Protecting your home in the cold snap
As temperatures drop again, we are seeing more frozen pipes and flood alerts in the local area. If you have frozen pipes, they are at risk of bursting and causing a leak in your property – but there are things you can do to help prevent frozen pipes or to defrost them safely.
What can you do to prevent pipes from freezing?
Protect your pipes by insulating as many pipes as you can inside and outside your home. This will help to prevent water in the pipes from freezing.
What can you do if the pipes are frozen?
Here is how to defrost your pipes safely:
- Know where your stop tap is in your home – this is so you can turn off your water in an emergency.
- Fill up your kettle and boil some water.
- Turn on all the taps in the house to let the water run out.
- Once the kettle has boiled, use the water in a hot water bottle, wrap in a tea towel, and hold it against your frozen pipe – this process can take quite a while but it is better to defrost pipes slowly.
- After the pipe has heated and the water has returned to a liquid, wipe along it to see if there are any leaks.
You can watch this handy short video for more tips on how to safely defrost frozen pipes.