Despite modern advancements in housing technology, extremely cold weather can still be challenging, especially if it unexpectedly gets worse. That’s exactly what happened to an unfortunate homeowner from North Carolina, who went out for a while, only to come home to a house covered in ice, all because of some frozen pipes that exploded all over his property.
The incident occurred around early February in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was uploaded on Tuesday by TikTok user willethehvacgoat, aka Willie. In the video, you can see Willie coming into the house, all covered in ice, with the floor and some walls even destroyed, presumably by water damage before it froze. Since there were also water pipes on his walls and ceiling, those spots were also damaged.
“This is exactly why you should always make sure you have water running if you ain’t gonna be home,” advises Willie. “Now I ain’t very smart, but uhh, this sucks. It’s gonna suck to clean this place up,” he added. It’s not immediately clear what countermeasures Willie put in place to keep the water pipes from freezing and bursting, though apparently, he didn’t keep the water running well enough while he was away.
Granted, Willie actually kept a faucet on while he was away, to keep pressure off the water line during a freeze, but it appears this wasn’t enough, and the pipes still burst all over his home. Some commenters have guessed that there might have been a power outage, which killed the heating, leading to frozen pipes.
People online are awed by the damage caused by such a small action
No doubt the repair bill will be expensive, with some X users estimating somewhere in the ballpark of $50,000, assuming the insurance doesn’t cover the cost. Even so, the cleanup will be painful and discouraging, and certain commenters simply recommended “Just bring in the Demo crew and get a cup of coffee,” or basically bulldoze the whole place.
“That’s in incredible amount of destruction for simply not turning the water off,” points out one commenter, though he probably meant not draining the water line so they don’t freeze. “Water damage can be just as bad as fire,” according to another commenter, which checks out since water damage is the most common insurance claim in the US.
Depending on how the insurance claim goes, the homeowner above might be able to save his house without paying anything, though negligence is a ground for contention among many insurance providers, so he’d have to prove he wasn’t negligent. It’s also worth noting that this particular winter in the US has been harsher, as some regions like New York and even Pennsylvania are reeling from the snow and the cold.
