General Chat

Thanks, cuz. I don't think we have that problem thank goodness!

If you leave you taps dripping, make sure that if you have an external waste pipe then that does not freeze.
If it does then the water will have nowhere to go and the sink will overflow.

Quite a few older UK houses do have external waste pipes, ours built in the mid nineteen fifties did before we had it extended and the bathroon sink outlet would freeze in cold weather.

No.1 urged me to warn my friends here about frozen pipes and I hadn't had a chance!

It has happened to me. When I was away at Christmas to see my family, my friend who was watching the house called to say the pipes were frozen. I drove home 5 hours in a hurry, but I screwed up and heated the pipes too fast, and they did burst, and you can imagine what a plumber cost me. The main intake valve to the house (is that your stopcock?) had frozen so I couldn't turn it off until it was too late!

I have an unheated basement and we live with this threat whenever we get a deep cold snap. They do freeze up a little occasionally.

When you go to bed at night, or if you are going out, leave taps dripping, a steady drip. Run them first thing in the morning and last thing at night, hot and cold, and flush toilets. Keep unused areas where the pipes run minimally warm if you can -- in my rental apartment which is vacant at the moment, I leave the kitchen cabinet doors open so the pipes to the sink aren't isolated in an area chilled by the outside walls.

If they do freeze, turn that intake valve / stop-cock off immediately and leave all the taps open, and don't go away. Turn it off also if you are going to be away for any length of time, and open the taps to drain the pipes before you go.


The year my pipes froze, I was not the only one. The city told us all to leave our taps dripping and it would give us a credit on our water bills! Of course, it did that after our pipes had started freezing ...

Thanks everyone for the ideas.
Went round this morning not knowing what to expect but thank goodness water is running now and no sign of any burst pipes. I have rang the heating engineer and am awaiting a phone call from him so fingers crossed all will be ok.
Thank you again
Claire x

We have a condenser heater/boiler and the condensation pipe (outside) has frozen twice in the last couple of days! On Friday the gas man recommended pouring hot water down the bath plug hole and he poured some over the outside pipe.

Early this morning, there is OH up a stepladder pouring hot water over the outside pipe - worked a treat!

Daughter stayed with us whilst the school where she works was closed but we left the heating at her flat on low 24/7 on the snowflake setting.

AM SICK OF SNOW, ICE, ETC.ETC.

Edit. Must add that OH is 73 with mild Parkinson's and heart probs so I was hanging onto his legs for dear life!!!

Do keep the yeating on low all the time.

My son had a burst pipe last night and had to have a plumber out.
It was a pipe for a hose out in the garden, and he has now found that he has NO STOP COCK IN HIS HOUSE!!!
The plummer searched everywhere!
Talk about luck.... if it wasn't for bad luck, that lad would have no luck at all!! ;-0(
Still, he was lucky enough to have the money to pay the plumber... I have to say.
Deanna X

call the hoff he lives down the road

silly question have the water been turned off at the main,s some people turn it off before they go away

Hi
What you should do really is keep the heating on low all the time

If pipes have been frozen,you need to check that there are no bursts when they thaw out.
Turn the heating off while there is no water, Hubby says if you could heat bathroom and kitchen with a portable/electric heater,gently,that would be best.

Don't your parents have a nice nieghbour that could keep an eye on things?

may split the pipes
cos when it freezes it contracts, then whne thaws out it cracks pipes,
so beware of water leeking

I am looking after my Mum's house at the moment as she is on hols but could'nt get there for most of last week due to the weather.
When I got there o-on Fri to put the heating on for a while the heating is not working and there is no water ,I presume the pipes have frozen.
Temp has been about plus 3 today and the frost is starting to melt on the roads, will the same hapen to the pipes.
Excuse my ignorance please. What do you think I should do?
Many thanks
Claire x