COLORADO SPRINGS — With the record cold temperatures we saw this weekend, it’s no surprise that quite a few people have reported their pipes freezing up. Local plumbers say Monday may have been the busiest day they’ve ever seen.
Jacob Schell has been in the game for a while.
“25 years,” Schell said.
He’s the Director or Operations for Jolly Plumbing and Heating in Colorado Springs. He said never in that quarter century has he seen seen the phones this busy
“Just today alone we’ve gotten over 150 calls,” he said.
All of them in the same predicament.
“Frozen water lines,” one call taker asked a caller.
Try as people might, this weekend’s temperatures were just too much for many pipes to handle.
“The weather is just not very forgiving,” Schell said. “This is the coldest it’s gotten since I can remember. And the most calls that we’ve gotten too.”
Unfortunately for those callers, plumbers can only help so much if their pipes are still frozen.
“It’s a bummer because there’s not a lot you can do to stop this,” Schell said. “We tell them, if they have space heaters, to put them on.”
It’s a game of last ditch efforts.
“Get a hold of the water district, get that water shut off,” one call taker told a caller.
And a bit of hoping for the best.
“It’s to the point now when we’re getting our calls, they’re automatically just saying hey can I get on the waiting list,” Schell said.
With the phones ringing off the hook, the wait goes on for days. He said some customers are already booked two weeks out.
“For as long as I can remember this is the worst one we’ve had,” he said.
But until those pipes thaw, it’s just a waiting game anyway. .
