Local plumbers inundated with frozen pipe calls

HINESBURG, Vt. (WCAX) - Temperatures may have returned to above freezing, but for those with frozen pipes from this past weekend’s deep freeze, the damage was already done.

Marianna Holzer called Falcon Plumbing and Heating on Saturday that one of her pipes likely froze and burst at her Hinesburg home over the weekend due to the extreme cold. She was not happy when they told her she was right.

“I was trying to wash out the brushes in the sink and realized there was no water. I said, ‘Oh dear.’ So, I had a little ceramic heater and a hair dryer. I was pointing at everything here trying to thaw it out. It was taking a long time and I was really worried the pipe was going to break,” Holzer said.

Falcon’s Chad Cameron says he had over 90 calls this weekend and more than 60 on Monday alone. He says keeping up with the workload is a challenge, especially when short-staffed. “There’s not enough plumbers in the world. Nobody wants to work. We are a 24-hour service. We are open 365 days a year. We accommodate everybody,” he said.

Cameron says out of all the calls they have received, they have done over fifty since Saturday morning and have many more to go. He says you never know what you are going to run into on a job and that some require more than one visit. “When you first get to the house, you assess the situation. Try to figure out what’s going on. For instance, last night this guy, he thought he just had air in his lines. His lines were frozen, it was burst. His whole house was frozen. We didn’t even get to the heat, which we are getting to tonight,” he said.

Falcon officials say they hope to get caught up by mid-week. Holzer says she figured it was in her best interest to wait until Monday to call for help, figuring there were many others in a similar situation. “I said because it would be cheaper to wait until Monday than do it on the weekend. So, I think he was happy, too because they were pretty flat out,” she said.

Cameron says the crews will keep going until they are all caught up.

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