Burst pipe, frozen line, no water, or water going somewhere it shouldn’t — tell us what’s happening at your Moultonborough property and we’ll tell you honestly how fast we can get there.
Moultonborough has more shoreline than any other town on Lake Winnipesaukee, and a housing stock to match: substantial second homes strung along Long Island, the Gold Coast, Suissevale, Balmoral, and out toward Center Harbor Neck, plus a genuine island population reachable only by boat. A large portion of these houses are occupied for a fraction of the year and shut down for the rest.
Nearly all of them are on private drilled wells, with a pressure tank and a pump control sitting in a basement or utility room that is the single most freeze-vulnerable spot in the building. Some parts of town fall inside the Lakes Region Water Company franchise, and portions of the town connect to the state Winnipesaukee River Basin sewer system, but the default assumption here is well and septic.
Winterizing a Moultonborough lake house is a bigger job than most owners expect. You’re draining a well system, not just a municipal service — the pressure tank has to come down, the pump line has to be relieved, and the whole distribution system blown out. Add a whole-house filter, a softener, an ice maker, a wet bar, an outdoor shower, a boathouse sink, and irrigation, and you have a dozen separate places water hides. Miss one and you find out in April.
Island properties are their own category. Everything — tools, a new pressure tank, the water heater — goes over by boat, and once ice starts forming in the coves the window closes. Island work gets scheduled early and firmly, and we’d rather tell you honestly in November that we can’t get there than leave you guessing.
If your Moultonborough house has a whole-house filter or a water softener, tell whoever winterizes it. Softener resin tanks and filter housings hold water, crack when they freeze, and are the single most commonly missed item on a do-it-yourself shutdown.
Shut the water off first. On town water that’s the main valve where the line enters the basement; on a well it’s the valve on the outlet side of the pressure tank, and killing the pump breaker stops it refilling. If water is anywhere near electrical panels or outlets, shut that circuit off too. Every minute the water is off is money you aren’t spending on drywall, flooring, and insulation.
Then tell us what you’re actually seeing — where the water is, what it looks like, whether the heat is on, and whether the building is occupied. An empty seasonal house with a split line is a different job from an occupied home with a leaking supply, and knowing which one it is before we load the truck means we bring the right parts the first time.
We won’t promise you a thirty-minute arrival we can’t honor. What we will do is give you a real window and tell you immediately if someone else can get there sooner.
Emergency plumbing in the Lakes Region typically runs a diagnostic or call-out charge plus $120–$250 per hour, with after-hours rates higher. Most single burst-pipe repairs land $400–$1,200; a repair involving a long frozen run or opened walls costs more. You get the number before we start.
Shut off the water at the main valve — on town water it is where the line enters the building, on a well it is the valve after the pressure tank plus the pump breaker. Then shut off power to any circuit near standing water. Then call. Stopping the flow is worth far more than anything else you can do in the first five minutes.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do here. If you are away and a caretaker, neighbor, or alarm reports water, we can get in with your permission, stop the flow, assess the damage, and send you photos. Tell us where the shut-off and the key are and we can act without you driving up.
Homeowner policies generally cover the water damage a sudden burst causes but not the pipe itself, and most require you to have kept the house at a minimum temperature or shut the water off if it was vacant. The New Hampshire Insurance Department publishes guidance on exactly this. Photograph everything before cleanup and call your carrier the same day.
Tell us what’s happening and we’ll give you a straight answer — what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there.
Describe what’s happening and where the property is. We’ll come back with a straight answer on what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there. If it’s an emergency, say so in the first line.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours.
