Burst pipe at home? What to do in the first ten minutes

A burst pipe can put several litres a minute into your home. What you do in the first ten minutes decides whether this is a repair or a redecoration. Work through the list below in order.

1. Turn the water off at the stop tap

Your internal stop tap controls the mains supply into your home. In most Leicester houses it is under the kitchen sink. In older terraces it can be in a downstairs cupboard, under the stairs, in the cellar head or just inside the front door. Turn it clockwise until it stops.

If the tap is seized, do not force it with pliers, because snapping it makes things considerably worse. Move to step two and call us.

2. Open the cold taps

Run every cold tap in the house, starting downstairs. This drains what is left in the pipework so it flows into the sink instead of your ceiling. Leave them running until the flow stops.

3. Keep water away from electrics

If water is coming through near light fittings, sockets or the consumer unit, switch that circuit off. If the consumer unit itself is wet, do not touch it, keep everyone clear and tell the engineer when you call.

4. Catch what you can and move what matters

• Buckets under the leak, towels around it
• Lift rugs and move furniture out of the way
• Photograph the damage before you clear up, in case you claim on your home insurance

5. Call a plumber who can actually come out

This is the bit that catches people. At 9pm on a Sunday, most local plumbers will not answer, and the ones who do often charge a call-out fee before anyone looks at anything. Our helpline is open 24 hours for members and there is no separate call-out charge.

Why pipes burst, and how to stop it happening again

Most bursts in Leicestershire homes happen for one of three reasons. Freezing is the big one: water expands as it freezes, splits the pipe, and the leak appears when it thaws. Older copper and lead pipework simply wears out. And pipework in a loft or an unheated garage sits in the coldest part of the house with the least protection.

• Lag exposed pipes in the loft, garage and any outside wall
• Leave the heating on low when you go away in winter
• Know where your stop tap is before you need it, and turn it twice a year so it does not seize
• Fit an outside tap isolator and drain the outside tap before the first frost

What it costs

The repair itself is usually straightforward. What makes an emergency expensive is the call-out, the out of hours rate and the damage caused while you wait. A cover membership turns that into a fixed monthly amount, which is the whole point of it.