WINTER PROBLEMS It is winter time again. With cold temperatures New Mexican's all around the state can experience pipe burst. This normally happens when you don’t have the correct heat in your home which includes excluded areas. STOP Restoration would like to offer some tips on helping you get through this winter. Pipe burst when frozen due to the expansion of the water as it becomes ice. This puts pressure on the pipe from the inside and something has to give. This almost always is the soft copper or plastic of the pipe. Sometimes these breaks can be at the weaker joints or in the middle of the pipe. As quite a lot of your piping in your home is hidden in flooring, roof spaces or walls, the damage caused can be devastating.  

Prevention of Burst Pipes

1. Make sure you know where your stop cock is.
2. Ensure that any outside taps and piping including drain pipes for heating or overflow pipes are insulated. You can use insulating lagging or foam to do this but make sure you do not leave any joints, bends or taps exposed. For outside taps fitted covers are available.
3. Any piping that are in unheated areas such as lofts, basements and garages all need to be lagged with good quality pipe lagging.
4. Any pipes buried in the ground outside such as pipes to garages or sheds need to be buried deep enough and/or lagged.
5. Insulate your cold water tank, this is so often forgotten and can be the major cause of Burst Pipes.
6. Leave your heating on at least 12 degrees centigrade at all times throughout cold spells. This will keep the system warm enough not to Burst Pipes and the water flowing.
7. Fix any dripping taps or existing leaks before the cold spell. Many Burst Pipes happen because of leaks.
8. Have your Central Heating System serviced regularly.
9. In particularly cold spells leave the loft hatch open as this will allow the warm air to circulate around the loft space and warms any pipes in that space, reducing the risk of a Burst Pipe.
10. If your home will be unoccupied for any space of time, turn off the stopcock, drain any water from the system and close the taps again (this is very important), leave your heating on. Most heating systems will continue to work without the mains water on for a period of time. Most importantly of all make sure that someone can check on the house from time to time. As much as you can do these actions to prevent a Burst Pipe sometimes Burst Pipes will occur and the sooner you can deal with them the better.