If a pipe freezes in your Salt Lake City home, shut off the main water valve, open the faucet the frozen pipe feeds, and warm the frozen section slowly with a hair dryer or warm towels while you watch for cracks. If you find water where it should not be, or the frozen pipe is inside a wall you cannot reach, Reliable Plumbing answers (801) 803-0847 around the clock, all winter.
How do I know a pipe is frozen and not just shut off?
The tell is a faucet that gives you nothing, or a thin trickle, while other faucets in the house work. Frozen pipes are almost always on an exterior wall, in a garage, in a crawl space, or feeding an outside hose bib. Frost on the outside of a visible pipe is a giveaway. So is a faint bulge in a copper line. If the whole house has no water, the problem is more likely the main supply or the meter, and that is worth a call to the city before you call us.
What should I do in the first five minutes?
Start with the main shutoff. In most Salt Lake homes it is where the water line enters the house, usually in the basement, a utility room, or a crawl space near the front of the house. Turning it off means that if the pipe has already cracked, you limit the damage to what is already in the line rather than a full-pressure leak when it thaws.
Next, open the faucet at the end of the frozen run. Ice expands, and an open faucet gives the pressure somewhere to go. It also lets you see the moment water starts moving again.
Then warm the pipe from the faucet end back toward the frozen section. A hair dryer on low, warm towels, or a space heater in the room all work. Do not use a torch, a heat gun on high, or anything with an open flame. Copper transfers heat fast, and a pipe joint that was fine a minute ago can fail when it is heated unevenly.
When is a frozen pipe an emergency?
Three situations. First, you can see water: a drip, a wet ceiling, a damp wall, water in the crawl space. That means the pipe has already split and will get worse as it thaws. Second, the frozen section is inside a wall or under a slab where you cannot warm it or watch it. Third, it is a supply line to a water heater, and the tank is now starved or the heater is running dry. In all three, shut the main off and call. Our emergency plumbing page covers what to shut off while you wait.
Which pipes freeze in Salt Lake City homes?
The same ones every year. Hose bibs that were not drained. Irrigation lines that were not blown out. Supply lines running through an unheated garage or along the north wall of a crawl space. Pipes in the older houses in the Avenues, Sugar House, and Capitol Hill that were added on the outside of the original footprint and never insulated. Kitchen sink lines on an exterior wall behind closed cabinet doors. Around Salt Lake City the cold arrives fast, and the first hard freeze in late fall catches the most people out.
How do I keep it from happening again?
Drain and shut off exterior hose bibs before the first hard freeze, and disconnect the hoses. Have irrigation blown out. Insulate exposed runs in the garage and crawl space with foam sleeves, which are cheap and take an afternoon. On the coldest nights, open the cabinet doors under exterior-wall sinks so room heat reaches the pipes, and let a pencil-width stream run from the faucet furthest from the main. Moving water does not freeze easily.
If a pipe has frozen once, it will freeze again in the same spot. That is the one to reroute or insulate properly, which is a small job when it is planned and a large one at 2 a.m. in January. More winter questions are answered in our plumbing FAQs.
What if the pipe has already burst?
Keep the main off, open the lowest faucet in the house to drain the lines, move anything you care about out of the wet area, and call. A split pipe is a repair, not a rebuild: we replace the damaged section, check the rest of the run for stress, and get the water back on the same visit in most cases. If water reached drywall or flooring, take photos before anything is cleaned up, in case you need them for insurance. Our leak detection team can also confirm whether a slow leak started before the freeze.
Can I use a space heater to thaw a frozen pipe?
Yes, in the room where the pipe runs, kept a safe distance from anything flammable. It warms the pipe slowly and evenly, which is what you want. Never use an open flame or a torch on a water line.
How long does a frozen pipe take to thaw?
Anywhere from thirty minutes to a few hours, depending on how long the ice run is and how cold the space is. If nothing has changed after a couple of hours of steady warming, the frozen section is probably somewhere you cannot reach, and that is the point to call.
Will my homeowners insurance cover a burst pipe?
Often the water damage is covered while the pipe repair itself is not, but every policy is different. Photograph the damage before cleanup, keep the repair invoice, and call your carrier the same day.