Old pipes ยท In brief
Frozen pipes in an older house
Frozen pipes in an older house need gentle warmth, never a flame or boiling water. Find the stop tap first, because a pipe that thaws can turn out to have split.
Most useful for: Owners and tenants in older homes during a cold snap
Compiled from the sources at the end. Updated .
A dead tap or no water reaching the loft tank can be signs. Before anything else, make sure you can turn the water off. WaterSafe found 14% of households nationally do not know where their stop tap is, and 12% in the East of England. In older houses it may be under the stairs, under the kitchen sink or behind boxing. The page on stop taps and supply pipes explains who answers for it.
If nothing has burst
Older houses tend to have long pipe runs through lofts, against outside walls and under floors, so follow the pipe back from the dead tap and feel for the coldest stretch.
- Open the tap the pipe feeds, so thawed water has somewhere to go.
- Warm the pipe gently with a hot water bottle or warm air in the room, working back from the tap.
- Do not use a flame, blowlamp or boiling water. Heat can damage the pipe and joints, and open flame is a fire risk in a loft.
- If the frozen stretch is out of reach, or you do not want to work in the loft, call a plumber.
Severn Trent explains how to check for a frozen pipe, what to do if one has burst and how to thaw it gently, though its advice line serves its own customers. Not made by this site; duration 1:35.
If a pipe has burst
Turn off the stop tap and open cold taps to run the pipe down. A burst may only show when the ice melts, so stay near during a thaw.
If water has reached sockets, light fittings or the consumer unit, do not touch them, and never touch a switch while standing in water. Get an electrician to check before using them. For an electrical hazard or power cut, call 105.
Before you add lagging, look at what is already on the pipe. Old lagging on pipes and boilers is on the HSE's list of places asbestos can occur, so leave it undisturbed and tell a plumber. New lagging on bare pipe can help limit freezing, and so can keeping the heating running on a low setting through a cold spell.
If the boiler has stopped and the white plastic pipe outside is frozen, that is a different job: see the frozen condensate pipe page. Tenants should tell the landlord straight away, as repairs to water and heating generally fall on the landlord.
Sources, read 4 November 2026: WaterSafe: households urged to check stop taps; HSE: asbestos in the home diagram; HSE: asbestos FAQ; GOV.UK: what to do during a flood, including electrical hazards; Severn Trent: Dealing with a frozen pipe (film).