Cleanup and drying after a rare Valley freeze splits a hose bib, backflow assembly, attic line or cooler line and it leaks on the thaw.
Fastest: call (833) 490-5225. Or send this and we call you back.
Frozen pipe water damage in Phoenix almost always starts outside the heated part of the house: a hose bib, backflow assembly, attic run or cooler line that cracked during a freeze warning and leaked when it thawed. Phoenix Water Damage Restoration sends a crew to extract the water and dry the structure. Phones are answered around the clock.
Close the main shut-off valve first, then keep away from standing water near outlets, the air handler or the water heater. Find that valve on a mild afternoon, not with a flashlight on the one cold night of the year. Those two moves decide how much drywall and insulation has to come out later.
Phoenix does not have a northern freeze problem. The coldest reading on record here is 16 degrees, set in January 1913, and a hard freeze is unusual enough that most houses were never built to shrug one off. That is the trap: the fittings that break are the ones nobody protected, because for most of the year they never need protecting.
Almost every one of them sits outside the heated envelope — a hose bib on a stucco wall, an above-ground backflow assembly in the front yard, shallow irrigation pipe in PVC or poly, a supply run across a vented attic, or the small copper line feeding a rooftop cooler. The crew handles water removal, opening wet materials and drying. Repairing the split line is a licensed plumber's job, and the burst pipe water damage page covers a line that lets go without any help from the weather.
Never thaw a line with a torch, a propane heater or any open flame; it can set a wall or an attic alight. Stay out of standing water near outlets and the air handler, and keep the water off at the main until a plumber has made the repair.
A freeze leak here is usually clean water in one or two rooms, and the bill follows the wet area, how much wall or ceiling has to come open, and how many drying days the framing needs.
| Job | Typical range | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency inspection and moisture assessment | Free–$200 | Usually credited against the job if work goes ahead |
| Category 1 (clean water) mitigation, one room or small area | $1,200–$4,000 | Common where one hose bib, attic run or cooler line let go |
| Category 1 (clean water) mitigation (per sq ft) | $3.00–$4.00 | The per-square-foot range cost guides for the Phoenix area report for clean-water work |
| Flood cut: remove wet drywall 2–4 ft up (per linear ft of wall) | $3–$8 | Needed where a cavity held water and its insulation has to leave |
| Air mover (per unit, per day) | $25–$50 | Several units run together on one wet room |
| Drywall replacement: hang, tape, texture, paint (per sq ft) | $3–$7 | Rebuild stage, priced once the readings sit at the goal |
Working estimates for Phoenix and the rest of Maricopa County in 2026, not a quote: the numbers move with the wet area and the materials, and they are confirmed on site. The emergency-stage price is set out and approved before anything is plugged in, and the plumber bills the pipe repair.
An outside faucet with a hose still attached holds water in its stem, and that water has nowhere to go when it freezes. The crack often sits inside the wall behind the bib, so the first sign is wet drywall or baseboard in the room on the other side rather than a puddle outside.
Above-ground backflow preventers, brass valve bodies and shallow PVC or poly irrigation pipe all sit in the open air. A cracked assembly can pour water across a driveway and against a stem wall for hours before anyone notices, and it usually reaches a garage before it reaches a living room.
A vented attic gets close to outside temperature on a cold night, and a supply line crossing it has nothing but air around it. A split up there empties onto ceiling drywall and into blown insulation, which holds water far longer than the dry air outside would suggest.
A rooftop cooler that was not drained before winter can crack at its float valve, its quarter-inch copper supply line or its overflow pipe. The leak may wait until the unit is switched on in spring, and the evaporative cooler leak cleanup page follows that one further.
If it's an emergency, call now. For non-urgent frozen pipe water damage, send the form and we'll call you back.
Because almost nothing here is freeze-protected. In cold climates supply lines are kept inside insulated space and outdoor plumbing is drained every fall. In the Valley, hose bibs, backflow assemblies, irrigation pipe and attic runs sit exposed year round, so one night near 20 degrees is enough to crack them.
Freeze risk climbs once overnight lows approach 20 degrees, which happens on a handful of nights in some winters and not at all in others. The National Weather Service office in Phoenix posts freeze warnings ahead of those nights, and the morning after one is when the calls start.
The damage is lopsided too. A northern house loses a line inside a wall it can dry from both sides; a Valley house loses a fitting outdoors, and the water runs in along a slab or a ceiling plane, under tile and behind stucco, where it is slow to find and slow to dry.
Pull the hoses off every outdoor faucet and drain them, shut the inside valve feeding an outside bib and leave the bib open to drain, cover or insulate the backflow assembly, and insulate or bury exposed irrigation pipe. City of Phoenix Water Services also suggests opening cabinet doors on outside walls and letting faucets drip.
Drain a rooftop cooler and its supply line if it is already shut down for the season, and leave the heat on if you are travelling. A thermostat switched off in an empty house takes the attic and the exterior walls down with it.
None of that costs much, and it is far cheaper than a drying bill. While you are outside doing it, note where the main shut-off is and tell whoever else lives there.
Usually on the thaw rather than during the freeze. Ice plugs its own crack, so water only moves once the fitting warms up, often the next sunny afternoon. Irrigation and cooler breaks can stay hidden for weeks, until the system is pressurized again in spring.
That delay is why a freeze leak is often bigger than the homeowner expects. By the time a ceiling stains or a baseboard swells, water has had hours to spread through insulation, a tile bed and the gap under a floating floor.
Desert air does not rescue you here either. Open rooms dry fast, but concrete, mortar beds and wet attic insulation hold moisture for days, which is why drying is tracked with meter readings instead of by feel. The structural drying page explains how that goal is set and measured.
Often, because a pipe that splits and leaks is usually treated as sudden and accidental damage. Your insurer decides under your own policy, so read it or ask your agent. Some policies set conditions about keeping a building heated while nobody is staying in it, which matters for owners who travel.
Get photographs of the room before a stick of furniture moves, stop the water if that is safe to do, and tell your insurer early. The crew can hand you moisture readings, a drying log and photographs; what is covered is the insurer's decision, not the crew's.
Keep the receipts for anything you buy to limit the damage, and keep the broken fitting if the plumber takes it out. An adjuster asking what failed is a much shorter conversation when the part is in a bag on the counter.
On the call you confirm the main valve is closed and say where the water showed up. If a line is still iced or clearly split, you are told to line up a licensed plumber alongside the crew.
A technician maps the water with moisture meters and a thermal camera over walls, ceilings and flooring, because a thaw leak behind stucco or above a ceiling usually travels well past the split itself.
Extraction clears what is pooled or trapped in carpet pad, then soaked attic insulation is bagged out and a flood cut opens the lower drywall wherever a cavity has held water.
Air movers and LGR dehumidifiers go in, aimed into open cavities and under cabinets. Readings are taken daily and compared against the same materials in a dry part of the building.
Drying stops when materials reach the documented goal, not when a surface feels dry. You get the photographs and readings for your insurer, and repairs are quoted separately after that.
A Valley freeze is a December and January story, and only in some years. The practical calendar runs: cold snaps and freeze warnings in late December and January, thaw leaks through January and February, then a second wave in March and April when irrigation and rooftop coolers are turned back on and last winter's crack finally has pressure behind it.
Older central and west Phoenix neighborhoods take the worst of it. Coronado, Encanto, Alhambra, Maryvale and Sunnyslope have long runs of outdoor plumbing added over decades, brass valves well past their best, and in the prewar streets plaster and lath that soaks water up from behind a bib. Newer subdivisions in Laveen, Ahwatukee and northwest Chandler trade that for attic runs and fittings above finished ceilings.
Empty houses are the other local factor. Plenty of Valley properties stand unoccupied for part of the year, whether the owners are away for the summer or travelling over the holidays, and a closed-up house can sit through the only cold week of the winter with nobody in it. Ask a neighbor to look in during a freeze warning, show them the main valve, and leave the heat on rather than off.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Cleanup and drying after a supply line lets go, from copper pinholes in older Phoenix homes to split fittings in attics and exterior walls.
Cleanup after a rooftop or wall swamp cooler leaks: wet ceilings, soaked insulation and stained stucco, dried to readings.
Air movers, LGR dehumidifiers and daily meter readings that take a slab, tile bed, wall or ceiling to a documented dry goal.
Cleanup and drying when pool plumbing, drip lines or flood irrigation push water against a Phoenix slab or into a garage.
Risk climbs once overnight lows get near 20 degrees, and the National Weather Service Phoenix office issues freeze warnings ahead of those nights. The coldest reading ever recorded here is 16 degrees, in January 1913, so the danger is real but rare. Exposed fittings outside the heated part of the building fail first.
Not from the crew yet. Have a plumber check the bib and the stem behind it, and keep the main valve within reach while they work. If water appears in the wall during the thaw, call (833) 490-5225 then, because early extraction keeps the flood cut small.
Yes. PEX stretches a little and survives more than copper does, but its fittings and valves still crack, and the thin PVC or poly used for irrigation turns brittle in cold weather. Shallow buried irrigation pipe and above-ground assemblies are the usual casualties of a Valley freeze.
Usually, wherever it is soaked. Blown or batt insulation that has held water packs down, holds moisture against the ceiling drywall and dries very slowly in place. The crew bags the wet section and dries the cavity, and new insulation goes in during the repair stage.
A licensed plumber. The crew's work is the water: extraction, opening wet materials, drying and documentation. Plumbing repair, re-piping and irrigation or cooler work are not part of it, and drying can be scheduled around the plumber's visit.
Shut the irrigation supply off at its own valve first. Water that stays in the yard is a landscaper's or irrigation contractor's problem. If it ran toward the house and reached a garage or a slab-level room, the crew dries that side, as the pool and irrigation leak cleanup page describes.