Plumbers: Winter Plumbing Nightmares

With the cold winter Britain is been subject to, burst pipes and leaks can be a regular occurrence. Plumbers do not underestimate when they say its their busiest time of the year.

How do pipes burst?

The three main pluming problems which occur are burst pipes, leaks and frozen pipes (which turn into burst pipes & leaks). Due to the cold weather, the temperature of the house drops. Therefore pipes which are not properly insulated or are outside the property can freeze. As water freezes, it expands putting pressure on the pipe, resulting in a burst pipe. When the central heating kicks in the water defrosts and then leaks through the hole.

Why do pipes burst?

The most common problems of a burst pipe are:

Not putting the central heating on.

• If the central heating is kept on a low temperature in your house, then the pressure keeps the water moving around the pipes. This prevents it freezing. People often turn off the central heating when they are out to save gas and money, then turn it on high to warm up the house. However it is often cheeper in the long run to keep the central heating on a low heat all of the time, which also helps to prevent burst pipes.

Exposed pipes.

• Some houses have pipes which feed into the house from the outside, these pipes are exposed to the harsh winter temperatures. Water freezes at 0c and the met office has revealed that the average temperature in the UK has been -0.8c this winter. Resulting in these pipes been severely at risk of freezing.

Poor Insulation.

• It is surprising how many houses are poorly insulated. One of my neighbors experienced burst and frozen pipes each winter, for the past two years. Plumbers successfully fixed the leaks each time, but the problem kept occurring. When a builder investigated the pipes, he found that the was no insulation in the roof of the kitchen extension, so the pipes were exposed to the low winter temperatures. Which resulted the bursts, leaks & frozen pipes.