BATON ROUGE - All day Monday, capital area customers were in and out of hardware stores, buying last-minute supplies to fortify homes against Tuesday's sub-freezing weather.

Officials are advising that people stay inside their homes and off the roads with several inches of snowfall predicted.

At this point, most people know the drill when the weather dips below freezing: bring in pets, cover plants and wrap exterior pipes. Zack Payne works at Central Plumbing and he says if you can’t get pipe insulation, t-shirts and towels also work.

"Any copper, PVC, anything you have where it's exposed to the elements, you need to insulate those," Payne said. “You want to break the wind resistance against the piping. It might be 30 degrees outside, but the wind chill might be down to 20.”

Turning on faucets is also a crucial factor since water can’t freeze if it’s moving. Payne says dripping faucets, with hot and cold water, can save a homeowner anywhere from a hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the severity of conditions.

If pipes do freeze, Payne recommends using a hair dryer to thaw them. But if the damage is done, and the freeze leads to burst pipes, Payne says to shut off the water to your home and call a plumber to repair any serious damage.

WBRZ Storm Station meteorologists predict between two to six inches of snow across the capital region starting Tuesday morning. Stay tuned to WBRZ for more updates.