Frozen & Burst Pipe Repair in Cornwall
No water at the kitchen tap on a −30 morning, or a line in the crawl space that let go overnight and is now running down the wall? Shut off the main and call. A licensed Cornwall plumber thaws frozen pipes safely — no torches — replaces the burst section the same day, and shows you how to stop it happening again next January. Price agreed before we start.
Frozen pipe or burst pipe? Here's what to do in the next five minutes
Every January Cornwall gets a week of −25 to −30 with a wind off the river, and every January we get the same calls: no water at one tap, a line in the crawl space frozen solid, or the outside hose bib that nobody drained now spraying inside the wall. Frozen is a nuisance. Burst is an emergency — a split half-inch copper line puts out hundreds of litres an hour.
Before we get there:
- 1Shut off the main — usually by the meter in the basement, turn clockwise. If it's burst, this is the whole game.
- 2Open the taps on the frozen line to relieve pressure as it thaws.
- 3No torches, no heat guns on the pipe. We pull people out of that situation every winter — it's how crawl-space fires start.
- 4Call us. Tell us which tap's dead or where the water's coming from, and we'll tell you what to do until the truck pulls up.
The six places pipes freeze in Cornwall houses
After enough winters you know where to look before you open the truck door. If your dead tap is on one of these, that's almost certainly it.
Crawl spaces
The post-war bungalows in Riverdale and the east end. Uninsulated, a vent left open, and the kitchen supply line runs right along the outside wall. Number one on the list.
Outside hose bibs
Hose left on, inside shut-off never closed. The bib freezes, splits the pipe behind the siding, and you find out in April when the wall's wet. The most expensive five-minute job nobody does in October.
Kitchen sinks on an outside wall
The cupboard under the sink is the coldest spot in the kitchen. Lines on the north wall freeze first — open the cabinet doors on cold nights, and if that's not enough, we move or insulate the run.
Garages & unheated additions
A laundry room over the garage, a bathroom in a three-season addition, a line to the mudroom sink. Heated in theory, not in practice when it's −30 for a week.
Water service lines
The line from the street into the house. In a hard winter with no snow cover, frost gets down to it — whole house with no water. Common in the older downtown streets and on the county roads with shallow services.
Sump discharge & well lines
The sump pump's outlet freezes at the end and the pump burns out pushing against it. Out in South Glengarry, the line from the well to the pressure tank freezes where it enters the foundation. Same fix: thaw, reroute, insulate.
Thawed safely, repaired properly, and set up so it doesn't freeze again
Find the freeze
We trace the dead run from the tap back and find the frozen section with a thermal camera — not by guessing and opening three walls.
Thaw it without wrecking it
Electric pipe-thawing machine on metal lines, controlled heat on PEX, taps open to relieve pressure. Slow and even — a fast thaw is how a frozen pipe becomes a burst pipe.
Check for splits, replace what's burst
Ice expands the pipe before it thaws; we pressure-test the run and cut out any split section. Copper to copper, PEX where it makes sense, and old galvanized gets replaced rather than patched.
Make sure it stays fixed
Heat trace cable, proper insulation, a reroute off the outside wall, or a frost-free hose bib — whatever that particular spot needs so you're not calling us next February.
When it's already burst: what gets fixed, and with what
A burst line is the same emergency whether it's a split, a blown joint or a cracked fitting. The repair depends on what the pipe's made of — and most Cornwall houses have at least two of these in them.
Copper
Most houses built after the sixties. Ice splits it lengthwise. We cut out the damaged run and solder or press-fit new copper in — a clean, permanent repair, usually an hour or two.
PEX
Newer builds off Brookdale and most renovations. It stretches a bit before it bursts — but the fittings don't. We replace the section and fittings; for reroutes off a cold wall, PEX is usually what goes back in.
Galvanized steel
The century homes downtown and in Le Village. Rusted from the inside, half its original bore, and it cracks at the threads. We don't patch galvanized — we replace the run, because the next freeze finds the next weak thread.
Repiping a problem run
If the same line has frozen twice, the fix isn't another repair — it's moving it. We reroute the run through heated space, insulate what has to stay cold, and add heat trace where there's no other option.
An hour in October saves a ruined weekend in January
Nearly every frozen-pipe call we take was avoidable. Not with anything fancy — with the same short list every year, done before the ground freezes. We'll do it as a winter check, or tell you which bits you can do yourself.
- Hoses off, outside bibs shut from inside and drained — or frost-free bibs installed so you never think about it again
- Crawl space vents closed, exposed lines sleeved in foam, heat trace on anything along the north wall
- Sump discharge checked so it can't freeze shut at the outlet
- Main shut-off located, labelled and actually working — half of them haven't been turned in twenty years
- Going south for February? We'll drain the system or set it up so a snowbird's house doesn't become a skating rink
Water running where it shouldn't? Shut the main and call.
A burst pipe at −30 on a Saturday night is exactly the call we're set up for. We'll talk you through the shut-off on the phone, get a truck moving, and have the line thawed or the split section replaced before the drywall's a write-off — price agreed before we start.
Frozen and burst pipes in Cornwall — what people ask
How do I know if a pipe is frozen or
already burst?
Frozen: one or more taps give nothing or a trickle, and there's no water anywhere you can see. Burst: you'll usually hear it — hissing in a wall, or dripping — or see it, a stain spreading on a ceiling, a wet patch in the crawl space, water on the basement floor. The catch is a burst pipe often doesn't show itself until it thaws. If a line's been frozen, shut the main before it warms up and let us check it under pressure.
Can I thaw a frozen pipe myself with a hair
dryer or torch?
A hair dryer on an exposed copper line you can see and reach, with the tap open — fine, go slowly. A torch, a heat gun, or anything on a pipe inside a wall or next to joists — no. That's how crawl-space fires start, and fast heat on a frozen section is how a frozen pipe becomes a burst one. If the line's hidden, or it's the main service, call us; the thawing machine does it in minutes without opening anything.
How fast can you get to a burst pipe in
Cornwall?
A burst pipe goes to the front of the line, 24/7. Inside Cornwall, usually within the hour; out toward Lancaster, Ingleside or the concession roads, a bit longer depending on the roads that night. On the phone we'll walk you through finding and shutting the main so the damage stops before we arrive.
Will my insurance cover frozen and burst
pipe repair?
Most Ontario home policies cover the water damage from a sudden burst, and some cover the pipe repair itself; what they don't like is a house left unheated with the water on, or a known problem ignored. We give you a detailed invoice and photos of the failed section — which is exactly what the adjuster asks for. Check your own policy for the specifics; we're plumbers, not brokers.
The same pipe froze last year too — can you
stop it for good?
Yes, and that's the point of the second half of the job. A line that's frozen twice is in the wrong place. Depending on where it runs we'll reroute it through heated space, sleeve it properly, add self-regulating heat trace, or swap the outside bib for a frost-free one. Repairing the same split every January is money down the drain — ours included.
Do you do frozen pipe repair out in
SD&G, or just Cornwall?
All of it — Cornwall, Long Sault, Ingleside, Glen Walter, Williamstown, Martintown, Lancaster and the roads between. Out in the county the usual culprit is the well line where it comes through the foundation, or a frozen service to a barn; we handle those too. If you're farther out, call anyway and we'll tell you honestly how soon we can be there.
Tell us what's going on — a Cornwall plumber calls you back
Name, number and a line about the problem. We'll call to confirm a time and give you the price before anyone shows up.
Real arrival window, price before we start
Cornwall · Long Sault · Ingleside · Lancaster · South Glengarry
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Frozen and burst pipe repair in Cornwall — what customers say
Plumbers across Cornwall and SD&G
Based on Second Street West, on the road from Long Sault to Lancaster. Same crew, same price, whether you're on city water downtown or a well out on the ninth concession.
902 Second St W, Suite 207
Cornwall, ON K6J 1Z8
City of Cornwall
Downtown & Le Village
Riverdale
East End
Brookdale & Northwood
Eamer's Corners
Glen Walter
South Stormont & South Glengarry
Long Sault
Ingleside
St. Andrews West
Williamstown
Martintown
Lancaster
Summerstown
Bainsville
Newington
Farther out
Alexandria
Morrisburg
Akwesasne