Frozen Pipe Thawing and Repair in Troy

If a faucet gives no water on a freezing morning, a pipe is likely frozen, and frozen pipe repair Troy NY homes need should start before it splits. A plumber can thaw it safely with heat guns or electric thawing gear, check it for cracks and fix the cause. Call us, keep the faucet open and skip any open flame.

We help homeowners, landlords with empty units and businesses across the city. Calls come to the same team of local plumbers in Troy that handles bursts, so if the pipe has already split, an emergency plumber in Troy is on the same line.

• Locating the ice. The plumber traces the dry fixtures back to the cold run, often on an outside wall or near a vent.
• Safe thawing. A heat gun for open pipe, or an electric pipe thawing machine that warms metal pipe from the inside.
• A crack check before full pressure. Water comes back slowly so a split shows up as a drip, not a flood.
• Repair of any split. New copper or PEX goes in where the ice did damage.
• Stopping the next freeze. Foam insulation, heat cable or rerouting the pipe into the heated part of the house.

• Hard January nights. Average lows sit near 16 degrees, and cold snaps can drop below zero.
• Pipes in the wrong places. Older homes have lines in outside walls, unheated back porches and crawl spaces under additions.
• Empty rentals. Many units sit vacant between tenants with the heat set low, and nobody notices the ice until spring.
• Old main lines. A frozen water line repair at the front wall can leave the whole building without water.
• Wind and old walls. Many older houses have little or no insulation in the outside walls, so a windy night pulls heat straight off the pipes.

The same spots freeze year after year. If one of these is in your house, keep an eye on it in January.

• Kitchen sink lines on outside walls, the most common call in older homes.
• Back porch and enclosed porch pipes added long after the house was built.
• Crawl spaces under kitchen and bath additions.
• Basement sill plate areas where cold air leaks in over the foundation.
• Outside faucets with a hose still attached after the first frost. Frozen hose bib repair often means a new frost free hose bib.
• Pipes in vacant apartments with the thermostat turned down too far.
• Service lines from the street that sit shallow near the front steps.

Keep heat at 55 degrees or more, open cabinets on outside walls and let faucets drip on the coldest nights. For most homes, that does the job, and these steps help too.

• Unhook hoses in fall and shut the inside valve to outdoor faucets.
• Insulate exposed pipes in basements, crawl spaces and porches.
• Check vacant units weekly in winter, and keep the heat on.
• Leaving for a long trip? Snowbirds should ask about shutting the main and draining lines.

These are the frozen pipe calls that come in most when the temperature drops.

• No water frozen pipes in a second floor kitchen of a two family house after a windy night.
• A frozen line in a vacant unit found when the new tenant moves in.
• A frozen hose bib that split inside the wall and leaked when spring came.
• A frozen meter area in a cold front basement, where the service line comes through the stone foundation and the meter sits close to a drafty window.

• Keep flames away. Torches start fires in old balloon frame walls, where gaps run from basement to attic.
• Skip boiling water on PVC. Sudden heat can crack plastic pipe and fittings.
• Keep a faucet open. Melted water needs a way out.
• Shut the main at the first drip. A split will start leaking as the ice melts.
• Watch any space heater. Use one only with someone in the room and well away from walls.