Pipe Repair and Burst Pipes

Burst Pipe: Do This First

A burst pipe is the most common plumbing emergency in Northeast Ohio. Water damage grows by the minute, so work through these steps in order:

1. Shut off the main water valve. Turn it clockwise until it stops. A lever valve turns a quarter turn, until the handle sits across the pipe.
2. Open the lowest faucet in the house, such as a basement laundry tub, to drain the water still in the pipes.
3. Turn off the water heater: set the gas control to pilot or switch off its breaker, so it does not heat an emptying tank.
4. Move belongings out of the water's path and away from wet ceilings. Stay out of standing water near outlets or appliances.
5. Call Botzum Plumbing at (330) 548-2855 and tell us where the water is coming from.

How Winter Freezes Pipes Here

Cuyahoga Falls winters bring runs of nights well below freezing, and the cold reaches pipes wherever the house is not heated: along the rim joist at the top of a basement wall, in crawl spaces, in garages, in kitchen sink lines that run up an outside wall, and at outdoor spigots that were never shut off from inside. Older houses with stone or block foundations and little insulation lose the most heat in those spots.

Water expands as it freezes, and the pressure builds between the ice and a closed faucet. The split often shows up only when the pipe thaws, which is why a burst pipe is so often found in the afternoon after a cold night. Keeping cabinet doors open on outside walls, letting a faucet drip on the coldest nights and insulating exposed lines all help, and so does working through a seasonal maintenance checklist each autumn.

Pipe Materials in Older and Newer Homes

What a house is plumbed with says a lot about what fails next.

Supply pipe materials, where they are found and their common problems

Material	Where found in older vs newer homes	Common problems
Galvanized steel	Common in houses built before about 1960; rare in newer ones	Rusts from the inside and narrows; low pressure, brown water, leaks at threaded joints
Copper	The usual supply pipe from the 1960s into the 2000s; still used	Pinhole leaks, green corrosion at joints, splits when water freezes in it
PEX	Most new homes and most repipes of the last twenty years	Fittings fail if poorly crimped; damaged by sunlight before install; rodents chew it
CPVC	Some homes and additions from the 1980s on	Turns brittle with age and cracks if bumped; glued joints can let go
Polybutylene	Gray plastic supply pipe in some homes from the late 1970s to mid-1990s	Breaks down from the inside; pipe and fittings can fail without warning

Signs of a Hidden Leak

Not every leak drips where you can see it. Watch for:

• A water bill that rises with no change in how you use water.
• Damp or stained drywall, bubbling paint, or a soft spot in a floor.
• A musty smell in a closet, cabinet or one corner of the basement.
• The sound of running water when every fixture is off.
• The leak indicator on the meter turning while nothing is running.

Drain pipes leak too. Under a basement slab a broken drain can go unnoticed for years until the floor drain starts backing up; that kind of repair means opening the floor, replacing the damaged section and patching the concrete.

Repiping

When patches keep piling up, replacing the supply lines is often the better plan. A repipe runs new lines from the main shutoff to each fixture, usually in copper or PEX, with shutoff valves where they make sense. Before any wall or ceiling is closed, the new system is pressure-tested and the gauge watched to make sure it holds.

Pipe Questions