Home › Frozen Pipes
Ice doesn't burst a pipe — the pressure behind it does. Isolate first, thaw slowly, and the pipe usually comes through fine.
Isolate first, then thaw gently. Close the stopcock as insurance before you touch anything, then work warmth in slowly from the tap end — hairdryer on low, or towels soaked in warm (not boiling) water. Never a flame, never boiling water straight onto the pipe. If the pipe's already split, stop thawing and ring 020 4577 2888 any hour.
Stopcock off, find the ice, warm it from the tap end back toward the blockage, patiently. Rushing the last part is how a frozen pipe becomes a burst one.
No naked flame near a pipe, ever — not a blowtorch, not a lighter, not a gas heater held close. No boiling water straight onto the pipe, especially plastic, since the sudden temperature shock can crack it on the spot. Gentle and slow is the whole method.
Anywhere unheated: lofts, garages, outbuildings, external walls, and outside taps left connected. Rural properties with long exposed runs feel it worst.
Mid-Ulster winters run damp more than properly Arctic, which is exactly the trap — a mild fortnight lulls everyone, then a hard frost rolls down off the Sperrins toward Pomeroy and Kildress, or settles over the low ground near Coagh and The Loup, and any pipe that never got insulated turns to a solid stick of ice overnight. A tap that slows to a dribble, or stops outright, during or just after a cold snap is the classic first sign.
In town, the risk concentrates in lofts above the older buildings along the main street and in unheated garages. Out in the townlands, it's the long private supply runs crossing a field or lane from the road, farm outbuildings with bare copper or plastic pipe, and outside taps left connected all winter — the outside tap is very often the first casualty of the year, and disconnecting or lagging it in autumn is a five-minute job that prevents it.
Foam pipe insulation sleeves, cut to length, fitted over every exposed run. The cheapest job on the whole plumbing calendar, done in autumn rather than after a burst.
Foam lagging comes pre-slit along one side, so it opens up, wraps around the pipe, and closes back over itself — no glue needed on most types, just a snug push-fit and tape at the joins for a neater finish. Priority order: loft pipework first, since it's usually the most exposed and the easiest to forget; then garage and outbuilding runs; then any pipe crossing an external wall or running under a draughty suspended floor.
Rural properties with a long private supply pipe from the road benefit from lagging that run too, particularly where it surfaces above ground before entering the house. It's genuinely DIY-friendly — sharp knife, a tape measure, and an afternoon — and every metre lagged in October is a phone call not made in January.
Stop thawing immediately and treat it as a burst. Leave the water off, take the same steps as any burst pipe, and don't reopen the stopcock to "test" it.
Once a frozen pipe has actually split, warming it further just brings the leak on faster as the remaining ice melts around the crack. Leave the stopcock closed, open the cold taps to drain the rest of the system, and cut the electrics at the consumer unit if water is anywhere near sockets or fittings and it's safe to reach. Full detail on that sequence is in the burst pipes briefing, and it applies exactly the same whether the split started as a freeze or not.
Resist the temptation to reopen the stopcock briefly "just to check" — mains pressure against a cracked pipe finds the weak point immediately, and you'll be mopping up before you've finished checking. Leave it off and ring; the repair itself is the plumber's job, not yours.
A frozen pipe usually gives a tap that slowed to a dribble or stopped completely during or after a cold snap, sometimes with a faint frosty patch visible on exposed pipework. If every tap in the house has stopped at once, check the stopcock hasn't been knocked first, since that mimics the same symptom. One tap affected points at a local freeze; the whole house suggests something else.
No — boiling water straight onto a frozen pipe, especially plastic pipework, causes rapid expansion that can crack it on the spot, turning a blockage into a burst. Warm, not boiling, water on a cloth, or a hairdryer on its lowest setting, thaws the ice gradually enough that the pipe isn't shocked by the temperature change.
Anywhere unheated and exposed: loft pipework, garages, outbuildings, external walls with thin or ageing insulation, and pipes running under suspended timber floors with draughts beneath. Rural properties with long private supply runs from the road, and outside taps left connected over winter, are especially exposed — the outside tap is often the very first thing to freeze.
Yes — foam pipe insulation sleeves are inexpensive, sold by the metre at most hardware shops, and fit over straight runs of pipe in minutes with no tools beyond a sharp knife for the joins. Loft pipework, garage runs and anything near an external wall are the priority spots, and doing it in autumn before the first frost is far cheaper than any repair that follows a split.
A slow trickle keeps water moving through a pipe and can help prevent it freezing solid, and it's a reasonable precaution on a night when a hard frost is forecast, particularly for an exposed run. It isn't foolproof on its own — pair it with proper lagging on any pipe you know is exposed, rather than relying on a dripping tap alone.
The main page — how the line works and the patch it covers.
Go to home →Isolate, drain, make safe — the first five minutes in order.
Take the briefing →Pressure drops, lockouts, oil and gas — and the gas hold point.
Take the briefing →What you're cleared to try, and when it's NI Water's sewer.
Take the briefing →Hedged ballparks and the questions to ask before work starts.
Take the briefing →Switches, controls, pressure, oil, immersion — in order.
Take the briefing →Damp patches, falling pressure and the stopcock test.
Take the briefing →Ring any hour to be put through to a local plumber covering Cookstown and the villages and townlands around it.
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