
Burst Pipe
Once a frozen line splits, the water only stops when the main is closed, so shut that valve and get somebody moving before the basement takes it.
When this becomes an emergency
- Water raining down onto a basement floor from the joists above.
- A faucet that gave nothing at breakfast and then runs hard by afternoon.
- Frost or ice showing on a copper line where the wall meets the foundation.
- A steady hiss behind plaster that keeps getting louder.
What a pro does
Everything starts at the main valve, which in the older homes around here sits on the basement wall where the service comes through the foundation. Cutting pressure is what makes the rest of the work possible. After that the plumber follows the line back to the split, and the location is rarely a surprise once you know the house. Frost gets deep on both sides of the state line, and the pipes that fail are the ones with the least building between them and that cold: a run through an unheated basement stairwell, a line in a wall on the north face, a stub to an outside spigot that never got drained before the first hard week. Craftsman era homes in the older neighborhoods add another wrinkle, because a lot of them still carry sections of galvanized that rusted narrow years ago and had nothing left to give. The failed length gets cut back to good pipe on both sides and rejoined with fittings matched to what's there. Where copper meets galvanized, that transition gets handled deliberately rather than patched over. The line is repressurized and watched before the wall goes back.
Frequently asked questions
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