Burst Pipe Emergency: What to Do in the First 10 Minutes

You hear it before you see it: a hiss behind the plasterboard, a dull thud, then water where water has no business being. What you do in the next ten minutes decides whether you're mopping up a puddle or replacing a ceiling. Work through the steps below in order, and don't stop to tidy anything until the water is off.

Stop the water at the stopcock

The first job — before towels, before phone calls — is to cut the supply. Find your internal stopcock. In most homes it sits under the kitchen sink, in a downstairs cloakroom, in the airing cupboard, or where the mains pipe comes up through the floor near the front door. Turn the handle clockwise until it won't go any further. It may feel stiff and move only a quarter turn; that's often all it takes.

If you can't find it, or it's seized solid, head outside. The external stop tap usually lives under a small metal or plastic cover at the boundary of the property, near the pavement or the driveway. You'll often need a stop tap key — a long T-bar tool — though a sturdy screwdriver or a pair of pliers can work in a pinch. In a flat or a shared building, the valve may be in a communal cupboard, and a neighbour may know exactly where.

While you're there, switch off the boiler and the immersion heater. Heating an empty, depressurised system can damage it, and you don't want the boiler refilling a pipe that's split.

Drain the pipes and take the pressure off

Closing the stopcock stops new water arriving. It doesn't empty what's already in the pipes, and that's the water still pouring through the split. Open the taps in this order:

1. The lowest cold tap in the house — usually the kitchen or a downstairs cloakroom.
2. Every other cold tap, working upwards through the property.
3. The hot taps, but only once the boiler and immersion are off.
4. Flush the toilets two or three times each; cisterns hold more than you'd think.

Water will run, then slow to a trickle, then stop. Expect drips for a while yet — that's normal. Put a bowl under the leak and leave the taps open until your plumber has finished.

Protect yourself from the electrics

This is the part people get wrong. Water and electricity in the same room can kill, and a leak tracking through a ceiling often reaches lights and sockets before it reaches the floor.

• Don't touch light switches, sockets or appliances with wet hands, and don't stand in water to reach them.
• If water is dripping near a socket, a light fitting or the consumer unit, switch the power off at the consumer unit — but only if you can reach it dry-shod, without wading or touching anything wet.
• If you can't reach it safely, get out and call an electrician. If there's sparking, smoke or a burning smell, leave and call the fire service.
• Never use a wet vacuum, and don't unplug anything while standing on a wet floor. A torch is far more useful than a ceiling light right now.

If you're unsure at any point, treat the property as unsafe and wait outside. A ruined carpet is cheap compared with the alternative.

Contain the water and save what you can

With the supply off, the leak becomes manageable. Now you can limit the damage rather than just watch it. Towels, buckets, bins and washing-up bowls along the path of the water will buy you time. Bin bags and plastic sheeting over furniture and beds are worth the two minutes they take.

Lift electronics, paperwork and photographs off the floor, and roll up rugs before they wick water up the walls. If a ceiling is bulging with trapped water, a small hole in the plasterboard with a bucket underneath will relieve it — but watch for cables and light fittings, and leave it alone if you're not confident.

Photograph and film everything before you move it. Insurers ask for evidence, and blurry phone pictures taken in a hurry are perfectly acceptable. Many policies include a 24-hour emergency helpline that can send an approved contractor; check yours before agreeing to any work, keep receipts, and ask about charges up front. Cover varies, so read your policy or ring your insurer if anything is unclear.

If the pipe has frozen, thaw it slowly

Many winter bursts are frozen pipes that split and only leak once they thaw. Thaw with warm towels, hot water bottles or a hairdryer on its lowest setting, working along the pipe from the tap end back towards the tank. Open the nearest tap so meltwater has somewhere to go. Never use a blowtorch or naked flame, and don't pour boiling water straight onto a pipe — the thermal shock can crack it.

If the pipe is already split and you need to slow it before the plumber arrives, self-amalgamating tape wrapped tightly and stretched as you go can hold a small weep. A rubber patch cut from an old inner tube, held with a jubilee clip, does the same job. Treat either as a stopgap, nothing more, and keep the water off if you can.

Call a plumber — and give them the useful details

When you ring, have the following ready, because it saves a call-back later:

• Where the leak is, and roughly what's above and below it.
• What you've already turned off: stopcock, boiler, immersion, power.
• Whether water is still coming through, and how fast.
• Property type and access — third-floor flat, loft hatch, permit parking, dogs in the hall.
• Your postcode and a mobile number.

Ask what the call-out charge is and whether out-of-hours rates differ before they set off. Charges vary widely and you're entitled to know. If water has reached sockets, lights or the consumer unit, say so — you may need an electrician as well, and it's better to discover that now than when the van pulls up.

Afterwards: dry out and stop a repeat

Once the leak is fixed, don't just point a heater at the damp patch and hope. Ventilate properly, run a dehumidifier, and leave cupboard doors open so air can move. Sodden plasterboard and ceiling sections are usually better replaced than painted over, and it's worth checking behind skirting boards and under floors for water that has travelled.

Then do the boring bit that prevents an encore. Lag exposed pipes in the loft, the garage and under suspended floors, especially where they run near vents or draughty gaps. Fix dripping taps — a drip can freeze. If you're away in a cold spell, leave the heating on low; the frost setting on your thermostat exists for a reason. And find your stopcock today, while nothing is leaking, and check that it turns. Show everyone in the house where it is and which way to turn it. Write your plumber's number on the inside of that cupboard door. Ten minutes of practice now is worth far more than ten minutes of panic later.

Photo: Erad / Pixabay