Home › Burst Pipes
Deep breath. Four short stops, each one something you can do yourself, and the flood stops getting worse at the very first one.
What do I do about a burst pipe right now? Close the main stopcock — usually under the kitchen sink — then open the cold taps to drain the pipes, and cut the electrics at the consumer unit if water is anywhere near them and it's safe to reach. When the flow has stopped, ring 020 4577 2888 to be put through to a local plumber, any hour of the day or night.
Water off, taps open, electrics safe, heating off, then the phone. In that order — the towels come last, not first.
The instinct is to chase the water with whatever's in the airing cupboard. Resist it. Nothing improves until the pipe stops being fed, so:
If a tap slowed to a dribble in frosty weather and the leak arrived as things thawed — almost certainly yes. Keep the water off and don't warm anything else up yet.
It's a familiar pattern when a hard frost settles over Lecale after a mild spell: the freeze blocks the pipe quietly, the split happens without a sound, and the flood waits politely for the thaw. Lofts, garages, outbuildings and pipes buried in cold external walls are the usual victims, and rural properties out towards Ballyhornan and Strangford, with long exposed supply runs, get it worst of all.
If you've found a pipe that's frozen but not yet leaking, count yourself lucky and act gently: stopcock off first as insurance, then a hairdryer on low or towels soaked in warm water, working along the pipe. A naked flame near a pipe is never the answer — not a blowtorch, not a lighter, not once. And if the pipe has already split, stop thawing altogether; leave the water off and get a plumber to it, because melting the ice with the mains on simply books your flood in for later. The frozen pipes guide walks through the fuller picture, including the autumn lagging that avoids this stop entirely.
You can slow it down; you can't fix it. Repair tape or a pipe clamp on a drained pipe is a fine stopgap — turning the water back on afterwards is the mistake.
Self-amalgamating tape or a slip-on repair clamp will hold a small split well enough to stop the dripping while you wait, and there's no harm in using them. The trouble starts when the patch gives someone the confidence to reopen the stopcock — a taped joint against mains pressure is a bet you'll usually lose, often at two in the morning.
Be doubly careful in the older streets climbing towards the cathedral, where pipework has often been spliced together across several generations — lead into copper into plastic — and the joint next to the one you're patching may be just as tired. Disturb one and you can spring another. Leave the water off, keep your patch as a courtesy to the carpet, and let the plumber make the repair that actually holds.
One test tells you: close your stopcock and watch. Leak stops — it's your side. Water keeps coming, or it's rising outside — it's likely the supply pipe or the mains.
The general split in the UK works like this: everything from the property boundary into and through your home is the owner's to fix, while the public mains beyond the boundary belongs to the water utility — here in Northern Ireland, that's NI Water. Water bubbling up through a footpath, a soaked verge near your gate, or a leak that ignores your closed stopcock all point to the public side, and NI Water is the right call for a suspected mains leak.
The grey area is the supply pipe between the boundary and your walls — usually the owner's responsibility, and a common culprit on rural Lecale properties where a long private run crosses a field or a lane out towards Clough or Crossgar. A plumber can help you pin down which side of the boundary the trouble sits on, and tell you honestly when the fix isn't theirs to sell you.
Start under the kitchen sink — that's the usual spot in most Downpatrick homes, including the older terraces under the cathedral hill. Failing that, check wherever the supply pipe enters the house: hall cupboard, utility room, garage, under the stairs. Rural Lecale properties often have an outside stop valve under a small cover near the boundary too. If it's seized, don't force it until it snaps — a plumber can free or replace it.
If the burst is on the heating or hot water side, or you've drained the system through the cold taps, yes — switch the boiler off until a plumber has checked things over. A boiler running with little or no water in the system can damage itself, and that turns one repair bill into two.
Many UK buildings policies cover escape-of-water damage, but the excess and the fine print vary a lot, and damage put down to gradual wear and tear can be treated differently. Read your own policy, tell your insurer promptly, and photograph everything before you start mopping — those pictures are your evidence.
Stopcock off, then electricity off at the consumer unit if you can reach it safely — never touch wet switches or fittings. Stay out from under any ceiling that's sagging badly. If there's just a small bulge, piercing it with something thin over a bucket lets the water down in a controlled way instead of all at once.
The main page — how the line works and the areas it covers.
Go to home →Pressure drops, no heat, error codes — and gas safety.
Read the guide →What to try yourself and when it's the sewer, not your drain.
Read the guide →Honest ballparks and the questions to ask before work starts.
Read the guide →Pressure, controls, the immersion — the checks before you call.
Read the guide →Thawing safely with gentle heat — and the lagging that prevents it.
Read the guide →Damp patches, dropping pressure and the stopcock test.
Read the guide →Ring any hour to be put through to a local plumber covering Downpatrick and the Lecale country around it.
Call now