You turn the faucet and nothing comes out — or a trickle where there should be flow. Somewhere between the meter and that tap, water has frozen solid in the line, and you're now in a race you didn't sign up for: ice expands with enormous force, and a frozen pipe is a burst pipe on a timer. Here's how to run that race correctly.
First, confirm what you're dealing with
One dry fixture usually means a localized freeze in the branch line serving it — typically where that line runs through an exterior wall, garage, crawl space, or unheated basement corner. Every fixture dry means the freeze is in the main or near the meter. Check your neighbors' status if you can; a street-wide issue is the utility's problem, a house-wide one is yours.
Feel along accessible pipe runs for the telltale section: frost on the pipe, a visibly bulged spot, or simply a length that's dramatically colder than the rest. Bulging matters — it means the ice has already deformed the pipe, and a split may be waiting behind it.
The critical first move: open the tap and find the shutoff
Before any thawing, open the affected faucet — both handles. This gives melting ice somewhere to go, relieves pressure trapped between the blockage and the tap, and lets you know the moment flow returns. Then locate your main water shutoff and make sure it actually turns, because here's the part most guides bury: if the pipe has already split inside the ice, thawing it starts the flood. You want your hand near the off switch before the ice lets go.
If you find a bulge or crack, or the pipe has visibly split, skip the thaw entirely — shut the main now, open taps to drain the system, and get a plumber moving. Thawing a broken pipe just schedules the water damage.
Safe thawing, in order of preference
Raise the ambient temperature first: open cabinet doors under sinks, open the room to household heat, and let the furnace do slow, even work. For direct thawing, a hair dryer is the classic for good reason — start at the faucet end and work toward the frozen section, keeping the dryer moving. Heat lamps and space heaters aimed at the area (never left unattended, never near combustibles) work for larger sections; hot towels wrapped around the pipe work for patient people.
UL-listed heat tape, properly applied per its instructions, is both a thawing tool and a prevention measure for chronically freezing runs. What's never on the list: open flame. Torches burst pipes with steam pressure, ignite wall cavities, and convert plumbing problems into fire departments visits every single winter. No exceptions, no matter what an older relative swears by.
The moment it bursts anyway
If a line lets go — you'll usually hear it, then hear water — the sequence is: main shutoff closed, lowest faucet in the house opened to drain the lines, electricity killed to affected areas if water is anywhere near outlets or fixtures, and photos of everything before cleanup begins. A half-inch supply line under pressure releases several gallons a minute; the difference between a wet corner and a flooded floor is how fast the main gets closed.
Then two calls: a plumber for the pipe, and a restoration company for everything the water touched — because water from a burst goes into wall cavities, under flooring, and through ceilings below, and surface mopping doesn't reach any of it. The good news: sudden burst-pipe damage, including frozen-pipe bursts in a reasonably heated home, is one of the most consistently covered losses in standard homeowners insurance.
Preventing round two
Once the immediate crisis resolves, protect the line that froze — it will freeze again in the same spot given the same conditions. Insulate the run, seal the draft that's chilling it (frozen pipes are usually draft problems as much as temperature problems), add heat tape on chronic offenders, and keep the affected fixture dripping during extreme cold snaps: moving water resists freezing, and a pencil-thin stream is cheap insurance against single-digit nights.
Leaving town in winter? Heat stays at 55°F minimum, someone checks the house, and for longer absences, shutting the main and draining the system removes the risk entirely. The frozen pipe discovered after a week away is this state's signature catastrophic winter loss — and it's entirely preventable.
Pipe already burst?
NJ Restoration Experts provides 24/7 emergency restoration across Northern NJ. Call 973-813-7570 or request a callback.
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