A burst pipe is the fastest way to flood a house. A half-inch supply line at typical household pressure delivers several gallons a minute; a line that fails while you are at work can leave the lower floor under standing water by the time you get home. The two things that matter most are how quickly the water is shut off and how quickly drying begins.
The first ten minutes
- Close the valve. For a single fixture, the angle stop under the sink or behind the toilet. For anything you cannot isolate, the main shutoff where water enters the house, or the curb stop at the meter.
- Kill the power to flooded areas at the breaker panel if the panel is dry and you can reach it safely. Water and outlets do not mix.
- Call dispatch. Have the address, how long the water ran and which floors are affected. If water came through a ceiling, say so; ceiling drywall can fail without warning once saturated.
- Photograph everything before you move it. Standing water, the failed pipe, wet belongings, the water line on the wall. These photos become the claim.
- Move what you can. Rugs, boxes, electronics and furniture legs out of the water. Put foil or plastic under furniture you cannot move.
What the crew does
The crew confirms the shutoff, then traces the water. A supply line in an upstairs bathroom typically wets the floor, drains down through the framing, saturates the ceiling drywall and insulation below, and spreads across the lower floor along the base of the walls. Each of those surfaces is metered and photographed.
Extraction comes next: pumps for standing water, weighted extraction for carpet and pad. Then the crew decides what dries in place and what comes out. Wet insulation almost always comes out. Drywall that has wicked water more than a foot up usually gets a flood cut. Laminate flooring and its foam underlayment trap water and are removed; solid hardwood can sometimes be saved with mat drying if the crew reaches it within a day.
Drying equipment goes in the same visit: air movers across wet surfaces, a dehumidifier sized to the cubic footage, and where walls are closed, injection drying through small holes at the base. Readings are logged daily. A typical burst-pipe loss in a two-story home dries in three to five days.
Frozen pipes in the Puget Sound climate
We do not get long freezes, which is exactly why we get burst pipes. Homes here are built for rain, not cold: supply lines run through uninsulated crawl spaces, exterior walls and garages, and a three-day stretch in the low 20s is enough to freeze and split them. When the thaw comes, often during a workday, the split line starts flowing.
Before a forecast freeze, open cabinet doors under exterior-wall sinks, let a faucet drip, disconnect hoses from exterior spigots, and keep the heat at 55°F or above even in rooms you do not use. If you leave town in winter, have someone check the house; most policies require that heat be maintained for a freeze loss to be covered.
Insurance and burst pipes
Sudden, accidental discharge from a plumbing system is a standard covered peril. The restoration contractor documents the cause, the extent of the water and the drying process, writes the estimate in Xactimate and bills your insurer directly on covered claims. The plumbing repair itself is usually your cost, while the damage the water caused is the covered part; the crew explains the difference on site so there are no surprises.
