A pipe has burst: the first five minutes

The order, and why it is this order

1. Stopcock offClockwise until it stops. This is first because everything else is pointless while water is still arriving. If it will not turn, go to the external stop tap – see find your stopcock.
2. Open the cold taps downstairsThis drains the pipework and relieves the pressure, so whatever is still in the system runs out of the taps rather than into your ceiling. Leave them open. Start downstairs – gravity is doing the work.
3. Turn off the heating and hot waterAt the programmer or the boiler. A boiler firing on a system losing water can damage itself, and an immersion heater in an emptying cylinder will burn out.
4. Deal with the electricsIf water is coming through a ceiling, it is in the light fittings. Turn off the circuit at the consumer unit. If you cannot identify or safely reach the right circuit, turn off the main switch. If the consumer unit itself is wet, do not touch it – call an electrician.
5. ContainBuckets, bowls, towels along skirtings. Move furniture, rugs and anything electrical out of the way. Lift curtains off the floor.
6. PhotographBefore you clear anything up. Wide shots and close shots. This is what your insurer will ask for and you cannot recreate it.
7. Then callWith the water already off, you can describe what has happened rather than shouting over running water.

A bulging ceiling

If the water does not stop

You have turned the stopcock off and water is still coming. That tells you something specific and useful.

This is exactly the kind of thing worth telling us on the phone, because it identifies the system involved before anyone arrives.

What not to do

• Do not turn the water back on to check. People do this. It seems reasonable and it doubles the damage.
• Do not use electrical appliances in a wet area, including a vacuum, unless you are certain the circuits are dead.
• Do not put a heater on to dry it out while the electrics in that area may be wet.
• Do not clear up before photographing. Once it is mopped, the evidence is gone.
• Do not throw away the failed part. The section of split pipe, the burst flexible hose – your insurer may want it and it explains what happened.
• Do not assume the leak is where the water appears. It is usually not.

Insurance

Escape of water is a standard peril on most home insurance policies, and the resulting damage is usually covered even where the cost of repairing the pipe itself may not be. What helps a claim:

1. Photographs and video, taken before clearing up. Wide shots showing the extent, close shots showing the source, and shots of damaged contents.
2. The failed component kept, in a bag.
3. An itemised invoice from whoever does the repair, describing what failed and what was done.
4. Notifying the insurer promptly, which most policies require.
5. A list of damaged contents with approximate values, written while you still remember.
6. Not disposing of damaged items until the insurer has confirmed they do not need to see them.

Many policies also include trace-and-access cover for the cost of finding a hidden leak and repairing the damage caused by getting to it. Worth checking before commissioning leak detection.

Afterwards

Two jobs after the repair, and the second is the one that matters.

Drying out. Water in a floor void or a wall takes weeks to dry properly, and plaster, floorboards and insulation all hold it. Professional drying with dehumidifiers and air movers is faster and more thorough than opening windows, and is frequently part of an insurance claim. Do not put floor coverings back until the structure underneath is dry, or you will have a different problem.

Finding out why. A burst pipe has a cause: freezing, corrosion, mechanical damage or excessive pressure. If the cause is not addressed, it will happen again – the same pipe in the same loft next January. See burst pipe repair and, if it was frost, frozen pipes.