How to Stop Your Pipes Freezing This Winter
The cheap jobs in October that prevent the expensive ones in January.
Why pipes burst in a freeze
Water expands roughly 9% as it freezes. In a sealed pipe that expansion has nowhere to go, so pressure builds between the ice plug and the nearest closed tap until something splits, usually a joint, often somewhere you can't see. The flood arrives at thaw, not at freeze.
The October checklist
Lag any pipe in an unheated space, loft, garage, under the ground floor. Fix dripping taps (a drip becomes an ice plug). Find and exercise your stopcock before you need it. If you leave the house empty in winter, keep heating on low rather than off.
If they freeze anyway
Turn off the stopcock first, then open the nearest cold tap. Thaw gently from the tap end with a hair dryer or hot-water bottles, never a blowtorch. If a section has already split, the leak starts as it thaws, so have towels down before you warm anything.