Service
Pipe Thawing
Thawing frozen supply lines safely, including buried service lines and runs inside walls where the frozen section cannot be reached directly.
- Licensed and insured
- Price agreed before work
- A plumber who works your area
Which taps work tells you where the ice is
Before anyone starts looking for the frozen section, the fixtures have already narrowed it.
One tap dead, the rest fine. The ice is in that branch, and it will be wherever that branch passes somewhere cold: an exterior wall, a crawl space, an unheated garage or a run under a floor.
Nothing anywhere in the house. The freeze is upstream of the branches, at the point the supply enters the building or in the buried service line between the meter and the house.
That distinction takes a minute to establish and saves searching an entire property.
Open the tap before applying any heat
The order of operations here is not a formality.
Opening the tap that the frozen pipe feeds gives meltwater somewhere to go and stops pressure building between the ice and a closed valve. It also gives you a live indicator: the first trickle tells you the plug is clearing.
Then the heat goes on at the open end and works back toward the ice, never starting in the middle. Heating the centre of a long frozen section can leave meltwater trapped between two plugs of ice with nowhere to expand, which is precisely the situation that splits pipe.
And throughout, someone stays with the shutoff within reach, because a split that has been sealed by ice starts running the second it clears.
Does this sound familiar?
Problems this service solves
- A fixture with no water during a freeze
- A frozen section inside a wall or ceiling
- A buried service line frozen between meter and house
- The whole property without water after a cold night
- Pipework frozen where it cannot be reached
Signs you need pipe thawing
If more than one of these is true, the problem is usually past the point a plunger or a store-bought cleaner will fix.
- A tap gives nothing while others still work
- No water anywhere after a hard freeze
- An exposed pipe is frosted or bulging
- The problem started overnight with the temperature
What to expect
How the visit works
Locate the frozen section
Which fixtures work narrows it immediately. One dead tap points at a branch; nothing anywhere points at the service line or the main entry.
Open the downstream tap
The tap that pipe feeds is opened first, so meltwater has an escape and pressure cannot build between the ice and a closed valve.
Apply heat under control
Gentle heat is worked from the open end back toward the ice. Nothing that could scorch the pipe, its joints or the structure around it.
Stay with it as flow returns
Someone remains at the pipe with the shutoff accessible, because a split hidden by ice starts running the moment it clears.
What's included
What you get on every job, whoever we send.
- The frozen section located before heat is applied
- Downstream tap opened so pressure cannot build
- Controlled heat, never a flame near structure
- Someone present at the moment flow returns
Questions
Pipe Thawing questions
How do I find where the pipe is frozen?
Use the fixtures. If one tap is dead and the rest work, the ice is in that branch, most likely where it passes through an unheated space or an exterior wall. If nothing in the house has water, the freeze is further upstream, at the main entry or in the buried service line. That single observation narrows the search from the whole property to a few feet, and it costs nothing to check.
Which direction should heat be applied?
From the open tap back toward the frozen section, never from the middle. As ice melts it has to go somewhere, and if you heat the centre of a frozen plug you can create meltwater trapped between two ice plugs with nowhere to expand. Working from the open end means every drop that melts can run out of the tap immediately, which is also how you know it is working.
What if the frozen part is behind a wall?
It can still be thawed, but the approach changes. Warming the room and the wall surface works slowly and gently. Opening a cabinet or access panel to let heated air reach the cavity often does more than anything applied directly. The alternative is opening the wall, which is worth avoiding until the slower methods have had a fair chance, because ice will clear on its own with enough warmth around it.
Related services
Frozen Pipe Repair
Dealing with pipes that have frozen or split, including the split that only reveals itself when the ice thaws and water starts moving again.
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Burst Pipe Repair
Emergency repair of split, cracked and burst water pipes, including freeze damage, with the cause addressed so the same run does not fail again.
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Repairing the buried supply line between the meter and the house, where a leak shows as a wet patch of ground and a rising bill rather than a drip.
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Diagnosis and repair of gas, electric and tankless water heaters, including no-hot-water calls, leaks, pilot problems and sediment flushing.
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Get it fixed
Pipe Thawing, handled locally
Call with your ZIP code and what you are seeing. We route you to a licensed plumber in your area who does pipe thawing every week.
- Licensed and insured
- Answered 24/7
- Price before work