When temperatures drop, a frozen pipe can leave you without water — or, worse, split and flood your home once it thaws. Here’s how to spot one, thaw it safely, and avoid a repeat.
Two controls can stop an emergency from becoming a disaster: the water stopcock and the gas emergency control valve. Knowing where they are and how to use them — before you ever need to — is well worth five minutes.
When something goes wrong with the plumbing, it’s not always obvious whether to ring straight away or wait for morning. Here’s a straightforward way to tell — and what to do in the meantime.
A burst pipe is alarming, but what you do in the first few minutes makes the biggest difference to how much damage you’re left with. Work through these steps in order.
No water at the taps is unsettling, but it’s usually one of a few causes — and a couple of quick checks will tell you which, and whether it’s something you can sort or something to call about.
Of all the plumbing know-how worth having, this is the one that saves the most damage: being able to stop the water fast. When a pipe bursts, the minutes spent hunting for the stopcock are the minutes your floors and ceilings are getting soaked.
