Avoiding Frozen Pipes

Don’t be caught out during the winter months, think about protecting your home from burst pipes – prevention is always better than cure.

• If you’re going away, either turn off the supply at the stop tap and drain the system, or leave the central heating on low
• Don’t forget to insulate your outside taps – better still, turn them off in winter

If the worst does happen, you can minimise the amount of damage caused:

• Switch off any water heaters or boilers and put out any fires in solid fuel heating
• Turn off the mains stop tap to stop more water coming into the house
•  If the leak is from a tank in the loft, turn on the taps as this will help drain the water faster
• Catch as much water as you can in buckets etc
• If the leak is likely to come in to contact with anything electrical, switch the electricity off at the mains too.
• Switch off the central heating if that is the problem.

Contact our Technical Support Service immediately for further advice. 

Water safety

Bacteria can build up in water that has been stood in pipes for any length of time.  If you have been away from home for more than a few days, when you get back, run both the hot and cold water supplies for a couple of minutes before using them.