LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Temperatures are expected to warm up this week, but what does that mean for your pipes? A plumbers said there are some steps you can take to avoid a burst this week. 

The freezing cold temperatures are keeping Maeser Plumbing busy all week with busted water lines.  

“I don’t think I’m getting home tonight till about 8 or 9 and it’s been like that all week and we have guys on standby and so far as of right now, I have 6 calls and they’re all busted water lines and ones out of church,” said William Kayse, plumber for Maeser Master Services. 

Kayse said it’s rare, but pipes can burst when it gets warm out because if there is ice in a pipe, when it melts it can add pressure to cracks the ice might have caused.

“So I mean, if a pipe is on an outside wall and it’s frozen with ice and you know that it has a leak because the house is warm, but it hasn’t shown its ugly face,” he said. 

To prevent that from happening over the coming days, he recommends you do what you can to keep your pipes warm.

“Open the cabinets up, trickle both sides of the water, hot and cold, because hot will freeze and bust too. Put a fan on it, space heater or something, put blankets around it on the back side,” Kayse said. 

If your pipes do burst—the first thing he said you should do is contact a handyman.

“Call a plumber, turn off the main water valve in your home. If you do not have one, call us faster. You can always call the water company if you can’t find your ball valve and haven’t shut it off at the meter and then call us, but the biggest thing is to prevent damage,” he said. 

He said the more preventative maintenance takes, the better the outcome. 

In 2022, State Farm said it paid over $181 million for nearly 9,000 claims from frozen pipe damage, with the average claim coming in just over $20,000.