Oh my.

Last Thursday night we had temps drop down to -19 degrees. It was COLD. Friday morning I woke up to no water. Our incoming water line froze. I spent most of the morning using a hairdryer to defrost the shutoff valve. Once it was working I moved up the pipe to the water meter. As it started to thaw, it was evident that it was damaged because it started to leak. As it thawed more it began to gush. So I turned off the water and called Aqua Indiana. In a couple of hours they sent a repair guy out who replaced the damaged meter.

When the water was turned on, the pipe on the other side of the meter began to gush. So, I turn off the water and called a plumber. Lucky for me, the plumbing company I called had a plumber free that afternoon. The plumber replaced the damaged pipe. When the water was turned on, water started gushing from the pipe the feeds the water heater. So we turned off the water and he replaced that pipe. Turned on the water again, then water started gushing from the water heater’s ourgoing pipe. Turns out it had 2 holes in it and it had to be replaced as well.

All totaled, there were 5 different breaks in our pipes. While there was heat tape on the pipes, it was apparently very old and no longer able to protect the pipes. Friday was a bad day.