Hair dryers and hoses: Frustrated homeowners find DIY solutions for frozen pipes

After 3,000 calls in three weeks about frozen pipes, Toronto Water tried to reassure anxious customers with a step-by-step guide on what services to expect.

The part about establishing a highline water connection to a neighbours house was particularly interesting to people such as Jennifer Matthews, a resident of the Beaches.

Ms. Matthews and her husband are among a growing group of Torontonians discovering their inner handyman after severe weather. Their efforts create a stopgap until hard-pressed city services can help, though not without some risks.

On Monday, a day after losing water, the couple rigged their home to a neighbours supply with three end-to-end hoses, a bag of parts from a plumbing store and a tip from a stranger. The stranger, a parent at their daughters school, overheard Ms. Matthewss story and passed along what she had learned during the 2013 ice storm.

I came almost running home and said, Oh my God, you can do it yourselves, Ms. Matthews said.

Toronto Water has established more than 400 highlines during this years record-breaking cold snap, and there are 550 households with no water that havent yet been seen.

The agency doesnt know how many people have set up do-it-yourself connections, but general manager Lou Di Geronimo says people are free to do what they want on their own property.

Hours after discovering the freeze-up, Ms. Matthews ushered her two daughters, 11 and 14, across the street in their pyjamas to brush their teeth at a neighbours house, where the eldest insisted on washing her hair.

The next morning, she called Toronto Water and learned it could be up to 48 hours before the call was returned.

This was what, 14 hours in? I was already so sick of it, she said.

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Hair dryers and hoses: Frustrated homeowners find DIY solutions for frozen pipes