Think a pipe is frozen?
Signs of a frozen pipe: no water (or a trickle) from one fixture while others work, frost on an exposed pipe, or a fixture on an exterior wall that stopped working overnight in a cold snap.
- Leave the faucet open so water can flow once it starts to thaw, which also relieves pressure.
- Find your main shut-off and be ready to close it. A frozen pipe has often already split; you just won't see the leak until it thaws.
- Add gentle heat: open cabinet doors, raise the thermostat, or use a hair dryer on exposed pipe.
- Never use an open flame or a heat gun inside walls. Fires from thawing pipes happen every Edmonton winter.
- If you can't reach the frozen section, or water starts spraying, shut the main off and call (780) 996-7950.
Where pipes freeze in Edmonton homes
- Exterior walls, especially under kitchen sinks on outside walls and bathrooms over garages.
- Attached garages with water lines run along the shared wall or ceiling.
- Hose bibs (outside taps) that weren't shut off and drained, or older non-frost-free bibs.
- Cantilevered floors and bay windows where the floor overhangs the foundation.
- Crawlspaces and unheated additions, common in older bungalows.
- Vacant homes and rentals where the heat was turned down too low.
Burst pipe repair
We shut the water off, open up only what's needed to reach the damage, repair the split (and any others along that run; freezing often splits a pipe in more than one place), pressure-test the line and restore water. We photograph the cause and damage for your insurance claim.
If your home has Poly-B, a freeze is often the event that finally breaks it. We'll tell you if the surrounding pipe is in poor condition.
Stop it from freezing again
The real fix is getting the pipe out of the cold. That can mean rerouting a line to an interior wall, insulating and air-sealing the cavity, adding heat cable to a vulnerable section, or replacing an old hose bib with a frost-free model that shuts off inside the heated wall. Read our frozen pipe prevention guide.