Frozen pipes in the Black Hills: prevent, thaw, and when to call

Where Rapid City pipes freeze

• Hose bibs with a hose left connected — the #1 spring repair. The hose traps water in the faucet body; it freezes and splits the pipe behind the wall, and you don’t find out until you turn it on in May.
• Kitchen and bath lines on exterior walls, especially north-facing, in older homes with little insulation.
• Crawlspaces and unheated basements, and anything near a foundation vent left open.
• Garages with a utility sink or the water heater in them.
• Cabins and second homes in the Hills that weren’t drained down.

Prevent it (October to-do list)

1. Disconnect every hose. Shut the interior valve for each hose bib if you have one, and open the outside spigot to drain it.
2. Replace old hose bibs with frost-proof models — a one-time fix.
3. Insulate exposed pipe in the crawlspace, garage, and along exterior walls. Foam sleeves are cheap; heat tape on the worst runs.
4. Close foundation vents; seal gaps where pipes enter the house.
5. During a deep cold snap: open cabinet doors under exterior-wall sinks and let the far faucet drip overnight.
6. Leaving town? Don’t set the thermostat below 55°, and have someone check the house. For a cabin, have it drained and winterized properly.
7. Get the boiler or furnace tuned in the fall — a no-heat failure at −15° is how whole houses freeze.

Thawing safely

Open the affected faucet. Start warming at the faucet end and work backward so melting water and steam have somewhere to go. Hair dryer, heat lamp, warm wet towels, or a space heater in the room — never a torch or open flame, and never on a pipe next to gas. If the frozen section is inside a wall or you can’t find it, call us: we have the tools to locate and thaw it without opening more wall than necessary.

When it bursts

Main shutoff, then power/gas to the water heater, then 605-877-5050. We answer 24/7 and most Rapid City calls see a tech within 60 minutes or less. We repair the split, check the rest of the run for damage (a burst pipe rarely froze in only one spot), and if it’s a repeat offender, reroute it off the exterior wall so it doesn’t happen again.