Keep an eye on your plumbing!

[Medusa]

Son is a heating engineer and plumber. Today his phone has been non stop with people whose boilers have stopped working, toilets which wont flush, frozen pipes which have burst etc. People are struggling to heat their homes and turning the heating off which is causing frozen pipes. The person with the boiler asked him how he could thaw them out, son explained that he could not start providing heaters to thaw them and that they needed to defrost themselves. He has blown a seal on the boiler too. If you have exposed pipework in your loft please lag it and pipes in external walls too. Turning off your heating will not save money in the long run and will only lead to expensive repair bills. Just as husband was telling me all of this next door came round and told us that his toilet would not flush either. It seems common sense really, but obviously not. We are in Lancashire by the way and not up in the Highlands. It is a very sad state of affairs that people who cannot afford heating are going to have to pay for expensive plumbing and heating repairs.

[Yorkshire Andy]

You can't beat the power of ice ... Caught an issue today at work with some big 2"+ bore steel treaded pipes it had frozen and pushed the threads off at the joints .. narrowly avoiding flooding the site with 40,000l+ of water

Dont know why people expect plumbers to loan out heaters the purchase / pat testing / storage and getting them back it's just not worth the hassle

[jansman]

Absolutely! We have a tank in bathroom corner,granted stainless and digital,but obviously a target for freezing there. If it kicks out - and does occasionally- we both know the button to press,so there’s been no problem. We keep it warm 100% ,both because we like hot water,and for ‘safety’ too. I do understand about folks cutting cost though. Such a difficult situation.

Outside we have an old fashioned toilet,cystern and tap. Whilst ‘away’ I contacted Mrs J to turn the water off out there. It’s been fine! I normally use an old fashioned paraffin heater too,but Mrs J couldn’t be bothered! It is insulated too

Big fan of simplicity.

[steptoe]

Now not to sound like a snob here as i grew up in a council house wiping my nose on my sleeve so just in case people think i am being a snob , the worst offenders for not giving a crap about the pipes are council house/housing asso tenats i know this first hand we use to do the winter thaw and clean ups for the council when i was a kid i use to go out with dad many winters and even as an adult , one lady turned all the heat off and was living in the living room with just a coal fire the house was frozen soiled pipes burst and the ceiling paper was like a huge balloon hanging down .

But to people thinking i can't afford it yes you do not pay the repair bill that is the councils bill but think of your clothes your family photos or electrical stuff phones laptops to say the least , and a lot of council tenants do not bother with insuarance either , not even basic content cover again wife and i knoiw that first hand .

Please if you are struggling speak to the landlord houseing the benifits people or just someone at worst and i hate to say it jet a largeish glass jar put it on a soild non flamable surface and pop a 8 hour tea light in and place that in a room near pipes anything to stop them freezing it is not the freeze that casues the problem it is when it thaws the freeze expands the water puching joints apart .

Please all try and stay safe and warm , i know not easy on a tight budget but please try

[Frnc]

I have a radiator on in the cellar, so should be ok. No pipes in the loft. I get nervous when I hear the condensate pump running, but it's only run for a few minutes so far, touch wood. Pipes in the kitchen could be vulnerable, but it is heated a bit, so should be ok. It gets a bit of heat when the living room door is opened as well.

My house was getting too hot earlier, as the living room still hadn't reached the thermostat temp of 17°, so I had to turn it down for a bit.

[Ara]

The utility room here is unheated and the pipe lagging is very makeshift but even though it was -9 here the other day, it kept the pipes from freezing. (There was ice on the inside of the double glazed bedroom windows but that's another story) I did discover that the washing machine was leaking but that was a simple task as it was just a case of tightening the connection to the machine.