Burst Pipe Repair in Dauphin, PA 17018

Many of the houses on Second Mountain above Dauphin began as early-1900s Hillside second homes, built for summer use and now lived in all year. A building made for warm months is the kind most likely to freeze in January. Thin exterior walls, exposed runs and crawl spaces all invite a split. Across the borough the median home was built in 1947, with 38 percent before 1940 and 63 percent before 1960.

Shut the main first. In older Dauphin houses it is usually in the basement on the front wall, where the service enters from the street, near the water meter. The old line may be galvanized steel, which corrodes from the inside and can leave a pinhole that sprays when the pressure comes back up. After the main is closed, open the lowest tap to drain the line. Frozen pipe repair explains the difference between a line that is frozen and one that has already split.

Veolia is the water utility for Dauphin. The borough runs its own sewer plant, and the lateral between your house and the borough main is the property owner's to maintain. A basement drain that backs up usually belongs to that lateral and not to the supply line.

Dauphin sits on the east bank of the Susquehanna at the mouth of Stony Creek, with Berrier Island out in the river. Land at the river's edge is floodplain. Water in a basement down by the river may be groundwater or high water rather than a break, so look at whether it is spraying from a pipe or rising from the floor before you decide which problem you have.

A split in a cold wall can run for a while before anyone notices it, whether the house is on the hill or down by the river. If water is showing through a ceiling, read burst pipe repair and then call.

You reach a referral desk, not a repair crew, when you dial (717) 853-4052. It hands your call to an independent local plumber who deals with emergency pipe work in Dauphin and ZIP 17018, and any quote comes from that plumber.