Shut off the water first
Before anything else: find your main shutoff and close it. In most DFW homes it is at the street in a meter box, or on an exterior wall near the front hose bib. If you can isolate the specific fixture with an angle stop, do that instead. Every minute of open flow is more water in the structure, and this is the one part nobody can do for you before a crew arrives.
If water is near outlets, the panel or ceiling fixtures, cut power to that area at the breaker — but only if you can reach the panel without walking through water. If you cannot, wait for us.
Why pipes burst in North Texas
Freeze events
Our building stock is designed for heat. Pipes run through uninsulated attics, exterior walls and unconditioned garages. When water freezes it expands, and the pressure between the ice plug and a closed fixture ruptures the pipe. The failure typically reveals itself on the thaw, when pressure returns and water pours through the split — which is why regional freezes produce thousands of simultaneous losses across the Metroplex.
Aging supply lines
Braided connectors under sinks and behind toilets are consumable. Galvanized steel in older homes corrodes from the inside until the wall thickness fails. Polybutylene, used widely in the 1980s and early 90s and still present in some DFW homes, degrades from contact with treated water and fails without warning.
Slab and foundation movement
Expansive clay soil expands and contracts through wet and dry cycles, and that movement stresses lines running through and under the slab.
Water pressure
Pressure above roughly 80 psi stresses every connection in the system continuously. A pressure-reducing valve is inexpensive and often overlooked.
What we do when we arrive
Confirm the water is off and the area is electrically safe, then extract standing water immediately. Thermal imaging and moisture meters map how far the water travelled, including inside wall cavities and under cabinet toe kicks. Wet insulation and saturated drywall are removed where they will not dry in place; where materials can be dried, they are dried. Air movers and LGR dehumidifiers are set to a calculated load and monitored daily. Then the repair: drywall, texture, insulation, flooring, cabinetry and paint.
Upstairs and attic-line breaks deserve a note. Water follows framing and travels a long way before it appears, so the visible stain on a downstairs ceiling is rarely above the break. We map the actual extent rather than treating what is visible.
Preventing the next one
- Insulate pipes in attics, garages and exterior walls before winter, not during a freeze warning.
- Know where your main shutoff is and confirm it turns — before you need it at 3am.
- Disconnect hoses and cover hose bibs ahead of a freeze; an attached hose traps water in the bib.
- Replace braided supply lines on a schedule rather than on failure. They are inexpensive.
- Check your static water pressure and install a pressure-reducing valve if it exceeds 80 psi.
- Install leak detection sensors near water heaters, washing machines and under sinks. Automatic shutoff valves cost a fraction of a single claim deductible.
- During a hard freeze, let a faucet drip on exterior-wall runs and open cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls.
Why pipes burst here specifically
North Texas has an unusual freeze profile: mild enough that a great deal of plumbing sits in unconditioned space, cold enough several times a winter to freeze it. Attic-run supply lines are common in DFW construction in a way they are not in genuinely cold climates, and an attic on a 15°F night is effectively outdoors.
The failure mechanism is often misunderstood. Ice does not split the pipe by pressing on the pipe wall. A freeze plug forms and seals the line, and continued freezing pressurises the water trapped between the plug and a closed fixture. The pipe fails at its weakest point, which is frequently some distance from the ice itself. This is also why a pipe can freeze one night and burst when it thaws the next morning — the split was already there, held shut by ice, and water only starts moving once the plug melts.
The failure modes we see by material
Copper splits cleanly along its length under freeze pressure, and pinhole leaks develop over time in areas with aggressive water chemistry or where the line was installed against a rough surface.
Polybutylene — grey plastic supply line used widely from the late 1970s through 1995 — degrades from the inside through reaction with chlorinated water, and fails without warning at fittings. Large sections of Irving, Carrollton, Richardson and Plano housing stock still have it. It is generally uninsurable to repair piecemeal and worth planning a repipe around.
CPVC becomes brittle with age and UV exposure and cracks under freeze stress.
PEX is the most freeze-tolerant common material because it can expand somewhat, but its fittings are not, and that is where it fails.
Galvanized steel in properties built before roughly 1960 corrodes internally, restricting flow and eventually perforating.
Slab leaks
A leak in a supply line beneath a post-tension slab presents differently — warm spots on the floor, a hot water system that runs constantly, a water meter that moves with every fixture off, or unexplained damp at the slab edge. North Texas expansive clay makes it worse, because water under a slab changes soil moisture and the slab moves.
Location is done with acoustic and thermal equipment before anything is opened. The repair options are tunnelling from outside to reach the line, breaking through the slab from inside, or rerouting the affected run overhead and abandoning the buried section. Rerouting is frequently the better answer on an older system, because a line that has failed once in a hostile environment will generally fail again.
Prevention that is worth doing
Insulate attic and exterior-wall supply lines properly — sleeve insulation on the pipe, not a batt laid nearby. Disconnect hose bibs before the first freeze and fit insulated covers. Know where your main shutoff is and confirm it actually turns, before you need it at 2am. Open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls during a hard freeze so conditioned air reaches the pipes. Leave a slow drip on the furthest fixture, which relieves pressure buildup between a freeze plug and a closed tap. If you leave the property in winter, do not turn the heat off — set it low rather than off, and have someone check the house.
A whole-house automatic shutoff valve that closes on abnormal flow is the single most effective device available for this, and it costs a fraction of one water loss.
Call us when you see any of this
- Water coming through a ceiling or running down a wall
- The sound of running water with every fixture off
- A sudden drop in water pressure
- Water pooling at the base of a wall or under cabinets
- No water at all after a hard freeze — often a frozen line about to fail
- A water bill that jumped sharply with no change in usage
If you are looking at one of these right now, the useful next step is a phone call rather than more reading. Our line is answered 24 hours a day and the assessment is free.
Burst Pipe Cleanup across Dallas–Fort Worth
We dispatch from 4828 Topline Drive in Dallas and cover 29 cities across the Metroplex, including Dallas · Fort Worth · Irving · Plano · Frisco · McKinney · Richardson · Garland · Mesquite · Arlington · Grand Prairie · Carrollton · Addison · Farmers Branch and the surrounding communities. See all service areas.