Frozen Pipe Prevention for Rockland County Homeowners: A Winter Guide

Rockland County gets 25 to 35 inches of snow in a typical winter, and overnight lows regularly drop into the teens from December through February. That alone puts pipes at risk. But the bigger issue is the housing stock.

A large share of homes in New City, Pearl River, Nanuet, and the Clarkstown area were built between the late 1940s and early 1970s. Post-war construction in this area often routed water supply lines through uninsulated crawl spaces, exterior walls, and attached garages. The builders were not thinking about modern insulation standards. Fifty years later, those same pipe runs are the ones that freeze every winter.

Spring Valley and parts of Suffern have older housing stock that carries the same problem. Homes built before 1960 in these areas often have galvanized steel pipes that are especially prone to bursting because corrosion has thinned the walls over decades. A frozen galvanized pipe is far more likely to crack than a frozen copper one.

The good news is that frozen pipes are almost entirely preventable. The bad news is that prevention only works if you do it before the temperature drops.

Prevention costs almost nothing compared to a burst pipe repair. Most of these steps take an afternoon and require supplies from any hardware store in the area.

Insulate exposed pipes. Foam pipe insulation costs $1 to $3 per linear foot and slides right onto the pipe. Cover every exposed water line in your basement, crawl space, and garage. Pay special attention to any pipe within 3 feet of an exterior wall. For pipes that freeze repeatedly, pipe heating cables ($50 to $200 per cable) plug into an outlet and keep the pipe above freezing automatically.

Seal air leaks around pipes. Where pipes pass through exterior walls, there is almost always a gap. Use caulk or expanding foam to seal these openings. Even a small draft blowing directly on a pipe is enough to freeze it when temps drop below 20F.

Keep your thermostat at 55F or higher. This applies even if you leave town for a long weekend. Turning the heat down to 45F to save on your Orange & Rockland bill sounds smart until you come home to a flooded basement. A $30 gas bill is nothing compared to a $4,000 burst pipe repair.

Open cabinet doors during cold snaps. Kitchen and bathroom cabinets on exterior walls block warm air from reaching the pipes behind them. When overnight temps drop below 15F, leave those cabinet doors open.

Let faucets drip. A slow drip keeps water moving through the pipes. Moving water resists freezing. This is your last line of defense during extreme cold.

Disconnect all garden hoses before the first freeze. Water trapped in a connected hose backs up into the faucet body inside the wall. When it freezes, the faucet body cracks. You won't know until spring when you turn the water on and it sprays inside the wall cavity.

Close the interior shutoff valve for outdoor faucets. Most homes have a separate shutoff for each outdoor hose bib. Close it, then open the outdoor faucet to drain the remaining water.

You turn on a faucet and nothing comes out, or just a trickle. The pipe is probably frozen somewhere between the supply and that faucet. Here is what to do, and more importantly, what not to do.

Keep the faucet open. As the ice melts, water needs somewhere to go. An open faucet relieves pressure and lets you see when flow returns.

Apply gentle heat to the suspected area. Use a hair dryer, heat lamp, or space heater pointed at the frozen section. Heating pads wrapped around the pipe also work well. Start from the faucet side and work toward the frozen area so melting water can drain out.

Never use a torch, propane heater, or open flame. This is not a suggestion. It is the #1 cause of house fires during frozen pipe events. A plumber in Pearl River told us he gets called to fix torch damage every single winter. The pipe might thaw, but the wood framing six inches away might also ignite.

Check for cracks or splits. Before the pipe thaws completely, look for visible damage. If you see a crack, split, or bulge in the pipe, shut off the water supply to that line immediately and call a plumber. Once the ice melts, water will spray from the break.

If you cannot locate the frozen section or it is behind a wall, call a plumber. They have thermal imaging tools and pipe thawing equipment that works without cutting into walls. Thawing a frozen pipe that has not burst costs $100 to $300 for a service call. Trying to thaw it yourself with improvised methods and causing water damage costs a lot more.

If a pipe has already burst, shut off the main water valve immediately. The main shutoff is usually in the basement near the front of the house, close to where the water line enters from the street. Every second counts. Then call a plumber for emergency repair.