Burst Pipe? The First Five Minutes Matter More Than the Next Five Hours
Where your stopcock is, what to switch off, how to limit the damage, and what an emergency plumber does once they arrive.
Water escaping under mains pressure can put several hundred litres through a ceiling in under an hour. The difference between a wet cupboard and a genuinely expensive insurance claim is usually what happens in the first five minutes.
1. Turn the water off at the stopcock
Find it and turn it fully clockwise. It's commonly under the kitchen sink, in a downstairs cloakroom, or in the hallway of a converted flat — but every property's a little different. If it's seized from years of not being touched, the external stop tap (a small cover in the pavement or front path, usually marked “W”) is the backup. A stopcock key costs a few pounds from any hardware shop and is worth keeping in a drawer you can find in the dark.
2. Drain the system down
Open every cold tap in the house and flush the toilets. This empties the pipework quickly and reduces how much is still escaping from the burst section.
3. Kill the power if water's anywhere near it
If water's coming through a ceiling or dripping near a socket or light fitting, switch off the electricity at the consumer unit before going anywhere near the room. Never touch a wet switch.
4. Contain, then photograph
Buckets and towels first. Then photograph everything before you start clearing up — most insurers will ask for this, and it costs nothing to do while you're waiting.
5. Call an emergency plumber
We isolate the affected section, cut out the failed length of pipe and repair it properly — not a temporary patch that fails again the next time it's cold.
Why pipes burst in the first place
Almost always an unlagged pipe run in an unheated loft or an outside wall, sitting through a cold snap until it splits. Lagging every exposed pipe costs very little and prevents the large majority of the burst-pipe callouts we attend each winter.