Cold Weather and Frost Alert Advice

There are many ways that cold weather can be prevented from causing damage to your home and its contents.

Keeping your house warm

Try and avoid burst pipes and damage to your home during winter by keeping your home reasonably warm day and night. 

In particularly cold weather keep the heating on during the night at a low temperature. If you are away during particularly cold periods, either drain the system or keep your heating on low. Contact Lochaber Housing Association on 01397 703165 if you require further advice or assistance on how to do this.

If your water supply becomes frozen 

• Turn off the water at the Mains Stop Valve (it is generally located at the incoming supply pipe to your home, usually in the kitchen area, however this may not be the case in your property). Ensure you are aware of the location of the stop valve
• Open all cold taps to drain system
• Do not open the hot taps because the hot water cylinder may collapse if the pipes  feeding it are frozen
• Turn off the central heating if you have radiators only (not storage heaters) and an immersion heater, and let any solid fuel fire die down if you have a back boiler.

Thawing out your pipes

• Never attempt to thaw out frozen pipes by switching on your immerser heater or central heating boiler  
• Instead, turn off the water at the Mains Stop Valve
• Switch off any water heater
• If you have a central heating system with    radiators only (not storage heaters), turn it off
• If you have a back boiler, let any solid fuel fire die down 
• Open all taps to drain system
• Warn neighbours who may suffer damage
• If there are any obvious burst or sprung joints, contact Lochaber Housing Association 
• If there are no bursts, gently heat any frozen sections - a hairdryer or heated cloth wrapped around the pipe is ideal 
• Never apply direct flame
• If you have an outside tap make sure that it is well insulated. You may be re-charged for any damage caused by a leak from this pipe.

If you get a burst pipe

• Turn off the water at the Mains Stop Valve
• Switch off the electricity at the mains
• Switch off any water heater
• Turn off the central heating system if you have radiators only (not storage heaters)
• if you have a back boiler, let any solid fuel fire die down
• Open all taps to drain system
• Warn neighbours who may suffer damage
• Contact Lochaber Housing Association on 01397 703165 at the earliest opportunity.