Frozen or burst pipes in Newburgh, IN

It's a cold January morning and the kitchen faucet gives you a trickle. That's the classic sign of a frozen pipe. The American Red Cross says to look first at pipes on outside walls and at the line where the water comes in through the foundation. Check the other faucets too, because when one line freezes, others often follow.

To thaw it, leave the faucet open and warm the pipe with a hair dryer, an electric heating pad, towels soaked in hot water, or a space heater kept well away from anything that can burn. Keep at it until full pressure comes back. Never use a torch or any open flame. Indiana's Office of Utility Consumer Counselor calls that extremely dangerous and potentially deadly.

Call a plumber if you can't find the frozen section, can't reach it because it's inside a wall or ceiling, or can't get it to thaw. If no water comes out at all, IBHS says to shut off the water supply and call a plumber. After a pipe thaws, turn the water back on slowly and watch for leaks.

Newburgh means two different places. The town itself is small, about 3,400 people along the river. The 47630 ZIP Code most people mean when they say Newburgh has nearly 40,000, and most of it lies outside town limits.

The houses differ too. Inside the town, the median home was built in 1976, and the historic blocks along Water and Main streets go back to the 1850s. Across the wider 47630 area the median is 1992, and only about a third of homes are older than 1980 (Census Bureau).

Newer houses freeze too, just in different spots. The Red Cross says the pipes that freeze most often are outdoor faucets and sprinkler lines, pipes in unheated garages, crawl spaces and attics, lines in kitchen cabinets, and pipes in outside walls with little insulation. A 1990s house with a bathroom over the garage can have several of those. In an older house in town, start with the crawl space and any pipes running along the basement walls.

Watch for 20°F. State Farm says pipes in uninsulated attics, crawl spaces and outside walls are most at risk once it drops below that. At the NOAA weather station at Newburgh Lock & Dam, about 25 nights a year get that cold.

Nights at or below 32°F add up to about 89 a year there. They're rare in October, pick up fast in November, and peak in January, when the average low is about 24 degrees. Late October is the time to get ready. The freeze forecast on this page shows how cold the next few nights are expected to get.

1. Unhook and drain the garden hoses. Close the indoor valve that feeds each outside faucet, then open the outside faucet so leftover water can drain.
2. Find your main shut-off valve and make sure it turns. If it's stuck, get it fixed now, while nothing is leaking.
3. Look at the spot where the water line comes through the foundation. It's a common freeze spot, and Indiana American Water notes it's also where you can see whether your service line is lead, copper, galvanized steel or plastic.
4. Insulate exposed pipes in the garage, crawl space and attic, and any that run along outside walls.
5. During a cold snap, leave the thermostat at the same setting day and night. If you travel, don't set it below 55°F (Indiana OUCC).
6. When it gets down to zero or below, let one faucet run a thin, pencil-size stream, ideally one on an outside wall, and open the cabinet doors under the sinks.

It depends which side of the town line you're on.

Inside town limits, the Town of Newburgh issues its own plumbing permit, and the permit application lists the fee at $30. Contractors have to be on the town's contractor list before they can pull one. If the house is in one of the town's historic districts, some work needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, and the Zoning Administrator decides which projects do.

Outside town limits, which covers most of 47630, permits go through the Warrick County Building Department in Boonville. Its fee table calls for a permit on plumbing work that costs more than $750. A small patch may come in under that. A bigger repair after a burst often won't, so ask the plumber who is pulling the permit.

These are national averages from cost guides, so treat them as ballparks, not Newburgh-area quotes. Thawing a frozen pipe runs $169 to $421 (Homeyou). Fixing a burst pipe usually costs $200 to $1,000, according to Fixr. HomeAdvisor says a bad break can run as high as $3,000, and an emergency call-out can add another $100 to $300.

The pipe is usually the cheap part. The water damage is what adds up, and State Farm says its average freeze damage claim has been more than $30,000. Triple-I says broader homeowners policies, like the common HO-3, cover damage from frozen plumbing, but not damage caused by lack of maintenance.

• Ask whether the plumber is licensed in Indiana, and ask for proof of insurance.
• Inside town limits, are you on the Town of Newburgh contractor list? Outside town, will you pull the Warrick County permit?
• Will you find out why it froze, such as a bare pipe on an outside wall, and fix that too?
• Is there an emergency or after-hours fee, and how much is it?

The call button on this page reaches a free referral line that can connect you with an independent local provider. Ask for the price before work starts.