Winter Weather Leads To Plumbing Business Boom

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Thursday's low temperature didn't just break a record; it also broke a lot of water pipes! That means it has been ultra-busy for plumbers.

As the owner of Morgan Leak Detection and Plumbing, Cliff Morgan knows the problems all too well. "We've seen so many pipes like this over the past week, it's been unreal," he said of the many ruptures he's encountered. "It very seldom gets this cold, so we don't experience that here in Texas."

Mary Stack, of Colleyville, was one of the unfortunate victims of the extreme cold. "We had a slab leak and water went all over the place," she said. "And of course you know insurance doesn't take care of that."

Morgan says this is the worst winter for broken pipes he's seen during his 20 years in business. "We've seen lots of bad disasters… ceilings caving in, houses flooding," he said. "We were in a house yesterday that was probably a million dollar home and the entire ceiling caved in."

As far as the price tag for Stack, "We'll have to replace carpet, replace tiles, and replace drywall," she said. "So it is costly."

An average freeze break can cost between $300 and $500 to repair, and that doesn't include any water damage.

Plumbers suggest homeowners leave the heat on in their homes, drip any inside faucets that are on exterior walls and cover or wrap any exposed faucets outside.

"That's probably one of the most important things is make sure all your outside pipes are wrapped," Morgan said.

While Stack, who is originally from Upstate New York, said she's used to cold weather, she isn't used to experiencing it in Texas. "Now that we have adapted, over the last 15 years, to this climate it has been an anomaly," she said, "This has been a very strange time for the weather in Texas."

Don't worry if you're not handy, installing a cover on an outside pipe or faucet isn't hard and will only cost a couple of bucks.