Thursday, January 27, 2000 Older Editions

Freeze fractures

By Rebecca Lipchitz

Phones at plumbers' headquarters and the Fire Department rang regularly with calls of frozen pipes until early this week, when the bitter cold subsided in time to dump a nor'easter on Andover and the east coast.

The first weeks of 2000 put a stop to the water flowing through a few Andover pipes.

"I've had 10 calls a day in the last 10 days. That's a lot for a small shop," says Robert Shaw, owner of RW Shaw Plumbing of Andover.

Lee Davolio of Aqua Plumbing in Andover says her firm had to refuse several calls.

She warns people not to lower the heat in their house when they go skiing for the weekend.

"That will get you a frozen pipe," she says. She recommends keeping a house heated to no less than 66 degrees Fahrenheit.

Shaw says forgetting to turn off an outdoor faucet will also cause pipes to freeze.

Experts also recommend keeping a small bit of water running, to avoid shutting off rooms from heat where a pipe in the wall could freeze, and to make sure pipes close to the outer walls of the house are insulated.

Davolio says the time it takes to thaw a frozen pipe depends on the severity of the "freeze up."

Shaw agrees. While small jobs can take a little as an hour, most plumbers, including himself, have "emergency" rates, he says.

Others opt for free public assistance from the Fire Department.

"It's been heavy this year, since the cold snap," says Andover Fire Lt. Jim Dolan.

He warns that the Fire Department can help stop the flow, but fancy plumbing is not their business, since they spend time fixing frozen sprinkler systems in nursing homes, schools and occupied commercial buildings.

When people are in a building and the sprinkler system freezes, a firefighter must stand by, Dolan says.

Most of their house calls for frozen pipes involve stopping the flow from a pipe that froze, burst and then thawed, causing a flood.

Particularly tricky, he says, are baseboard hot-water heaters that freeze and have no way to reheat themselves.

"That compounds the problem," Dolan says.