If you have a frozen pipe then you need to thaw the pipe cautiously – as long as there is no crack already . This may a problem because you may not always be able to tell if there’s damage to the pipe, which is why I always recommend contacting a professional quickly. It’s also usually a good precaution to turn off the water at the mains. You should never use any sort of flame based torch as this is likely to cause fires – you don’t want to solve one problem with another, potentially bigger one.

To begin with you should open up the tap which is being given water by the pipe that’s frozen. Once you’ve done this you need to find out exactly where the pipe has frozen in order to fix it for obvious reasons. If it’s already looking cracked then you have a major problem and should contact a plumber immediately – you shouldn’t thaw it in this case as this could result in a flood of water.

It’s vitally important to remember that if the pipe bursts you should turn off the water mains straight away.

Depending on where the frozen pipe is located you’ll have to perform the thaw differently. For this reason you should always make sure you contact a professional who’ll be able to give you advice related to your exact pipe. However, you should remember to do this as quickly as possible because the longer you leave a frozen pipe the more likely it is to crack or burst.

What are frozen pipes?

In short, frozen pipes are when during a particularly cold spell the water in the pipes freeze. As we all know, when water freezes it expands which causes the pipes to expand and in some cases cracks. When the ice thaws the water then runs out of the cracks and can literally destroy an entire house. I’ve known some people who’ve had to had their whole house demolished just because of a single burst pipe so it’s definitely not something to ignore.

However, how common are frozen pipes in reality? The short answer is; much more common than you think! During the winter months insurance companies have to deal with people having burst pipes each and every day, in fact in some cases they may deal with hundreds on a single day. People just don’t realise the true danger that having a burst pipe can be. You should definitely realise that having a burst pipe is a real problem is something that you need to consider carefully.

How to stop frozen pipes

Stopping frozen pipes isn’t easy but there are several things that you can do. The most effective method is to buy some sort of kit that helps to heat the pipes and will never let the temperature fall below a certain level. These have only recently become available so you should definitely look into them as they are a great piece of kit for not much money.

There are plenty of other things that you can do to try and prevent frozen pipes such as using heat tape and other sorts of insulation. However, these will not be as effective as using a simple tool that heats up whenever the temperature around the pipes goes below a few degrees. Not only that, but if you have one of these pieces of kit in your attic then you can go away in the winter months without having to worry about wasting energy because they will only click on when they need to.

Frozen pipes are a major problem across the globe and you need to make sure that you take the necessary precautions to make sure that you don’t have them as a problem.