The first move is mechanical: close the main shutoff. Every gallon after that decision is a gallon that does not need drying, and the shutoff is the one tool every homeowner should be able to find in the dark. If water has reached outlets or appliances, cut power to those rooms at the breaker before wading in.
In Littleton, the first hour adds the altitude note to the standard order: shutoff, photographs, then a look at the other exterior walls before the crew leaves. At 5,500 feet the freeze split is rarely a single wall's biography; the same construction repeats around the house. Photograph the failed run itself, its insulation and exposure, because that record is the map for insulating the survivors, which is the cheapest plumbing Littleton sells.
The second move is evidence: photographs of the failed line, the rooms, and the water's reach, taken before anything is moved or mopped. Insurers approve documented sudden losses; undocumented ones get argued. Note the time you found it and the time the water stopped.
The third move is the repair read: a split is a symptom with a cause (freeze, corrosion, pressure, age), and the repair visit should name the cause, because a patched effect with a live cause is next season's burst in a nearby section of the same run.
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