Burst Pipe Repair in Temple Hills, MD

Temple Hills homes and pipe failures

Temple Hills is mostly garden apartments, duplexes and single-family houses built from the 1950s through the 1970s, and its median home dates to 1973. That means many plumbing systems here are more than fifty years old. Original copper wears thin, valves seize, and any remaining galvanized steel rusts from the inside. When a cold snap freezes a pipe along an exterior wall or under a crawlspace, that older pipe is the first to give. WSSC Water supplies water and sewer service; it owns the service line from the main to the property line, and the owner is responsible from there to the house.

What to do right now

1. Close the main valve. In houses it's usually in the basement or utility room; in apartments and duplexes check under the kitchen sink or in a utility closet.
2. Shut off power to wet rooms at the breaker if you can reach it safely.
3. Drain the pipes by opening a faucet on the lowest floor.
4. Turn the water heater off or to pilot.
5. Warn neighbors if you share a wall or ceiling, since water travels.
6. Document the damage with photos before cleaning up.
7. Call WSSC instead if the water is in the street or at the meter: its emergency line is 301-206-4002.

Symptoms and likely causes

What affects the cost

Price depends on how hard the pipe is to reach, how much of it has to be replaced and when the work happens. A split in an open basement is a short job; a break inside a shared wall between duplex units takes more time and care. Corroded pipe may need a longer replacement, and a leak in the yard means digging. In Prince George's County, plumbing permits come from WSSC Water, and service line repairs and interior repiping need a plumber holding a WSSC license. If you smell gas at any point, leave and call 911 and Washington Gas at 844-WASHGAS (927-4427), option 1.