No water, and it is freezing?
Check whether the neighbors have water, then call the water utility, because the main and the curb stop are theirs. If it is your line, the question underneath it is how deep that line actually is.
If the whole street is out it is the main, and the water system deals with it. If it is only your house, call them anyway to rule out their side, open one cold tap a little, find your main shutoff before it thaws and starts leaking, and keep every flame away from the pipe. A service line that freezes is usually shallower than the 42 inches of cover New Jersey requires.
What to do right now
Find out whether it is only your house
Ask a neighbor or two whether they have water. A whole street without water is the main, which belongs to the water system and costs you nothing. Just your house points at your service line, and that is a different call.
Call the water utility before you call anybody else
The main in the street and the curb stop at the property line are theirs, and so is the meter in most setups. If the freeze or the break is on their side, they handle it. One phone call rules out the half of the problem you do not own.
Open one cold tap a little
A trickle relieves the pressure that actually splits a pipe, and moving water is harder to freeze. It will not thaw a buried line, but it can keep a marginal one from getting worse while you sort the rest out.
If water is appearing, shut the main valve
A frozen pipe often does not leak until it thaws, and then it leaks all at once. Know where your main shutoff is before winter, not during it. If water is coming through a ceiling or near the panel, treat it as an electrical hazard and stay out of it.
Never thaw a pipe with a flame
A torch on a frozen pipe is how houses burn down, and it is a common enough January fire that it is worth saying plainly. Interior pipe can be warmed gently with a hair dryer or heat tape. A buried line is not something you thaw yourself at all.
Why a service line freezes
The line is too shallow
New Jersey requires at least 42 inches of cover on a water service so it sits below the frost line. Lines put in shallow years ago, or dug up and re-laid shallower than they started, are the ones that freeze. That is also why a line that froze once tends to freeze every hard winter until the depth changes.
Frost drove deeper than usual
A single cold night does not reach a properly buried line. A two week stretch in the teens does, especially where snow has been plowed off the ground above the run, because snow cover is insulation and bare ground is not.
An unheated space in the path
Crawl spaces, an attached garage, a corner of a basement nobody heats. The buried run can be fine while the first few feet inside the house are the part that froze, which is the version you can often fix yourself.
Something disturbed the ground
A recent dig, a new driveway, regrading that took soil off the top of the line. Cover that was adequate can stop being adequate without anyone noticing until the first hard freeze.
When it bursts
A frozen line often does not leak while it is frozen. The split shows up on the thaw, all at once, which is why the main shutoff matters more in a freeze than at any other time of year. Outside, a broken service usually announces itself: a wet patch or oddly green grass in the middle of winter, a soft spot or a small sinkhole, pressure falling off, a bill that jumps for no reason, or the sound of running water with everything in the house off.
Those are the same signs as a water service failing without a freeze, and the repair is the same work.
What it costs
- Water service replacement: $8,000 to $10,000 for a 200 foot service.
- What moves it: the length of the run, the material the town will accept, rock and wet ground, and whether the line has to get under a driveway or a mature tree.
Our own northern New Jersey pricing, stated 2026-09-18. Winter digging is not cheaper: frost slows the first foot or two, and a lawn opened in January looks opened until spring.
What customers say about this work
We have a busy restaurant in Stanhope, Shakey Jakes. We had a water main break that needed 50 ft of digging. They started at 2 am in freezing cold weather so as not to interfere with business. They did as they said and were very professional.
I had two recent emergencies and James and his team responded the same day. Immediate callbacks even though they were busy, and the pricing was very fair. And he volunteers as an EMT. Five star ++ rating for sure.
Common questions
What do I do if my water line is frozen?
First find out whether the neighbors have water. If the street is out, it is the main and the water system's problem. If it is only your house, call the water utility anyway, because the main, the curb stop at the property line and usually the meter are theirs, and they will check their side at no cost to you. Open one cold tap slightly to relieve pressure, know where your main shutoff is in case it starts leaking when it thaws, and do not put a flame anywhere near a pipe. A buried service line is not something to thaw yourself.
Who is responsible for a frozen water service line in New Jersey?
The usual split is that the water system owns the main and the curb stop at the property line, and the property owner owns the service line from there to the house. Where exactly that line falls is set by your water system's own tariff and rules, and it does vary, so confirm it with them rather than with any general statement including this one. It is worth knowing before an emergency, because it decides who pays.
How deep should a water line be in New Jersey?
At least 42 inches of cover, which puts it below the frost line. That depth is the whole reason a properly installed service does not freeze in a normal winter. A line that keeps freezing is usually telling you it is shallower than that somewhere along the run, which is a depth problem rather than a weather problem.
Can a frozen pipe be thawed instead of replaced?
Sometimes, and it is worth trying when the frozen section is inside the house. A buried line is different: thawing it restores water today and does nothing about why it froze. If the run is above frost depth, it will freeze again the next hard stretch, and a line that has already split will leak the moment it thaws. The honest question is not how to thaw it but how deep it actually is.
How much does it cost to replace a water service line in NJ?
With us, $8,000 to $10,000 for a 200 foot service, quoted against a stated distance on purpose, since a price with no length attached is not something you can compare. What moves it: how long the run is, the material going in and what the town will accept, how hard the digging is through rock or wet ground, and whether the line has to cross a driveway or a mature tree, which can turn an open cut into a bore.
Can you dig in frozen ground in the winter?
Yes. Frost slows the first foot or two and that costs time, so winter work is not cheaper, but a house without water is not a job that waits for spring. What matters more than the frost is restoration: a lawn opened in January is going to look opened until things grow again, and anybody telling you otherwise has not done it in February.
Water off, or a line that freezes every winter?
We locate it, dig it, and put the new line in at proper depth so it stops happening. 24/7 for emergencies.
Call 862-268-2510