Avoid the misery of frozen pipes

Make sure you take precautions to avoid suffering damage to your home from frozen pipes. You will save yourself hours of misery from mopping up and avoid making an insurance claim and risk your premiums rising.

Top tips to avoid pipe bursts

• Find your mains water stop valve and make sure you can turn it off and on. It will usually be somewhere on the ground floor of your home.
• Repair any dripping taps
• Look in the loft space to see whether it contains any water pipes and tanks (most houses do).
  
  • Examine the condition of the insulation on pipes and tanks in the loft. - Is it intact? How thick is it? If it is damaged, or too thin, you should improve or replace it.
  • All pipes and tanks in the loft space, or anywhere else which may be liable to freezing, need to be lagged.
  • The thicker the lagging the better, especially if you live in a particularly cold part of the country, or have a well-insulated loft floor. (This can stop warm air rising from the rest of the house to heat pipes and tanks in the loft).
  • If you intend to leave your house unoccupied for more than a few hours during the cold weather, the pipe lagging should be at least 50mm in diameter - preferably 75mm. This is thicker than the insulation material stocked in many DIY stores, but is usually available from plumbers' merchants.
  • Use preformed pipe insulation on all pipe runs.
  • Wrap bends or hard-to-get-at pipes with securely fixed strips of insulation material.
• Insulate the top and sides of the tanks with one of the following:
  • A preformed plastic tank jacket filled with glass fibre matting;
  • Rigid polystyrene sheeting at least 25mm (1") thick;
  • Insulation matting, 150mm (6") thick.
  • It is important that the insulation is securely fixed and not easy to dislodge, so a preformed tank jacket is the recommended option - and is generally easier to fit.
  • Do not insulate underneath any tank. If you place insulation material below any water tank, warm air will unable to rise from the rooms below and keep it warm, and the tank is more likely to freeze. The only exception to this rule is header tanks (generally central heating header tanks), which are raised above the level of the joists in the roof space. These tanks should be completely enclosed in an insulating jacket.
  • Make sure it is placed over any pipes which run between the joists. This will enclose them in the "insulation envelope" of the house. The best method of protection is to create an insulated "box" to cover all the pipes and tanks, effectively including the area of the pipes and tanks in the warm part of the house.
  • Don't forget that you'll need to leave panels allowing areas for maintenance.

If you go away

• Leave your heating on while you are away from home. In severe weather, or if severe weather is forecast, you should leave your heating on day and night at your usual temperature setting, especially if you are going to be away from home for any length of time. This will help to stop your pipes freezing.
• Open your loft trap door. This allows warm air from other parts of the house to circulate in the loft, and will help prevent pipes freezing. This is especially important if you know your pipe lagging is below standard.
• Ask a friend or relative to visit your home every day while you are away. This will mean that, if you do suffer a burst pipe, it will be detected as soon as possible, and the damage caused will be minimised.

If pipes and tanks are frozen

• Turn off the water at the main stop cock. If there is a stop valve fitted on the outlet pipe from the header tank, this should be turned off too. Do this even if you only suspect your pipes are frozen, since they could also have burst, and, by turning off the water, you will reduce the amount of water which can escape, and so minimise damage to your home.
• Before you start to thaw the system, do what you can to protect or remove anything which might be damaged by thawing water running from the burst. Cover any electrical junction boxes and wiring to keep water off.
• Thaw the pipe using a hairdryer or hot water bottle - DO NOT USE A BLOW LAMP OR HEAT GUN.
• Open the tap closest to the frozen part of the pipe.
• Begin thawing the pipe from the tap side of the frozen area, by warming it gently, and work back towards the header tank.

If a pipe has burst

• Turn off the water at the main stop valve.
• Begin thawing the pipe from the tap side of the frozen area, by warming it gently, and work back towards the header tank.
• Switch off the central heating and any other water heating installations at the same time, to avoid further damage, or even an explosion.
• Open all your taps to drain the system.
• If water is coming through the ceiling, collect it in buckets. If the ceiling starts to bulge, pierce the plaster with a broom handle to let the water through.
• If your wiring, or any electrical appliances have been affected, do not touch them until they have been checked by a professional electrician. If in doubt, turn off your electricity at the mains.
• Contact your insurance company's helpline, to advise you on contacting a professional plumber to make repairs, and provide you with advice on making a claim.

Drying out

• If your home is so badly affected by water from the burst that you are unable to live there while repairs are carried out, your insurance policy will cover the cost of alternative accommodation.
• Leave windows, doors and built-in cupboards open during the day, if possible.
• Keep affected rooms heated, but do not over-heat them, as this could result in further damage.
• Store damaged items in a dry place - your insurer may want to inspect them.

Advice courtesy of the Association of British Insurers

Also: Home insurance