Pipes leak or burst from corrosion, high water pressure, freezing, mineral scale, ground movement, and age. Most of it is preventable — and high water pressure is the cause homeowners most often overlook while it quietly damages the entire system.
The Causes
- Corrosion. Galvanized steel supply pipe, common in older Albuquerque homes, corrodes from the inside out until it restricts flow and eventually perforates. Copper corrodes too, especially with aggressive water chemistry.
- High water pressure. The underrated one. Excess incoming pressure stresses every joint, fitting, appliance hose, and fixture in the house continuously. It shortens the life of everything and produces repeat leaks that seem unrelated.
- Freezing. Water expands as it freezes and pressure builds between the ice and a closed faucet until the pipe fails — usually downstream of the ice, in an uninsulated run through unconditioned space.
- Mineral scale. Hard water narrows supply lines over years, raising velocity and stress at fittings.
- Ground movement. Soil shifting stresses buried supply and drain lines, creating joint separations.
- Age and installation quality. Poor original workmanship and mixed metals that corrode where they meet.
What Prevention Actually Looks Like
Check your water pressure. If it is above the normal residential range, install or replace a pressure reducing valve. This single item prevents more leaks than anything else on the list, and most homeowners have never measured it.
Treat the water. A water softener slows scale in pipes, fixtures, and your water heater.
Protect against freezing. Insulate pipes in unconditioned space, disconnect hoses, seal air leaks, and drip a faucet during hard freezes. See frozen pipe repair.
Inspect annually. A plumbing inspection catches corroded shutoffs, weeping fittings, and aging supply lines before they fail.
Replace failing systems rather than patching. If galvanized pipe has leaked repeatedly, repiping ends the cycle.
Know Your Shutoff
Not prevention exactly, but the thing that limits the damage when prevention fails.
