With more than a few stories from around Strathbungo of frozen and burst pipes, flooded basements, destroyed boilers and general house problems related to the cold I thought to post some advice on how to protect your house when temperatures outside drop below those in your fridge freezers.

Remember that pipes are most likely to burst during cold weather spells and when homes are left empty, it’s worth taking the following steps to help protect them and give yourself some extra peace of mind. The cost of fixing the problem afterwards (not to mention repairing damaged houses) is considerably more than the cost of these basic preventative measures.

Make sure your water tanks and cisterns are insulated.
• Lag your water pipes that are in cold and draughty areas. Take special care of any in outbuildings, lofts or along outside walls. (Our mains water pipe burst next to the outside wall)
• Use pre-formed pipe insulation on all pipes – these are available from DIY stores where you can also get advice on the best thickness to have. They are dead easy to install taking only a few seconds each.
• Keep pipe lagging dry inside and use waterproof lagging outside
• Protect outdoor/outhouse taps and pipes. In your outhouses and garages, turn off the stop tap and any supply pipes. Drain the supply pipe if possible – by running the taps dry once the stop tap is off. Please remember to turn the taps back off once you’ve done this
• On very cold days, you could open the loft trap-door to allow warm air to enter for a few hours.
• In freezing conditions, leave your heating on low, even if you’re away – and have a friend or neighbour check your home regularly. Have the plumbers name and number on your fridge!
• If you’re away for a long time over the winter, turn the stop tap off and drain the whole system. Radical but effective!
• Repair any leaking taps.

(Thanks to United Utilities for this)

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Speaking, I admit, as one of the lucky ones who didn’t need to use a car this week, was it really so bad walking to work? Has anyone else seen things they would never normally have had time to look at? There’s a lot going on between here and the West End, and the sunrise over the Clyde on Wednesday morning with mist swirling over the ice pancakes on the water was glorious. I just wish I had taken a proper camera.

Next time.

Though hands-up who thinks their house rivals Altnaharra for the coldest place in the UK…

I think we need a “chat” section in here too.  Talking about which, does anyone know what to do about frozen pipes?