Frozen Pipe Cleanup in Boston, MA
The forecast said single digits and a wind chill near thirty below. Saturday morning the kitchen faucet gave nothing, and by Sunday afternoon, when the sun came out, water was running down the inside of the wall behind the radiator and through the ceiling of the tenant below. Call us now and tell us what you see. An independent local provider who cleans up after frozen pipes in Boston and the inner-ring cities takes it from there.
What the crew does first
The crew confirms the water is off, then works out how long it ran. A split pipe does not leak while it is frozen. It leaks when it thaws, and if the thaw came on Sunday and nobody was in the unit until Monday night, the building has had a day and a half of water. That number shapes everything else.
Then they meter every floor below the split, not just the room where the water showed. Frozen-pipe losses in Boston almost always start in an outside wall, a bay window, an unheated back hall, or the cellar, and the water follows the framing down to the sill. In a triple-decker the crew looks at all three units and the basement on the first visit.
What to do in the next hour
Shut the water off at the main in the basement. If one pipe froze, others may have, so leave the water off until a plumber has checked the run. Turn the heat up if it is safe, and open cabinet doors on outside walls so warm air reaches the pipes. Do not use a torch or a heat gun on a pipe.
Move rugs and furniture off the wet floor. If water is coming through a ceiling, put a bucket under it and stay out from under the sag. Photograph the wall, the floor, and the ceiling below, then call. Repairing the pipe is a plumber's job. Drying the building is the cleanup crew's job, and they often work the same day.
What is usually saved and what is not
Framing, subfloor, and sound plaster usually dry in place if the crew reaches them within a few days. The wet outside wall is the exception: the insulation behind the plaster held the water against the studs the whole time, and the plaster in that bay usually comes out so the cavity can dry. Cabinet bases, laminate, and carpet pad on the wet path usually go.
Old pine and oak floors are the question. A floor wet for a day can often be dried with mats. A floor that sat wet for a long weekend in a cold house has often cupped past saving. The crew meters it before anyone pulls a board. Once extraction is done, the rest is structural drying, and it includes the basement.
Suffolk County notes: what a Boston freeze does to old plumbing
The houses here were plumbed for coal heat and a family that never left. Supply lines and radiator returns run through outside walls, bay windows, and unheated back stairwells with no insulation between the pipe and the clapboard. Galvanized steel and old copper both split when the water inside expands. A third-floor unit with the thermostat turned down while the tenant is away for the holidays is the classic loss.
On February 4, 2023, the temperature at Logan Airport fell to ten below zero with a wind chill near minus forty, and pipes and sprinkler lines burst in houses, hospitals, and theaters across the city that weekend. The winter of 2015 did the same thing more slowly, with weeks of cold and ice dams that pushed meltwater through ceilings. If the split is in a supply line rather than a frozen one, see burst pipe water damage. If it is a sprinkler line in a condo building, say so; the water volume and the building's insurance work differently.
Many policies cover a burst pipe as a sudden loss. Some apply a different rule when the unit was unheated or vacant, and a few require heat be kept on while the home is empty. Nobody on this site can tell you what your policy says. Ask the crew to record when the water was found, the first readings, and the photos, so the timeline is on paper for your adjuster.
Calling about frozen pipe cleanup
Say when the unit was last known dry and when the water was found. Say which wall or floor the water came from, whether it is shut off, whether other units are wet, and whether a plumber is on the way. Call (857) 524-9927 now and tell us what you see.
