Help Identifying Busted Exterior Pipe

[joeness33]

Hi,

I'm planning to put an offer on a house in a very cold climate and I noticed this exterior pipe is busted. I'm from a warm climate, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Would just like a little heads up of what I might be getting into or what additional problems could be a result of this. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but on the vertical section, there are 3 different vertical slits, almost as though someone had punctured it with a knife. Thanks for any help you can provide.

[HayZee518]

holes

from the looks of them it looks like holes from an ice build up inside the pipe on three different occasions. the pipe fractured from the expanding ice inside.

evidently the rest is buried going to the street cock or well head.

[mrcaptainbob]

Frozen pipe....

Is that a supply line? Or is it for an underground sprinkling system? One that wasn't properly evacuated....

[HayZee518]

out door pipe

bob may have hit on the problem.
upon further examination, that device looks like a backflow preventer with multiple taps. the pipe going into the ground may be an irrigation system. the holes could have come from frozen water inside the pipe.

[allynirrigation]

Identify busted pipe

The damage to the copper pipe is classic freeze damage. The device in the picture is a Pressure Vacuum Breaker Assembly (PVBA). It appears to be the supply to an underground irrigation system. If you are going to replace it I recommend that you instal two unions one in each pipe to allow the device to be removed for the winter. I strongly suspect that you may have freeze damage to the underground piping also. Irrigation systems should be drained of water prior to risk of freezing temperatures. The irrigation system should be winterized also by blowing the water out of the system.