When New England winters get too cold and temperatures drop below freezing, homeowners need to be careful that their pipes don’t freeze. When the water in your pipes freeze, the water (now ice) expands and increases the pressure put on your pipes. If this pressure gets to be too much, your pipes will burst, causing thousands of dollars in damage to your home and property.
So what do you do if your frozen pipe bursts? We put together a list to follow in case of this emergency.
#1 Shut off your home’s water and electricity
To do this, go to your home’s main water valve and shut it off. You only need to shut off electricity in the area where the pipe has burst.
#2 Locate the problem
Now that your water is shut off, you need to find the pipe that has burst. Once you find the pipe, find out where exactly the break occurred and how serious the situation is. Call a plumber as soon as possible and be careful with the burst location.
#3 Call the professionals
After steps 1 and 2, have a professional plumber repair or replace the pipes in question. If you have any damaged electrical wiring, call electrician for help. If you have flooding of significant water damage, call a professional water damage restoration company to dry everything out.
#4 Submit an insurance claim
A burst pipe can cause a lot of damage to your home and property, so you should submit a claim to your homeowner’s insurance. Every policy is different, and your agent will help you file your claim and assess the damage. It is also important to take photos and/or videos of the damage as soon as you can to provide the agent with documentation.
Did your pipes burst?
No need to panic. Just follow these instructions and call Evolved Mechanical at (781) 324-2560 as soon as you can. We will help with the rest.