Burst Pipe Repair in Black Hawk, CO

Black Hawk is a former gold-mining settlement known as the "City of Mills," now a small casino town of restored historic buildings along North Clear Creek, sharing a National Historic District with Central City. The City of Black Hawk Water Department supplies drinking water to the entire city from its own two treatment plants, Dory Hill on North Clear Creek and Hidden Valley on Clear Creek. Old buildings in a mountain canyon are a hard combination for plumbing in January.

What to do now

1. Close the main valve where water enters the building.
2. Turn off power to wet outlets, lights and equipment.
3. Open the lowest faucet to drain the lines.
4. Switch off an electric water heater or set a gas unit to pilot.
5. If you smell gas, leave and call 911, then your gas utility or propane supplier, from outside.
6. For a leak near the street, contact the City Water Department; the Water Superintendent is at (303) 582-2246.

Symptoms and likely causes

What affects the cost

• Access in historic stone, brick or plaster walls
• Older pipe that may need a longer replacement
• How many places the freeze cracked the line
• Digging in steep, rocky ground for a buried line
• Permits through the City's Building Division, run by SAFEbuilt (cpdinquiry@cityofblackhawk.org)
• Travel into the mountains, about 28 miles from Denver, plus after-hours timing

The City adds soda ash for corrosion control and disinfects with chlorine gas, but freeze damage is about cold, not water chemistry. The City's pages don't spell out where its part of a service line ends, so check with the Water Department before anyone digs. Once the repair is done, insulating lines along north-facing walls and in unheated spaces is the best defense against the next canyon cold snap.