Fix Your Frozen Pipes: Expert Prevention & Thawing Tips

Discovering that your pipes have frozen over can be a frustrating problem for homeowners.

The risk of this happening is obviously increased in winter, especially when experiencing extreme weather, such as the snow that hit the UK last weekend.

The best way to deal with frozen pipes is to prevent it from happening to begin with. However, if it does happen, you really need to act fast to prevent further damage. Frozen pipes are frustrating, but burst pipes are definitely a lot worse.

Here are some of our expert tips on preventing your pipes from freezing – as well as some thawing tips for those cases where it couldn’t have been prevented.

Preventing Frozen Pipes

To prevent your pipes from freezing in the first place, you should consider the following pieces of advice. It’s especially important to keep this in mind during the cold winter months – particularly when you know there is going to be an onset of  cold weather.

Turn up the heat in your home

Worry about your pipes first and your heating bill later on. The best way to prevent your pipes from freezing over is to keep your heating on and at a high temperature. This is especially important for those who live in older houses. If you are away for the evening, leave the heating on low.

Insulate your water tanks

This is so there isn’t any space at bends and fittings. You should make sure that water tanks that are located in unheated areas are also checked and insulated properly. It’s essential that you arrange for your boiler to be serviced regularly.

Going away for a while?

Turn off your water at the stopcock and drain the system to remove all water. This will make sure that you avoid any damage happening whilst you are away from the home.

Thawing Frozen Pipes

If your pipes do freeze over, there are certain steps you can take to avoid any more damage from happening. Thawing them quickly can save you a lot of money! Here are some tips for successfully thawing your frozen pipes.

The most important thing

The most important thing that you can do if discovering that your pipes have frozen is to turn off your water supply ASAP. If you can, the best thing to do next is to wait for nature to take its course – let it warm up and wait. To avoid any flooding, it’s important that you open up all the taps in the house.

Get Drying

Use a heat lamp or hair dryer to thaw the frozen length of pipe. This is called the ‘hair drying effect’ and is a long winded but simple process.

If in doubt – always call a professional!

If you would like an expert to come take a look at your frozen boiler, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We specialise in boiler repairs in Devon, using our vast knowledge of boilers and heating systems to repair your boilers quickly and efficiently.

Please give us a call on 01392 427641 for more information on how we can help you. Please check out our Facebook and Twitter pages too for all the latest news and offers.