2026
Drafted with a language model on October 25, 2026 from the sources listed above, each opened that day. Every threshold and count on the page comes from the site's own code, held by a test. The editor samples pages after they publish; nothing here is an inspection of your house or advice from a licensed plumber or insurer.
Found an error? See Corrections.