Despite modern advancements in housing technology, extremely cold weather can still be challenging, especially if it unexpectedly gets worse. That’s exactly what happened to an unfortunate homeowner from North Carolina, who went out for a while, only to come home to a house covered in ice, all because of some frozen pipes that exploded all over his property.
Always shut the house water off in the basement if you are leaving during the winter for a long time: 😮 pic.twitter.com/cgIGLWNHiX
— AlphaFox (@alphafox) February 11, 2026
The incident occurred around early February in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was uploaded on Tuesday by TikTok user willethehvacgoat, aka Willie. In the video, you can see Willie coming into the house, all covered in ice, with the floor and some walls even destroyed, presumably by water damage before it froze. Since there were also water pipes on his walls and ceiling, those spots were also damaged.
“This is exactly why you should always make sure you have water running if you ain’t gonna be home,” advises Willie. “Now I ain’t very smart, but uhh, this sucks. It’s gonna suck to clean this place up,” he added. It’s not immediately clear what countermeasures Willie put in place to keep the water pipes from freezing and bursting, though apparently, he didn’t keep the water running well enough while he was away…