A short, practical guide for Coleraine homes: stop the water, protect the electrics, then get a plumber on the phone.
Shut the water off at the stopcock, open your cold taps to drain the system, and — if water has reached sockets, switches or the fuse box — turn off the electricity at the consumer unit, but only if it's safe to reach. Those three steps limit the damage more than anything a plumber does afterwards.
Everything on this page comes second to the stopcock. Turn it clockwise until it stops and the flow through the burst dies away within a minute or two. In most homes it lives under the kitchen sink; failing that, check a downstairs cupboard, a utility room, under the stairs or the garage. Some older Coleraine terraces keep theirs in a less obvious spot, so it pays to find yours on a quiet day rather than a wet one.
If the stopcock is stiff, use steady pressure — not force. Seized old valves can shear off if you wrench them, and then you have two problems instead of one.
Sharp overnight frosts are a regular feature of winter around Coleraine, Castlerock and the north coast, and pipes freeze most often in lofts, garages and other unheated corners — including holiday lets left empty for weeks at a time. A tap slowing to a trickle in freezing weather is usually the first warning.
Open the affected tap slightly, then warm the pipe gently with a hot water bottle, warm cloths or a hairdryer on low, working from the tap back towards the frozen section. Never use a blowtorch or any naked flame. And if you can see the pipe has already split, stop: shut the stopcock and phone a plumber, because thawing it will simply turn a frozen pipe into a flowing one.
As a general rule across the UK, pipework inside the house and within your property boundary is the owner's responsibility — that's plumber territory. A burst on the public main out in the street or footpath is generally a matter for the water supplier instead. The giveaways for a mains problem are water bubbling up outside your boundary, or several neighbours losing pressure at once. If you're honestly not sure which side of the line your problem sits on, say so when you call — a plumber can usually tell quickly.
In most UK homes it's under the kitchen sink. If it isn't there, try a downstairs cupboard, utility room, under the stairs or the garage — wherever the water main enters the property. In some older Coleraine terraces it can sit in a less obvious spot, so find yours before you ever need it in a hurry.
Only if water has reached sockets, switches, light fittings or the fuse box — and only if the consumer unit itself is dry and safe to reach. If you would have to stand in water or touch anything wet to get to it, leave it alone and tell the plumber when you call.
Open the affected tap slightly, then warm the pipe gently with a hot water bottle, warm cloths or a hairdryer on a low setting, working from the tap back towards the frozen section. Never use a blowtorch or any naked flame, and stop straight away if you can see the pipe has split.
Pipework inside your home and within your property boundary is generally the property owner's responsibility, which is a job for a plumber. A burst on the public main out in the street is generally a matter for the water supplier instead. If you're not sure which side of the boundary the problem sits on, a plumber can usually tell quickly.
Back to the Coleraine emergency plumber home page, or jump to another guide:
Pressure basics, no heat or hot water, and what to do about a gas smell.
Read the guide →What never to pour away, and when a blockage is a main-drain problem.
Read the guide →An honest look at call-out fees, hourly rates and out-of-hours pricing.
Read the guide →Pressure, thermostat, tripped switch or diverter valve — checks first.
Read the guide →Stopping pipes freezing in the first place, and thawing one safely.
Read the guide →Damp patches, dropping pressure, and the stopcock test that narrows it down.
Read the guide →The main page: what to do right now and the areas covered.
Go to home →This site connects callers with a local plumbing professional covering Coleraine, Portstewart, Portrush and the surrounding area — day or night.
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