Frozen Pipes on Long Island: How to Prevent, Thaw and Recover

Where pipes freeze in Long Island homes

• Attached garages, especially pipes running to a laundry, utility sink or hose bib on the garage wall.
• Crawl spaces under additions, sunrooms and elevated homes on the South Shore.
• Exterior walls, often kitchen sinks on an outside wall and bathrooms in dormers or second-floor additions.
• Outdoor hose bibs that were never shut off and drained for the winter.
• Unheated basements and utility rooms, and the space where the main line enters near a foundation vent.
• Seasonal homes on the East End, Fire Island and the North Fork that are left with the heat turned down or off.

Wind matters as much as the thermometer. A pipe in a wall facing the bay or the Sound can freeze when a pipe on the sheltered side of the house does not.

Before a cold snap

1. Shut and drain outdoor faucets

   Close the indoor valve that feeds each hose bib, disconnect the hose and open the outside faucet so it drains. Frost-free sillcocks still burst if a hose is left attached.

2. Keep the heat on

   Keep the thermostat at 55°F or higher, day and night, including when you are away. A lower setting saves little and risks a lot.

3. Open cabinet doors

   Open sink cabinets on outside walls so warm room air reaches the pipes. Move cleaning products out of reach of children and pets.

4. Let a faucet drip

   On the coldest nights, a slow drip of both hot and cold at the faucet farthest from the main relieves pressure and keeps water moving.

5. Insulate the weak spots

   Foam pipe sleeves in garages and crawl spaces are inexpensive. Seal gaps around pipes where they pass through outside walls and close foundation vents for the winter.

6. Know your main valve

   Find it, label it and test it before winter. If it will not turn, have a plumber replace it with a quarter-turn ball valve.

If a pipe is frozen but not broken

Signs include a faucet that gives a trickle or nothing at all, frost on an exposed pipe, or a bulge in the pipe. Act before it thaws on its own.

1. Open the faucet

   Open the faucet the pipe feeds, so melting ice and water have somewhere to go and pressure does not build.

2. Warm it gently

   Use a hair dryer, a heating pad or towels soaked in hot water, starting at the faucet end and working back toward the frozen section. A portable space heater can warm a room, kept well away from anything flammable.

3. Never use an open flame

   No torches, propane heaters or charcoal. They start fires in walls and can produce carbon monoxide.

4. Keep warming until full pressure returns

   Then check every other faucet in the house. If one pipe froze, others may have too.

5. Shut the main if you cannot find it

   If the frozen section is inside a wall or ceiling you cannot reach, shut the main valve and call a plumber. A thaw inside a wall is the worst place for a split to let go.

If a pipe has burst

• Shut off the main water valve immediately, then open the lowest faucet in the house to drain the lines.
• Turn off power to wet areas at the breaker, but only if you can reach the panel standing somewhere dry.
• Turn off the water heater if the house is draining, so the tank does not heat while empty.
• Photograph everything before moving or throwing anything away.
• Call a plumber to repair the pipe and a restoration company to extract water and dry the structure. Water from a burst supply pipe is clean at first, but it soaks into insulation, subfloors and wall cavities and needs to be measured with moisture meters, not just mopped.

Vacant and seasonal homes

Many Long Island homes sit empty for part of the winter: summer houses in the Hamptons and on the North Fork, homes between owners, and houses where the owner is away for the season. These are the costliest freeze losses, because water can run for days before anyone notices.

• Either keep the heat on and have someone check the house regularly, or have a plumber shut off and drain the system completely, including the water heater, boiler lines and toilet tanks.
• Install a smart thermostat or a low-temperature alarm that texts you if the house gets cold.
• Consider an automatic water shut-off valve that closes the main when it detects a leak or a sudden flow.
• Read your policy. Many homeowners policies exclude freeze damage when a home is vacant or unoccupied unless you kept the heat on or shut off and drained the water.

How insurance usually treats frozen pipes

Sudden water damage from a pipe that froze and burst is typically covered by a homeowners policy, subject to your deductible. The pipe repair itself is sometimes treated differently from the resulting water damage. Coverage can be denied if the insurer finds the home was not reasonably heated or maintained, which is why records of a thermostat setting or a caretaker’s visits matter for vacant homes.

For the claims process and New York’s insurer deadlines, see our New York insurance claim guide.