Plumbing Emergencies

Every homeowners nightmare is the thought of a flooded house or gas leak. Not only do these pose a risk to the building, but to the safety of the homeowner themselves. The most common emergencies are burst pipes, frozen pipes and gas leaks. In most cases though, there are a number of measures you can take to protect your home and yourself while waiting for a plumber to arrive.

With both burst and frozen pipes the first action should be to turn off the water supply at the stop cock (or stop valve) to prevent water passing the leak or causing even more water to be frozen in the pipe. When dealing with a burst pipe, there may be occasions where the escaping water cannot be contained, in an instance like this you should turn on all cold water (not hot taps though) taps so that the pipework and storage tank drain quickly. Any immersion heaters should be switched off at this point.

With frozen pipes they should not be thawed quickly and never with a naked flame. If any part of a hot water system is frozen then leave it to a qualified plumber as there may be a risk of explosion.


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