Frozen Pipes and the Damages
They Cause

There are many precautions one takes when the weather begins to turn chilly. One thing many business and home owners often neglect is a building’s pipes.

Frozen Water
Water, as we have all learned in primary school, is a liquid. When frozen, it turns into ice. Not only does this liquid become a solid, but it also expands.

Ice is the only substance that is not metallic that expands when water is frozen. Water becomes less dense as it begins to reach 0˚C because the molecules begin to form crystals that are hexagonally-shaped. The bonding of hydrogen dominates the intermolecular forces, thus making the molecules less compact. The colder ice is, the denser it will be.

Frozen Pipes
During the cold winter months, pipes will often burst or break because the water inside of them has frozen, expanded, and cracked the pipe. The water molecules no longer fit in the tube they are in due to this expansion.

The Cost of Frozen Pipes
When a pipe cracks or breaks, extensive water damage can invade a building, possibly bringing the forces of mold damage with it. According to a 2006 issue of the Insurance Journal, every year, about a quarter-million homes and offices in the United States, have at least one room damaged by a frozen pipe, and a decade of these insurance claims have cost over $4 billion. Statistics from Streamside Services, Inc. have shown that homeowners have filed insurance claims due to burst pipes five times more than claims due to fire damage.

Pipes outside of a home or building are the ones most likely to freeze and burst. This type of flooding can cause the foundation to be weak and floor joints to be damaged if they extend beyond the foundation.

A flooded basement can result from an outside pipe, or a pipe leading to that area of a building, breaking. These pipes many times run between the basement and the floor above it. A crack in this pipe can lead to an unwanted indoor swimming pool. Many times basements are not visited often, so water can have a chance to spurt from broken pipes for several days before the damage is discovered. This causes not just the items in the basement to get wet and attract mold growth, but can also cause damage to the structural integrity of a building.

Pipes that have also caused a lot of damage are those that run above the ceiling of a building. Many business owners have come in to work on a Monday to find a caved-in ceiling that is cracked and leaking water onto irreplaceable items. The flood damage from the burst pipes caused documents to become wet, electronic equipment to fry, the carpet to smell bad, furniture to warp, and a great deal of headaches and stress.

Mold Damage as a Result of Frozen Pipes
When a building has flood damage, the carpets or flooring will often have to be replaced. The drywall and ceilings often have to come out, and insulation will have to be reinstalled. Anything and everything salvageable will have to be completely dried out because mold will cause further damage to a building and can affect one’s health.

Mold spores are nasty organisms that thrive in damp environments. When in an ideal living situation, mold will quickly multiply, take over, and be hard to clean and kill. Mold growth in a building will start to breakdown and weaken the areas on which it lives. It can eat away at water damaged documents and photos. Like a bad neighborhood, mold should be avoided.

The excitement of the cold-weather months makes one want to think more about the upcoming holidays rather than taking care of pipes. This neglect, however, can be more costly than the banquet dinner one was going to prepare and the gifts that were going to be bought. Save time and money: plan ahead.

~Nicole Krueger, 2009

Works Cited

Insurance Journal . (2006, January 2). "Frozen pipes cause billions in damage, but can be prevented". Retrieved October 9, 2009, from : Insurance Journal

Streamside Services, Inc. (n.d.). "Avoiding Frozen Pipes During Extremely Cold Weather." Retrieved October 9, 2009, from: Streamside Services, Inc..

Wikipedia. (2009, October 9). "Ice". Retrieved October 2009, 2009, from : Wikipedia.