BATON ROUGE — The capital area is expecting to see some of the coldest temperatures of the season in next few days.

With that in mind, members of the Homebuilders Association of Greater Baton Rouge have several tips people can use to prepare their homes for potential freezes.

"It's been my experience that the most vulnerable areas of your house are those related to water, so freezing pipes, water heaters that may be installed in the attic,” Michael LeBass with the Homebuilders Association of Greater Baton Rouge said.

The practice of dripping one’s faucet over night is common among Louisiana residents, but while at the sink, LeBass says there’s another thing people can do.

“When temperatures get very cold, the cold air tends to come through the walls and often around the plumbing fixtures. So one of the important things to do is simply open up your doors to your cabinets, and allow the air to flow,” LeBass said.

This will help keep the pipes warmer and lessen the chance of them freezing.

Doors and windows are susceptible to letting in cold air. One method that LeBass has is taking any old towel or blanket and sliding it up against the door.

"Often, the thresholds for these doors, are not airtight as we would hope they would be,” LeBass said.

On the outside of the house, exposed house bibbs, which is the fixture that a hose connects to, are prone to freezing.

"There are commercially available products. We have covers, that are a bag, we have insulated covers, and we have insulation tubing,” LeBass said.

Additionally, wrapping the hose Bibb with a towel or cloth and taping it can also work.

When wrapping a pipe, there’s other stuff to take into consideration when doing so.

"Know where your water shutoff valve is. That is the main valve that supplies water to your house. This is the valve. You just simply turn it clockwise and it will turn off the water supply to your house. At that point, you can drain the water out of your hose bibb, and it takes the pressure of the line,” LeBass said.

LeBass also says that it is very important not to leave any part of the pipe or valves exposed when wrapping it.

All of these are cheap and cost effective ways to prepare.

"It's really important to understand those simple things. A lot of our members are also remodelers. We don't want to have to come to you because you didn't wrap a pipe and you had water damage,” Karen Profita with the Homebuilders Association of Greater Baton Rouge said.