Why pipes burst in winter
Water expands when it freezes. A pipe that is full of water and exposed to a hard frost splits along its length — often a hairline crack that only shows when the ice thaws and the water runs. The Latrobe Valley gets cold, clear winter nights, and the pipes that freeze are the exposed ones: outdoor taps, hose bibs, pipes on the cold south side of older weatherboard walls, and runs through unlined subfloors and roof spaces.
The older weatherboard stock near the Traralgon CBD is the most exposed — the plumbing often runs on the outside of the wall, not inside it. The newer estates are not immune where plumbing runs through unheated roof spaces, but they suffer far less than the old galvanised and copper runs.
The first minute — isolate at the meter
If a pipe has burst, the first move is always the same: find the water meter at the front boundary, turn the handle clockwise to shut the supply, and open a cold tap inside to drain the remaining water and take the pressure off the break. Then call us. Most Traralgon meters are at the front boundary near the footpath. Knowing where your meter is — and that the handle actually turns — before a burst is worth ten minutes on a weekend.
Galvanised, copper and PVC
Galvanised supply lines in the older homes rust from the inside and split at a thin section or a rusted thread; a partial repair on a rusted galvanised run is false economy, and we will tell you so. Copper splits on a freeze or at a poorly soldered joint, and a single joint failure on sound copper is a joint repair, not a line replacement. PVC and PEX handle a freeze better than metal but will split at a fitting or a kink if the run was installed under stress. We match the repair to the material and do not mix metals in a way that sets up galvanic corrosion.
Finding a hidden burst
Not every burst is visible. A drop in pressure, a hiss behind a wall, a damp patch on a ceiling, or a jump in the water bill can all be a slow burst inside a wall, under a floor, or under a slab. We isolate, pressure-test the house in sections to narrow the leak, and use leak detection to find the exact spot before we cut into a wall or lift a floor. We do not guess and we do not cut more than we need to.
Preventing the next one
Lag exposed pipes and outdoor taps before winter — the cheapest prevention there is. Isolate and drain outdoor hoses and irrigation before the first frost. If a tap has frozen, turn the water off and call before it thaws into a burst. And if your home still has a galvanised supply run that is past its life, replace it before it fails on the coldest night of the year — because that is when it will fail.