Frozen Pipe Cleanup in Anoka, MN

It was 22 below at the airport on the fourth night of the cold snap, and the kitchen faucet on the north wall ran to a trickle and stopped. Three days later, when the temperature climbed back above zero, water started dripping out of the ceiling tile in the basement under the kitchen and running down the inside of the rim joist. This site puts you through by phone to an independent local provider who cleans up after frozen pipes in Anoka and across Anoka County.

Figuring out how long the split has been running

A frozen line does not leak while it is frozen. The ice plugs the split, and the water starts when the thaw reaches the pipe, which can be a day or three after the cold breaks outside. So the crew's first question is when the water was noticed and when the house warmed up, because that gap says how long the wall has been wet. Then they confirm the main is closed, pump out any standing water, and meter the wall on both sides of the split, the floor under it, and the ceiling below it if the pipe was on the main level.

The coldest runs freeze first: a line in the rim joist above the block, a hose bib line through the garage wall, a supply to a kitchen or bathroom on an exterior wall, or a pipe crossing the ceiling of an unheated basement corner behind the storage shelves. Water from the split follows the framing down to the sill and out across the slab.

Main off, heat up, no torch

Close the main shutoff and leave it closed until a plumber has found the split, because a second frozen section often lets go as the house warms. Turn the thermostat up. Open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls and the access panel behind the tub so warm air reaches the pipes. Never put a torch or a heat gun on a pipe inside a wall. Move furniture and boxes away from the wet wall, photograph the wall and the floor, and make the call. The plumber fixes the pipe. The cleanup crew dries the house.

What a thawed wall keeps and what it gives up

Framing reached within a few days usually dries in place. The insulation in the wet wall almost always comes out, because it held the water against the studs from the moment the ice let go, and the drywall in front of it comes off to a clean line. A basement ceiling tile that dripped gets replaced, but the joists above it usually dry. Carpet under a split line often dries once the pad is gone. Once the wet material is out, structural drying runs air movers and a dehumidifier until the readings come back.

If the line split on the main level and ran down into a finished basement, the crew handles the lower level as a basement flooding cleanup as well, with the pad pulled, the room metered wall by wall, and the equipment placed where the readings say.

Where Anoka pipes freeze, and which winters do it

Frost in Anoka County goes down more than three feet in a normal winter, and footings here are set below that. Supply lines do not always follow the footing. The ramblers and split-levels built from the 1950s through the 1970s ran water lines through the rim joist to reach a hose bib, along the garage wall, and across the ceiling of the basement corner farthest from the furnace. Those runs are the ones that freeze when a week of below-zero air arrives, as it did in late January 2019 when the Twin Cities airport dropped past 25 below, and in the long cold of February 2021.

An empty house in January is where most of these calls start. A thermostat turned down to 55 keeps the living room comfortable and leaves the rim joist frozen. Before a winter trip, close the main and open one faucet to drain the pressure, and ask someone to check the basement midweek.

A burst pipe is often treated as sudden damage under a homeowner policy. Some policies handle a pipe that froze in an unheated or empty house differently, and some expect the heat to have been left on. This site cannot say what yours does. Ask the crew to write down the day the water was found, the first readings, and the photos, so your adjuster gets the timeline in writing.

Calling about a pipe that froze and split

Say which wall or room the water came from, whether the main is closed, and whether a plumber is on the way. Mention if the house was empty and for how long, and whether the water reached a finished basement. Call (763) 363-6050.