This article by Frances Mize was first published Feb. 7 in the Valley News.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — This week’s warmer weather might be welcome after an historic cold snap in the Upper Valley. But residences and businesses continue to suffer a deluge of burst pipes as temperature extremes take their toll on the area’s water supply.
The New Hampshire Department of Human Health and Services office in Claremont noted in a news release that it will be closed through Friday due to pipes that burst in the cold this weekend, when the thermostat dropped to 15 degrees below zero. The department will be able to offer most services remotely.
The Orange County Parent Child Center in Tunbridge also will be closed through Friday after a heating system failure caused water damage over the weekend, according to a Facebook post.
Still, higher temperatures haven’t offered blanket relief.
Nearly five months after a water main malfunction led to massive flooding in the basement of Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, the Hartford Fire Department was called to return to the scene. A pipe burst in the water sprinkler system in the historic building on Tuesday, when temperatures had just started to climb above freezing.
Chico Eastridge, technical director at public access TV channel Junction Arts & Media at the Briggs Opera House, said he heard the building’s fire alarm go off around 11:45 a.m., and co-workers told him “there’s something making a whole lot of noise” behind the doors near JAM’s office on the ground floor.
Eastridge opened the door to investigate and was instantly confronted with a “deluge, it was just nuts,” of water raining down from the overhead sprinkler system.
Hartford fire trucks pulled up on South Main Street within minutes, and crew members quickly located the shutoff valve to stop the spray, but already an inch or two of water had collected in the basement below.
Tom Peltier, Hartford fire marshal, was across the street from the Briggs Opera House inspecting another sprinkler system and said on Tuesday that he had a pretty good idea what was happening at the Briggs building even before he got there.
“The sprinkler blew right out; it happens with old pipes when there are extreme fluctuations in temperature,” Peltier said while standing on a water-slick floor and pointing to the sprinkler connection above.
Be it from a quick freeze or a quick thaw, the story at Briggs isn’t unique this week. Plumbers and other technicians in the area have rallied.
Jeff Balch, a plumber in the Upper Valley for just under 40 years, can’t remember hearing such a loud chorus of ruptured pipes. Balch, who owns Hanover-based J&B Plumbing, had roughly 30 voicemails waiting for him on Monday requesting help.
“But a couple of them were duplicates,” he said. “People get a little frantic when their pipes are bursting.”
Apart from age, a difference-maker in how plumbing will hold up is the insulation of the building that houses it, Balch said.
Older, draftier houses are at a disadvantage. Wind of the kind that came last weekend — which whipped through the Upper Valley at up to 20 miles per hour on Saturday — makes use of each door crack and leaky window.
“Bitter cold doesn’t necessarily equal a pipe freeze-up,” said Bill Limoges of Bill Limoges Heating Services in Claremont, New Hampshire. “It has to get in somehow, and that wind was absolutely shoving it in.”
Steve Ackerman, owner of Lebanon-based Roto-Rooter, said his business, which services only drain lines, wasn’t called to duty this weekend. The weather was too erratic.
“We needed more of a protracted period of cold, which is usually when drain lines freeze,” Ackerman said. “People will let them drip, and it forms an ice dam in the pipes.”
So if your pipes aren’t well-insulated, the old “let it drip” adage doesn’t necessarily apply in longer cold stretches. Under those conditions, it’s better to “leave your cabinet doors open, and make sure you don’t have any dripping faucets, especially when you go away for the weekend and it’s going to be below zero,” Ackerman said.
Limoges had more to-the-point advice.
“It sounds like it’s a real small thing to know about, pipes freezing. But it can cause a lot of damage,” he said. “If you do nothing else, learn where your water shutoff is.”
Another enemy, with beady eyes, stares down pipes in cold weather. Mice love fiberglass insulation, said Balch, of J&B Plumbing.
“They burrow through it, and that makes a wind tunnel,” he said. “If their tunnel passes by a pipe, that tunnel is no longer insulated. It can be a fairly new house and people will say, ‘Well, it’s never frozen before.’ But then a new mouse moves in.”
So many of these weather-related plumbing issues can be chalked up to bad breaks, Balch said. But some do feel more random than others.
“One of the calls we had was for a condominium that was for sale. No one’s living there, and one of the brokers simply didn’t close the door tight,” he said. “The door blew open from the wind, which froze all the pipes in the kitchen.
“Now that was really just bad luck.”
Valley News Staff Writer John Lippman contributed to this report. Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member.