Burst Pipe Repair

A burst water pipe is one of those annoying household events that happen to all of us at one time or another.When water freezes and changes into ice, it causes an expansion of about 10%.

This creates pressure within the pipe and if this pressure can’t be relieved; if the ice can’t travel down it causes burst. If you're faced with a burst pipe, there are a few ways of repairing it depending on how bad the damage is, and you will do this all by yourself.

Don't be like these guys and wait for your ceiling to fall through because of a burst pipe.

The first thing you should do when you have a burst pipe is to turn off the water to avoid any more damage taking place.

Then you need to locate the source of the leak and gain access to the pipe.

Once you have located the leaking pipe find the water shut-off valve and turn off the water supply.

If you cannot find the shut-off valve for the affected area, then shut off the water supply to the entire house.

For this reason, it is vitally important that anyone living in your house knows exactly where the water shut off valve is located so that they can react should a problem like this arise.

After you have shut off the water supply then you will want to drain the system of the cold water, you can do this by turning on the cold water taps in the house until the water runs dry.

The next thing you can do is turn off your water heater or central heating system and then run all of the warm water taps to drain the system of warm water too.

If it is relatively small, then you can use what's known as slip-on coupling. This is where you use a saw or metal cutter to cut through the pipe and remove the section affected by the hole. Then you slide on and slip-on piping to cover up the damage and ensure that your pipes will work effectively once more.

The slip-on covering should be secured with nuts, so it won't move around and break away once you turn the water back on.If you are dealing with a hole larger than 2 inches, it will be necessary to use a replacement section of pipe to fix the damage.

Cut away the section with the hole in it and then secure compression couplers to the edges of the remaining pipe.

You then insert the ends of the new pipe into the compression couplers, whose job is to secure the new pipe.

Next, make the section watertight by tightening the nuts on the compression, although be careful you don't over-tighten it.

Another option you could try is the push-fit system, which involves replacing the damaged section of pipe with a special, purpose-made repair pipe.

This is probably the easiest way to repair a leak by yourself as you don't have to worry about compression couplings or to get the right sort of pipe - you simply take the specially-made repair section after cutting away the damage and then push on the replacement section.

This should create a watertight seal and prevent any more leaks from taking place.

Take a look at this Quick Leak Repair Putty for small leaks

If you need help to repair burst and leaky pipes visit localplumbernearme.co.uk