Cold weather

Pipes

General advice

Know where your stoptap is. It is where the water pipe enters the property. In houses, it is usually under the kitchen sink or inside the downstairs toilet. In flats, it will be in a stoptap or meter cupboard near the front door.
Know where the gate valves for the hot and cold water tanks are. They are usually by the hot and cold water tanks.
Every three months you should make sure that you can easily turn all taps and valves off and on.
Make sure pipes and tanks in your roof space are lagged. Never insulate beneath the water tank in the loft. It needs some heat to penetrate from below.

You should turn off your water supply at the stoptap, turn off your heating or hot water system and turn off your gas supply at the mains.
However, if you go away during cold weather, it is best to leave everything on and set the heating for an hour each evening on a low temperature.

Note: we can drain down the whole system for you but there will be a charge.

Turn off the water at the main stoptap.
You are probably best to leave the pipes frozen but you may try to thaw them using hot water bottles.
If the hot water system is frozen, turn off the water heater.

Turn off the water at the main stoptap and contact us immediately.
Turn off any water heaters and put out any coal fire that heats a back boiler.
Turn on all taps to drain water from the system. This takes about 15 minutes.
If electrics are getting wet, do not touch. Turn off electricity at the mains (at the consumer unit/fuse board).
If water leaks and makes the ceiling bulge place a bucket under the bulge and, using something such as a screwdriver, pierce a hole to let the water through. This could prevent the ceiling falling down.