What should I do first when a pipe bursts?
Shut off the main water valve, open the faucets to drain the lines, stay away from water near anything electrical, and photograph the break and every wet area before cleanup starts.
The next 15 minutes, step by step
- Shut off the water. Close your home's main shutoff valve (where to find it is below). If only one fixture is leaking and it has its own valve, close that.
- Drain the lines. Open the cold taps on the lowest level, then the rest. This takes pressure off the system and empties water that would otherwise keep leaking.
- Make it safe. If water is near outlets, the electrical panel or appliances, stay out of it. Turn off power at the breaker only if you can reach it from a dry spot.
- Turn off the water heater if the main is off for long, following the maker's instructions for gas or electric.
- Photograph the break and the damage before anyone repairs or cleans anything.
- Move what you can. Get rugs, electronics and boxes off wet floors, and catch drips with buckets.
- Call a plumber for the pipe and a restoration crew for the water. They're different jobs. The plumber fixes the break; the restoration crew extracts water and dries the structure.
Where's my main water shutoff?
Look where the main water line enters the house: often on a basement or garage wall, inside the crawlspace access, near the water heater, or under a kitchen or utility sink in homes on a slab. It's usually a round handle or a lever on the pipe. Find it now, before you need it, and make sure it turns.
In Portland, the Water Bureau owns and maintains the pipes up to and including the water meter. Everything past the meter is the property owner's to repair. If the break is on the street side or you can't stop the water, the Water Bureau's 24-hour line is 503-823-4874, option 1 (Portland Water Bureau).
If a pipe is frozen but hasn't burst yet
- Open the faucet it feeds, so melting water has somewhere to go.
- Warm the pipe slowly with a hair dryer, a space heater kept well away from anything flammable, or warm towels. Start closest to the faucet.
- Never use an open flame or torch on a pipe.
- If you can't find the frozen section or reach it, call a plumber.
A pipe that cracked while frozen often doesn't leak until it thaws. Check under sinks, in the crawlspace and along exterior walls as temperatures rise.
Portland and Salem freezes are rare, but they hit hard
Western Oregon doesn't freeze often, so a lot of plumbing isn't built for it. When ice storms come, they hit thousands of homes at once:
| Event | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| February 2021 ice storm (Feb 11–15) | About 253,000 PGE customers lost power on Feb 13. Federal disaster declared for Clackamas, Marion, Polk and other counties. | PGE, FEMA |
| January 2024 ice storm (Jan 10–22) | PGE customer outages totaled 524,600 over nine days. The Portland Water Bureau answered 1,250+ calls for service in three and a half days. Disaster declared for counties including Multnomah and Clackamas. | PGE, Portland Water Bureau, Oregon OEM |
Salem is more exposed than Portland: it averages 49.4 nights a year at or below freezing, compared with 31.7 at Portland airport (NOAA).
How to keep it from happening again
- Insulate pipes in crawlspaces, garages and exterior walls. Foam sleeves are cheap.
- Disconnect garden hoses and cover outdoor spigots before the first hard freeze.
- Close crawlspace vents during cold snaps and open them again afterward.
- During a hard freeze, let faucets on exterior walls drip and open sink cabinet doors so warm air reaches the pipes.
- Keep the heat on, at least in the 50s, if you're away.
- Know where your main shutoff is, and show everyone in the house.
Who pays for a burst pipe?
A sudden plumbing leak is the kind of water damage homeowners insurance typically covers (NAIC). A slow leak that's been dripping for weeks is usually treated as maintenance, which is the owner's responsibility. Your policy's exact wording decides it, so photograph the break and keep the failed section of pipe if the plumber removes it. For Portland properties, the Water Bureau handles breaks up to and including the meter (Portland Water Bureau).