FROZEN PIPES HELP!

A pipe has burst and my house is flooding...

My kitchen / bathroom drain has frozen up...

My cold water tap has frozen up...

Somewhere (under your kitchen sink is favourite) is the place where the water supply pipe (called the Rising Main) usually enters the house. There is usually a tap called a stop-cock there which turns off the entire water supply into your house. Turn it clockwise (when facing the bit you turn) to turn it off....Hint - when opening it afterwards, open it fully, then turn it back a quarter turn. That way, the next time you need to turn it, it will turn both ways, and you will know that you can't turn it the "wrong way" and break it off.
Oh no there isn't...well then you probably have a stop cock elsewhere, outside, in your garden or street, sometimes called a "toby",  under a 5" square cast iron plate and a few feet down (mind the toads!) where you can turn the water off using the "toby key" - a  T-shaped tool about 4 feet long with a "claw" on the end which you last saw years ago in the darkest recesses of your garage. The valve at the bottom of the hole has a ridge along the top, which is the bit that you turn. Clear the muck from it and turn it 90 degrees ( a quarter turn) either way to cut off the water supply to your house. It is sometimes very hard to turn. Try harder.

My kitchen / bathroom drain has frozen up...

The main thing to remember about freezing and pipes is that water expands as it freezes. It "gets bigger". Pipes which burst due to a severe frost actually burst as they freeze, but you only get the message as they thaw afterwards. Ice can't leak...water can. Of course, water also expands as it warms up - that's why your central heating system will probably have something called an "expansion tank".  This also accounts for sea level rises due to global warming. Water actually has it's maximum density at about 4 degrees Celsius...the temperature found at the bottom of many deep lakes.

When I try to thaw out a frozen drain pipe I start from an end...usually the "top" end. I put an egg-cup full of cooking salt - sodium chloride - Na Cl - down the drain. Salt water is denser than fresh water, so it sinks to the bottom. I know there is water already in the sink - that's how you became aware of the freeze-up...but if you can't / choose not to remove it, simply pour the salt over the plug hole area and it should do its work.  Salt water - like sea water - freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water, so the salt will usually flow down and cause the ice to thaw out as it becomes salty. Give it a while - 15 minutes say - then add more salt if necessary. You should be rewarded with occasional crunchy noises as the ice melts.

What else can you try? A hairdryer or an electric heat gun can be applied with care to metal pipes, and plastic ones too, but don't melt the plastic. Again, try to work from an end, rather than from some point in the middle. Forget blow lamps and other portable flame machines unless you know what you are doing. If you heat the middle section of a frozen pipe, you could conceivably cause it to burst due to localised expansion of the water.

I have also inserted a rubber hose pipe down the drain as far as it will go, and poured hot water down it, but that was only because I didn't have any salt!

Once the drain is flowing, pour some hot water through it to clear the remaining ice. If further freezing temperatures are forecast, put some salt down the sink / bath drain last thing at night to try to prevent the same thing happening in the morning. You could also "lag" the outside parts of the drain where the water comes out by covering it with some plastic shopping bags, or a bin liner, filled with screwed up newspapers, and tied shut. This will act like a blanket to keep the heat in. Weigh it down to stop it blowing away.

My cold water tap has frozen up...

This is a bit trickier than a frozen drain, as you can't simply pour salt on it. You must avoid bursting the pipe if it hasn't burst already. Leave the tap turned on (that's probably how you found it was frozen - nothing came out) then apply gentle warming from a hair drier starting at the tap and working backwards. Be sure you know where the stop-cock is so you can turn off the water if there is a burst pipe. Open doors under the sink, and remove access panels so warmer air can get to the pipe.

If further freezing temperatures are forecast, leave these doors and access panels open, to help keep the pipes above freezing point until the weather gets warmer.

Disclaimer:  All information on this web site is given freely and in good faith. I hope it helps you solve your problem, but you remain responsible for your own actions! Please let me know if you find other solutions to the problems outlined so I can add them to the site; on the other hand, please dont  blame me for not knowing what is wrong with your machine! Thanks, friends.