The summer holidays are almost upon us and you may be planning and looking forward to a trip. Nobody wants to come home to problems. Whether you are going away for a weekend, a couple of weeks or longer you should consider completing some small tasks to reduce the likelihood of any problems occurring at home while you are away.
A water leak while you are away can cause a lot of damage as well as potentially increasing your water bill and insurance premium. Even a small leak, over a period of time while you are away can cause a lot of damage. As we now have more plumbed-in domestic devices, central heating, bathrooms, toilets and complex plumbing systems in our homes the risk becomes even higher.
We hope that you never experience a plumbing or heating problem when you come back from your holiday, but if you do we offer a 24/7 emergency plumbing service in Mansfield, Chesterfield and surrounding areas and will promptly deal with your emergency.
Should I turn off the water before I go on holiday?
Before you go away we would suggest that you turn off your water at the internal stopcock. The stop cock is a tap or lever that blocks the flow of water into the pipes in your home, it can often be found under the kitchen sink, next to a gas meter, in a utility room or cupboard under the stairs. There will be some residual water in the pipes, if you turn on cold tap it should stop running after a few moments. When you return from holiday simply return the stopcock to its previous position and turn on the tap again, as air will be in the system it may splutter a little bit but it should not take long for normal service to resume. Run drinking water tapes for a little while to get any stale water out of the system.
Should I turn off the heating before I go on holiday?
If you are going away during a cold period then you should leave your boiler on a low setting to avoid the pipes freezing. Frozen or very cold pipes are at a greater risk of bursting. Some systems have a sensor which allows them to come on if the temperature drops below a specified temperature. Set your timer to turn the heating on twice a day for a short while, the thermostat should be set to at least 13°C.
If you are going on holiday during the summer or when it’s warmer then we would suggest turning off the boiler.