How to Know if a Pipe Burst Due to a Freeze

Turn on and test all of your faucets -- both hot and cold lines because these use separate pipes -- and see if one of them doesn’t have water. This indicates the water supply is draining at the point of the leak before reaching the faucet. Do this slowly as you don’t want to open the valve full-force to find a gusher spraying you in the face.

Check the pipes at each faucet that run between the valves and the spigot. Bruce W. Maki of Hammerzone.com found an exterior faucet in his home was leaking when he turned it on. There had been no sign of a leak because the crack was in the section of pipe that extended out after the shut-off valve, so no water sprayed out until he turned on the faucet.

Check around your home for wet spots on the walls, floors and ceilings of rooms on lower floors, and listen for a dripping sound, if the temperature has dropped below freezing. These symptoms can also occur if the pipe has burst for other reasons like age, but if they start happening directly after freezing weather, the cold is a more likely culprit.

Find the weather reports for the past week or however long you’ve been gone, if you’ve arrived home from a trip to find a break in an exposed pipe. If the weather was not forecast to freeze and no one else is having problems, the leak might not be due to cold weather. If you can’t find evidence of a freeze or if the break looks like a possible puncture, talk to a plumber, your insurance agent and the police about possible vandalism. You’ll need to confirm the hole is an actual manufactured hole and not a crack from the pipe pulling apart, though.

Check to see if your pipes have been insulated. Insulated pipes are less likely to freeze during cold weather, so a burst in insulated pipe may have another cause. Uninsulated pipes close to an exposed hole in a wall, however, could be subject to freezing.