Get Ready for Winter

Be prepared for the cold weather whenever it shows up, and make sure that you avoid frozen or burst pipes this winter. It’s always a good idea to have a small portable heater in your home for emergencies, in case you suffer a heating system breakdown.  We will attend to breakdowns as soon as possible but if it happens in the middle of a winter storm, you might have to wait longer than normal.

We will not normally treat frozen pipes as an emergency, particularly in snowy weather when staff and tradesmen might be snowed in themselves. 

Avoiding frozen pipes

You can avoid frozen pipes and lessen the damage if they do happen:

• Make sure that all your water pipes are lagged / insulated. If they are not, please book a Property Officer inspection through My Home, or give us a call on 01620 825032 and choose ‘any other maintenance issue’ on the phone system
• Try to keep the heat in your home at an even temperature rather than turning the heat on and off
• Allow heat to vent into the attic or roof space
• If you’re going away and are leaving the property empty for more than a few days, make sure that your system is drained down (we will turn off your water and drain down the system free of charge before you go on holiday – so please tell us if you are going away, and give us plenty of notice!)

If your pipes do freeze

• Turn off the water at the stop valve (if you do not know where your stop valve is, the information should be in your My Property documents, or you can call our Asset Management team on 01620 825032 (choose any other maintenance issue from the phone menu) for advice)
• Switch off any water heaters, e.g. immersion heater
• Switch off the central heating (if you have a coal heating system, let the fire die down, do not attempt to drain the boiler unless the fire has gone out)
• Open all taps at sinks and baths
• If possible collect water in the bath for flushing the toilet and for washing